The Carrier Awaits
2006
The Carrier awaits is a large group of paintings on canvas (152 x 173 cm / 6ft x 5ft). On each of the seven canvases is a central symmetrical emblematic lung image. The lung forms are made with black oil paint and these forms hover on top of a hinterland painted in a ground colour of rich crimson.
Each image produced is positioned between the abstract and the figurative, complete in number, but ready for further surface application. The work will continue to undergo a series of transformations towards a state where I consider them to be complete.
At each subsequent showing of the work a further transformation would take place through a performative event, this is either prior to showing or during the exhibition. The performative elements that are contained in each work are silent utterances, these utterances may customarily only relate to the sounds of physical exertion. In the making of this work however I apply this also to interpretation. The nonsensical sounds mould the relationship between the action and the image. My subsequent actions on the work shall discharge upon them a transformed suppressant, this is in the form of a veil and thereafter the stifled coagulated lungs become habitually buried.
I am interested in the idea of the works having their own life and existing outside of the studio environment. My philosophical principle behind the Carrier awaits is that the work is reliant to the creator for completion. In an act that is both human and humane the work needs independence from the creator in order to further itself. The Paintings reference ideas of creation, destruction and the relationship between the artist and the work, particularly shown in the literary works, Dorian Grey and Frankenstein. The artist Michael Landy was commissioned by Artangel to create ‘Break Down’ in the former C&A store at Marble Arch in 2001. This existential audit was an inventory of his life that amounted to over 5000 items. Over a period of 14 days, Landy destroyed all his material possessions. The connection between The Carrier awaits paintings and ‘Break Down’ are destructive processes, my paintings shall be similarly be dispatched. Landy was intent on destroying his material possessions with some immediacy, the destruction of my works is undertaken on some future date.
Status of the work
It is intended that the works are shown from 2007-2010, at which point, they are destroyed.
Logistics
Linear hanging space required is approximately 50ft. The paintings do not need to be hung in an unbroken line. At the point of installation the works shall be for all intent and purposes, unfinished. Once they have been hung in situ the works shall undergo a process of transformation. The transformations shall consist of pouring a thin wash of crimson oil and white spirit over the canvas, which leads to excess paint loss onto the floor. This process will form part of the action and part of the exhibition residue. The nature of the transformations can be discussed with the gallery. The intervention undertaken during the installation of the paintings can be promoted as part of the event. The transformation preferably should take place in the gallery. Should this not be possible in the actual gallery space, the process of alteration can take place in another location for example a working space, a temporary space or the artist’s studio prior to transportation to the gallery.
Texts
To accompany each work there has been written a short diary extract. These texts were created in the aftermath of making each of the seven multi-folds. These assessments are the artist’s self-observations and may conceivably be used along side the works in the exhibition.
Friday 9th December 2005 Painting#1
‘Love’ The lungs are inflated, capacity - at bursting point, position maintained, as if one is holding in a breath. The air becomes stale and contained, we should not hold ourselves in this predicament, we have choices. If holding the breath is anticipation for the effort of change, of new life or a continuation of life; then to release breath is the countenance; the excitation of life. But then one can not live maintaining the one action. ‘Do keep breathing for as long as you can.’ To be held in suspense, in a game of virtuous patience. I commence with Love, How does this relate to the actions of this work. It was certainly undertaken with a reawakened consciousness relating to love, but is it the subject.? If so what aspects are drawn through the heart and into the painting. It is the mind that seeks explanation and reason? Surely not the heart or even the humble the body. It is with this painting that I return to the edict of painting.
It affirms the love of painting, the challenge and the anticipation and the physical and mental effort. But I was also thinking about the selfish I. These paintings have a tendency to draw this energy out of me. They are intensely personal yet remain aloof from the creator. The master and the monster drawn together out of profanity. These anti-forms stripped of decency and ripped open to view, they are corruptions of states of being, they are frozen and hang like human/animal carcasses. They are free of the symbolism of chain and hook, they hang in crimson air. The hook is unnecessary it would be too cruel and barbaric and it would only serve to transmit a painless message. You shall not to be held up and exhibited in an arena that is a detached circus. Prison housed as they are and as all future works shall be, this is to be their destiny. To be exhibited in all their oily glory upon a lavish crimson curtain.... So are they aspects of the self, these mutilated forms?
