This blog will feature profiles in words and pictures of people living and working in Brighton and beyond.
These will be extended snapshots, not biographies.
I’m not sure where it will go exactly, we shall see. I want a nice balance.
I won’t be updating this every day, more like once a month. So it’s safe to sign up – you won’t be bombarded with hourly observations.
Here is the first…
John Simpson
I watch John creating a bear from flat black ink. Using a piece of rag torn from a sheet to take the ink from Perspex he’s creating the texture of hair. There’s a lamp pointing upwards under the glass table. It’s strange to watch the image appear in reverse, out of the darkness in gold under the sodium light.
His drawings are monotypes, a process that few artists work with these days. “It’s like a hybrid between drawing and painting. When you paint you can make very large gestural marks depending on which brushes and tools you choose. Doing this I can use the same tools.”
‘Anthromorph’ (a human, animal hybrid)is the title he’s chosen for his new solo exhibition opening in Brighton.
The human forms look cold sitting against the white backgrounds, especially in comparison to the animals in their natural fur coats. Dogs, goats and rabbits seem concerned at the frailty of their form.
Other images show a more empathetic relationship between human and animal. There is still an element of discomfort. His bears we must assume to be harmless, sitting playing with children. A woman lies serenely on top of a cow with huge horns, her red streaming dress unsettling the mood.
“When I was a student … I did a lot of drawings for the Rare Breeds Conservation Society at their farm near Cambridge. My girlfriend at the time studied animal behaviour. I used to spend a lot of time with her in zoos overnight. We slept in animal enclosures… I don’t want the animals to be scary. If anything it’s the human element that I want to be unnerving.
The images that I have used red in before have been part of a series which are based on the story of Actaeon, a hunter who was turned into a stag and chased and killed by his own hounds. I used red to signify his mortality I guess, and the danger element in that story. My illustration is quite removed from the story because I don’t want it to be gruesome. It’s just playful really. On one of them I’ve changed Actaeon into a young girl and it’s not really that she’s being pursued by the hounds but that she’s running with them.”
John works in a tiny studio. His materials spill over into the studio next door. There’s a small homemade drying rack made from a plank of wood, marbles and spokes. A large chest of shallow drawers. A trestle table. A sofa. Photographs and sketches on the walls.
“I did a degree in print making… (monotypes) were something I could work on in my own studio away from the printmaking studio because you don’t need a press and lots of equipment like you do with most other forms of printmaking so it’s a very accessible form of printmaking.”
Some of his works are screenprinted. “Being a print maker I understand the tradition and the methods and ideas behind creating works in editions and how nice it can be to work in a print making medium, the possibilities that you get from creating work in multiple.“
At the printers, Johns drawings have been transferred to large 6ft x 4ft screens set in industrial sprung frames hanging over air-hockey tables. A vacuum starts up to hold the paper flat and when paint is forced through the invisible gauze the result is instant. A girl has been brought to life as a detailed silhouette.
I witness one of those accident moments. The tests are printed onto some left over red backgrounds. “I’m liking that.” John admits. He reluctantly decides to go with it. Reluctantly because “Some of the imagery I use is fairly graphic in it’s language so I’ve often been lumped in with that street art movement and I’ve been asked to work on buildings. But obviously my working practices don’t really translate to working outside on a wall, large scale so it’s something I haven’t done yet.”
This seems to be the main attraction for John. The process is detailed and precise yet open to chance and discovery. The first image is just the beginning. After days of deliberation and experiment the final print is made up of seven layers in six colours. There is no ‘original’, each has to be made separately.
Myths and tales have long been a favourite subject of artists yet John’s pieces look modern. Actaeon wears a sharp suit. The young girl running from wolves is in jeans and T-shirt. The drawings have detail yet have a graphic quality.
One of the pictures framed up for the exhibition is called ‘Descent of the Minotaur’. “That’s me in that one.” says John. I’m quite concerned but apparently I needn’t be: “The only reason is that I was the only person willing to be photographed crawling along the floor. It’s not supposed to be me. I don’t see myself as a tortured beast.”
John’s Exhibition runs from 26th November to 24th December 2010 at Geisha Arts, 75-79 East Street, Brighton, BN1 1NF
BenKing 