Patience and anxiety

Dark corner chair

Study: 100 Stairs of solitude

100 stairs of solitude....skate spot east London
its a lonely place between here and the bottom of these steps, an oncoming clatter of stairs persistently looming into view

Study: In or Out of Focus

"in or out of focus". I began to think about people being isoltaed and scrutinised covertly/overtly, the thought was triggered by the recent Nigerian bomber and a recent visit to the Jill Magid exhibit at the tate modern. By using focus in 2d and film images, in processes and in writen works

Study: Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris (1972)

Solaris (1972) trailer and
end sequence





















Frozen pond, in deepest darkest New Cross

Study: The most uncomfortable space...

Study: Location - secret spot (skateboarding dry spot)

one of my favourite secret spots, dry when it rains you can skate. Movement or exercise as "counterculture" is often individual, the focus on expression rather than strategy and team work. Skateboarding attracts solitary caracters. Rodney Mullen the originator of skateboarding tricks a legendary innovator is a solitary caracter.

Study: Chair hidden in ivy

Study: Housebound

The Tranquility of Solitude

"The tranquility of solitude" this line for me sums up the connection between the chaotic complexity of life and the peace one can find there. The lines is from the Jam song Thats Entertainment - "two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight". Or Damien Hirst's Tranquility of Solitude, a homage to Francis Bacon and his studies of his lover George Dyer.

The Jam song talks about struggling as an artist in the entertainment industry and the stark contrasts between perceptions of successs and the reality of attaining this. I think the Francis Bacon studies of his lover and the homage by Hirst talk of the same tensions between ideal and reality, between beauty and grotesque. For me one continously interesting element is the circus of grotesque that hides in the shadows of "ideal" and I have persevered to explore this through the beautiful freaks prototypes (ongoing).

The deformed and grotesque, the freedoms and benefits that imperfection guaruntees has been an increasingly penetrative motif for the past 20 years gradually creeping into contemporary representation of humans and the human condition. Inverted Darwinian principles applied to products and social Darwinism heralded as entertainment. This includes freaky celebs that congregate with the grotesque under the auspicious banner of "reality".

The celebration of the unnervingly different. This is an interesting element I see in Nina Saunders work,

andy lock photography came my way by chance, the V&A's secret little photography grotto, containing not just Richard Leoroyd's amazing studies but Andy Locks "Orchard Park"

a perfect study of a condemned housing estate (here is another review and one of his best images

Study: Louise Borgeois

Louise Borgeos, Tate modern Unilever Series...

When prophecy fails

Prophecies and predictions require blindspots. Absolutism can exist but maybe with varying doses of cognitive dissonance. Hence we have guilt laden monetheistic religions and theoretical sciences with incomplete and inconsistant "standard models" or core beliefs.

In the case of cults (When Prophecy Fails) the desperation of those left to fend for themselves after "greatness" is not delivered.

Divine providence does not deliver anything to the weak and downtrodden except the meagre comfort of "things being better after you've died". Blinkered approaches to the bigger picture, made up answers which beg the question why hasn't evolution totally dispensed of religion already? what evolutionary purpose does faith/belief serve? what do christian scientists say? how is cognitive dissonance smoothed out, how do we profess that which we don't know to be true...except through conviction...the pillar of faith...

Study: Half underwater photos

Solidarity and Solitude

Acts of solidarity that counter solitude. Typically a word used by the left wing that has been used to support those who have been perceived to be isolated.

British custom of rooting for the underdog.

At the same time the news is about increasing division between people (economically - poverty gap, / socially -ethnic divisions, power structures, class divides / idealogically - ) our ability to express solidarity and for the message to be received has also increased. (expand, dates numbers figures - mobile phone ownership, % of populations with internet access.)

Richard Dawkins contradictory science / religion beleifs, accepting both without examining the fact that they in many ways cannot co-exist. The church of England in typical reaction to Darwins popularity embraced the man upon his death and buried his body in Westminster abbey.

Study: Rock Climbers

Rock climber sat in tree bottom left

Some experiences can shift our perception of ourselves from egocentric significance, awe, realisation, to relative insignificance. These are the words that I would use to describe the shift in thought patterns when challenged with some of the spectacles of life. Being overwhelmed by sheer physical presence or moved by an emotive event. Whether it is moving outside your comfort zone or having your perceptions challenged or horizons broadened or just experiencing a unique moment. One can experience a shift that puts one from the centre of the world to a little spec in a much bigger picture. This shift is unsettling it distorts our perception and alters many of our senses and ability to process the information provided by them the enormity of the gap between singular and the infinite too immense. Before putting yourself in these positions the anticipation is subjective, how you are going to experience something you have been wanting to experience (or avoid!). There is a moment here where one can experience another perfect archetype of solitude. The transition in relating this to all other experiences maybe what makes us unique from other people and their experiences. It is moments like these that can drive us to philosophical distraction. Filling that gap between the singular and the infinite, inside and out.

Study: Part Chair part Earth

Chairs bought to rest by the high tide. These objects are here because of some violent or catestrophic intervention that has caused them to break, be discarded or removed from their usual places. I like half submerged fractions of chair, half embedded in another material (reminds me of this image), here the forms are semi recognisable enough to give the impression of a chair attached to something else.

Prototype: Ghosted Chair

This frame holds an old wooden chair profile in a black square tubular steel office chair frame. The back rest upright going into the leg is a sructural strength that both structures share, the black frame could be seen as an evolution from wooden construction. A part of its evolution as an object, a member of a family tree, a piece that has evolved from constant improvements and alterations natural and intended interventions to form and processes, all are still present in its construction. Chairs as footprints of their owners, empty chairs as echos of people, traces of their previous incarnations. There are posibilites for more abstract interpretations also.

There is potential in experimenting with fabrics and upholstery, printing and illustrations.

This idea evolved from the Beautiful freaks prototypes using left over chair parts to try and emphasise a new aspect of the form, the back leg up into the backrest.

Study: Death dying and dead stuff

our persepective on death and the neccesity to explain what happens afterwards...the dead headless pigeon with just its wings and torso left in the gutter. When we see dead things we can tend think about our own mortality, seeing something with its head detached it makes me think of more than death. It makes me question the connection between the head and the heart. The moment of death must be the single most isolating moment in ones life.