Thursday 15th December 2005 Painting #2
‘Sacrifice‘ do not think for a moment that the painting wishes to give thanks to its creator for abandoning it. At least care enough to come back and finish me it cries. But I didn’t, it was not part of the process. I gave as much time to you as I could. Other events took me away from attending to you. I am sorry, valued painting but other things had to come first. Least the sacrifice is understood by you, but let's not expect or demand that our fellow humans should know of the sacrifice. For the price we both shall pay is our silence. You hold your unfinished breath in silence and you can at least hold that moment for the both of us. We both failed and our bond was
broken. Precious time cut short in my attendance of you yet for the service of others too much time and thus, an untimely end to my commitment to you. Oh pitiful creature I shall be reminded of you but now fall silent.
Thursday 22nd December 2005 Painting #3
‘Wake up’ ... you might be dead; psychologically speaking! The wakening of the conscious and you nevertheless dream far too deeply. Creating phantoms and embroiled in creating fantasies in moments of aroused slumbers. You are trying not to think undoubtedly, I can only presume you still think the gods are playing games with you. It is not easy fighting their temptations, their illusions, and their will. What they require is two fold, for you to fall from grace and to maintain a virtuous path. How do you think you can do both?
Tuesday January 3rd 2006 Painting #4
‘Pause’ It is a time for reflection as I seem to be over indulging in profound flights of fantasy for the moment. Across the oesophagus which links the lungs to the blood crimson colour there is a deliberate impasse. The painting hangs upon that moment. Again as in several other works I note here for the first time that I have allowed an uneven build up of black paint upon one of the two sides. Its like some extended boil or swelling. I can see why people would like to lance these paintings. The time for them to be lanced will come in the future.
Tuesday January 10th 2006 Painting #5
‘Fools’ I presume I am referring to the self or the multi-faceted self. As the analysis of the work continues, so the profundity is transformed into the work. This painting unlike the previous works in this series had been to a large extent, pre-determined. On all previous occasions, the name for each work was thought through whilst undertaking each work in turn. I have to hold out for hope for all these works. The lines of enquiry contained in this particular painting explore this psychology. I think that is where the fool lies within this painting. It is the existential work and the one that marks the change in my thought processes and emotions. If the others contain the vitality of the moment, then this work has a refinement in the labour used to create it. It is a little more automatic but it is not without purpose. Sometimes the actor-fool knows he is just performing and this work is that cross over point. I am aware of what the future holds for these works, there are only two more to make. The end is in sight and the end is only just commencing. The journey taken by these works will be a blind jump into the future. Amid life and death there is hope? The remaining states that
are to be made can not be allowed to be created under the same conditions.
Thursday January 19th 2006 Painting #6
‘As one continues to work toward a conclusion, so I bestow and become more manifest in the process of destruction. This is contained both within the work and possibly…it is about the destruction of the egoic self. I wonder if my virtues are put at risk, as virtue is the exercise of good intentions; yet this is creative destruction? I am delivering monstrous images manifested out of love, yet I become acutely aware of my failings to attain goodness whilst I contemplate and plot to mask and veil them in liquid.’
The Carrier awaits Acts of ritual & performance – Additional notes
9th December 2010
This collection of Multi-Fold Paintings shall carry the imperative, ‘the law of short life’ so says their patron. Whilst I contemplate each work and bring a further one into being. I announce a proclamation for their collective demise. ‘Five years hence it is my will to have you destroyed.’
‘These Multi-folds shall never know a complete state, that of prospective immortality. These paintings are never completed but ended.’
The energy contained in the seven works requires them to be exhibited as a group and as a group they travel together. The enfolding belief of a journey for these works is prevalent. I am their mere guardian towards their destined future.
