'1948' and Other Paintings

For my exhibition at Gallery JJ, I show for the first time my new ‘The Century’ series. Each painting contains a representation of one years from the twentieth century, like a fragment left behind after some disaster. The inspiration was a period I spent at the British School at Rome on a residency over a decade ago. In Rome you can see many fragments of ancient texts mounted on walls. Often no one knows the original source of the text , and they are, in a sense, orphaned texts.

For the paintings, I first search for sources, such as books and posters, which include years from the twentieth century. I photograph the source, cropping it so that the year and whatever text is around it is recorded. The paintings are in various sizes, from very small to quite large, and in various proportions, from squares to elongated rectangles. I build up the surface of each painting around the text and date with layers of acrylic paint mixed with granular gel. I then repeatedly paint the entire surface with to create a layered semi-monochromatic effect. The colours derive from the colours of the different seasons as they change in the landscape around my studio, near the DMZ. The results are paintings reminiscent of old walls carrying the traces of the attrition of time, as well recording a specific year in time.

I am interested in the fact that the year in the painting is legible to everyone, because it is in the universal language of numbers.

 

 

 

The surrounding texts, however, may not be understandable because they are fragmented and are in many languages. I am also interested in the typographical styles of the texts, the visual dimension to writing.

The viewer can experience the works on at least four levels: as material objects that change considerably depending on viewing position; as suggestive objects with a particular mood; as records of the four seasons; as references to history to which a viewer can have associations, personal and/or historical.

The series continue my interest in painting history, using ready-made texts, the monochrome effect, and the idea of painting as a kind of modern-day, impure icon.

The exhibition’s title makes special reference to the work entitled ‘1948’ because that was the year when both North and South Korea were created. The source was a book of T.S. Eliot’s poetry. This is also the biggest painting in the show.

To view the catalogue CLICK HERE