The paintings are invitations for us to wrestle with the accepted wisdom of our human condition. As Dorian Grey and Frankenstein are parables of the sublime, so these paintings run parallel to those literary works. The language contained in the paintings is in part transmuted by literary tradition and the exploration of their possible true origin and meaning.
How does one articulate ‘feeling’ opposed to articulating an ‘idea’?
‘Feeling’ is our human predicament that of being alive and conscious, where as ‘Idea’ is what is brought to bear upon man by himself. ‘Idea’ is an ontological study, an attempt to understand, justify and depict the human condition.
The human condition is timeless, it is ambiguous and indeterminate. This flow of thought that is our delicate condition is made manifest by a creative process. Is it an attempt to construct meaning through language and imagination where neither may really exist? This, the duality of thinking and worrying by the divided self is authentically, something and nothing.
These paintings are principally constructed symmetrically, in two parts that mirror one another. Each work is honed, determined and is focused into a world unto itself. The anti-forms convene in a near featureless exterior, a bleak and bare landscape, and a landscape that is claustrophobic and confined. As with Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, we do not know why we are here.
The statement of intent.
The will is applied by intentional logic but the truth-value cannot be determined by intent. This Paraconsistent logic deals with the contradictions. I shall destroy the paintings, but as yet it is a hypothesis that cannot be proved, therefore the statement is false. The paradox within the value of the work relates to time and context. The transposition from one truth into ‘authentic truth’ at this moment in time is by implication only. It is reasonable to assume that the premise and the conclusion through negation shall inherently reveal the true value of the work. Time + History + place is unknown. ‘Where is the control? Where is the freewill? I the mere helpless substance that is pushed around by matter.’
The creation of the seven paintings is purchased through seven days of fortitude; however the work continues. These states exist in the realm of opposites, union and reunion, death and rebirth, Love and hatred, lightness and darkness. A thought can often endure for a time much greater than the life of the man who had conceived that thought; a man in possession of free will shall act upon that thought and may spend a lifetime seeking its existence. The mêlée created in the mind of the staff (person) is conceivably part of the endless work. The journey persists, Inanna, Prometheus and Theseus! In rectitude the state is transformed into a mutation and this knight errant performs a mock epic!
Auto destructive - exercising free will Ambiguous - Duality
As one continues the work…so I bestow and become more manifest in the destruction…this is in the work & the egoic self. Are the virtues put at risk as virtue is the exercise of good intentions yet this is creative destruction. One is delivering monstrous images manifested out of love. One becomes acutely aware of one’s failings to attain goodness - this is part of the ego and human characteristics.
2006
The Carrier awaits is a large group of paintings on canvas (152 x 173 cm / 6ft x 5ft). On each of the seven canvases is a central symmetrical emblematic lung image. The lung forms are made with black oil paint and these forms hover on top of a hinterland painted in a ground colour of rich crimson.
Each image produced is positioned between the abstract and the figurative, complete in number, but ready for further surface application. The work will continue to undergo a series of transformations towards a state where I consider them to be complete.
At each subsequent showing of the work a further transformation would take place through a performative event, this is either prior to showing or during the exhibition. The performative elements that are contained in each work are silent utterances, these utterances may customarily only relate to the sounds of physical exertion. In the making of this work however I apply this also to interpretation. The nonsensical sounds mould the relationship between the action and the image. My subsequent actions on the work shall discharge upon them a transformed suppressant, this is in the form of a veil and thereafter the stifled coagulated lungs become habitually buried.
I am interested in the idea of the works having their own life and existing outside of the studio environment. My philosophical principle behind the Carrier awaits is that the work is reliant to the creator for completion. In an act that is both human and humane the work needs independence from the creator in order to further itself. The Paintings reference ideas of creation, destruction and the relationship between the artist and the work, particularly shown in the literary works, Dorian Grey and Frankenstein. The artist Michael Landy was commissioned by Artangel to create ‘Break Down’ in the former C&A store at Marble Arch in 2001. This existential audit was an inventory of his life that amounted to over 5000 items. Over a period of 14 days, Landy destroyed all his material possessions. The connection between The Carrier awaits paintings and ‘Break Down’ are destructive processes, my paintings shall be similarly be dispatched. Landy was intent on destroying his material possessions with some immediacy, the destruction of my works is undertaken on some future date.
Status of the work
It is intended that the works are shown from 2007-2010, at which point, they are destroyed.
Logistics
Linear hanging space required is approximately 50ft. The paintings do not need to be hung in an unbroken line. At the point of installation the works shall be for all intent and purposes, unfinished. Once they have been hung in situ the works shall undergo a process of transformation. The transformations shall consist of pouring a thin wash of crimson oil and white spirit over the canvas, which leads to excess paint loss onto the floor. This process will form part of the action and part of the exhibition residue. The nature of the transformations can be discussed with the gallery. The intervention undertaken during the installation of the paintings can be promoted as part of the event. The transformation preferably should take place in the gallery. Should this not be possible in the actual gallery space, the process of alteration can take place in another location for example a working space, a temporary space or the artist’s studio prior to transportation to the gallery.
Texts
To accompany each work there has been written a short diary extract. These texts were created in the aftermath of making each of the seven multi-folds. These assessments are the artist’s self-observations and may conceivably be used along side the works in the exhibition.
Friday 9th December 2005 Painting#1
‘Love’ The lungs are inflated, capacity - at bursting point, position maintained, as if one is holding in a breath. The air becomes stale and contained, we should not hold ourselves in this predicament, we have choices. If holding the breath is anticipation for the effort of change, of new life or a continuation of life; then to release breath is the countenance; the excitation of life. But then one can not live maintaining the one action. ‘Do keep breathing for as long as you can.’ To be held in suspense, in a game of virtuous patience. I commence with Love, How does this relate to the actions of this work. It was certainly undertaken with a reawakened consciousness relating to love, but is it the subject.? If so what aspects are drawn through the heart and into the painting. It is the mind that seeks explanation and reason? Surely not the heart or even the humble the body. It is with this painting that I return to the edict of painting.
It affirms the love of painting, the challenge and the anticipation and the physical and mental effort. But I was also thinking about the selfish I. These paintings have a tendency to draw this energy out of me. They are intensely personal yet remain aloof from the creator. The master and the monster drawn together out of profanity. These anti-forms stripped of decency and ripped open to view, they are corruptions of states of being, they are frozen and hang like human/animal carcasses. They are free of the symbolism of chain and hook, they hang in crimson air. The hook is unnecessary it would be too cruel and barbaric and it would only serve to transmit a painless message. You shall not to be held up and exhibited in an arena that is a detached circus. Prison housed as they are and as all future works shall be, this is to be their destiny. To be exhibited in all their oily glory upon a lavish crimson curtain.... So are they aspects of the self, these mutilated forms?
Thursday 15th December 2005 Painting #2
‘Sacrifice‘ do not think for a moment that the painting wishes to give thanks to its creator for abandoning it. At least care enough to come back and finish me it cries. But I didn’t, it was not part of the process. I gave as much time to you as I could. Other events took me away from attending to you. I am sorry, valued painting but other things had to come first. Least the sacrifice is understood by you, but let's not expect or demand that our fellow humans should know of the sacrifice. For the price we both shall pay is our silence. You hold your unfinished breath in silence and you can at least hold that moment for the both of us. We both failed and our bond was
broken. Precious time cut short in my attendance of you yet for the service of others too much time and thus, an untimely end to my commitment to you. Oh pitiful creature I shall be reminded of you but now fall silent.
Thursday 22nd December 2005 Painting #3
‘Wake up’ ... you might be dead; psychologically speaking! The wakening of the conscious and you nevertheless dream far too deeply. Creating phantoms and embroiled in creating fantasies in moments of aroused slumbers. You are trying not to think undoubtedly, I can only presume you still think the gods are playing games with you. It is not easy fighting their temptations, their illusions, and their will. What they require is two fold, for you to fall from grace and to maintain a virtuous path. How do you think you can do both?
Tuesday January 3rd 2006 Painting #4
‘Pause’ It is a time for reflection as I seem to be over indulging in profound flights of fantasy for the moment. Across the oesophagus which links the lungs to the blood crimson colour there is a deliberate impasse. The painting hangs upon that moment. Again as in several other works I note here for the first time that I have allowed an uneven build up of black paint upon one of the two sides. Its like some extended boil or swelling. I can see why people would like to lance these paintings. The time for them to be lanced will come in the future.
Tuesday January 10th 2006 Painting #5
‘Fools’ I presume I am referring to the self or the multi-faceted self. As the analysis of the work continues, so the profundity is transformed into the work. This painting unlike the previous works in this series had been to a large extent, pre-determined. On all previous occasions, the name for each work was thought through whilst undertaking each work in turn. I have to hold out for hope for all these works. The lines of enquiry contained in this particular painting explore this psychology. I think that is where the fool lies within this painting. It is the existential work and the one that marks the change in my thought processes and emotions. If the others contain the vitality of the moment, then this work has a refinement in the labour used to create it. It is a little more automatic but it is not without purpose. Sometimes the actor-fool knows he is just performing and this work is that cross over point. I am aware of what the future holds for these works, there are only two more to make. The end is in sight and the end is only just commencing. The journey taken by these works will be a blind jump into the future. Amid life and death there is hope? The remaining states that
are to be made can not be allowed to be created under the same conditions.
Thursday January 19th 2006 Painting #6
‘As one continues to work toward a conclusion, so I bestow and become more manifest in the process of destruction. This is contained both within the work and possibly…it is about the destruction of the egoic self. I wonder if my virtues are put at risk, as virtue is the exercise of good intentions; yet this is creative destruction? I am delivering monstrous images manifested out of love, yet I become acutely aware of my failings to attain goodness whilst I contemplate and plot to mask and veil them in liquid.’
The Carrier awaits Acts of ritual & performance – Additional notes
9th December 2010
This collection of Multi-Fold Paintings shall carry the imperative, ‘the law of short life’ so says their patron. Whilst I contemplate each work and bring a further one into being. I announce a proclamation for their collective demise. ‘Five years hence it is my will to have you destroyed.’
‘These Multi-folds shall never know a complete state, that of prospective immortality. These paintings are never completed but ended.’
The energy contained in the seven works requires them to be exhibited as a group and as a group they travel together. The enfolding belief of a journey for these works is prevalent. I am their mere guardian towards their destined future.
The paintings are invitations for us to wrestle with the accepted wisdom of our human condition. As Dorian Grey and Frankenstein are parables of the sublime, so these paintings run parallel to those literary works. The language contained in the paintings is in part transmuted by literary tradition and the exploration of their possible true origin and meaning.
How does one articulate ‘feeling’ opposed to articulating an ‘idea’?
‘Feeling’ is our human predicament that of being alive and conscious, where as ‘Idea’ is what is brought to bear upon man by himself. ‘Idea’ is an ontological study, an attempt to understand, justify and depict the human condition.
The human condition is timeless, it is ambiguous and indeterminate. This flow of thought that is our delicate condition is made manifest by a creative process. Is it an attempt to construct meaning through language and imagination where neither may really exist? This, the duality of thinking and worrying by the divided self is authentically, something and nothing.
These paintings are principally constructed symmetrically, in two parts that mirror one another. Each work is honed, determined and is focused into a world unto itself. The anti-forms convene in a near featureless exterior, a bleak and bare landscape, and a landscape that is claustrophobic and confined. As with Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, we do not know why we are here.
The statement of intent.
The will is applied by intentional logic but the truth-value cannot be determined by intent. This Paraconsistent logic deals with the contradictions. I shall destroy the paintings, but as yet it is a hypothesis that cannot be proved, therefore the statement is false. The paradox within the value of the work relates to time and context. The transposition from one truth into ‘authentic truth’ at this moment in time is by implication only. It is reasonable to assume that the premise and the conclusion through negation shall inherently reveal the true value of the work. Time + History + place is unknown. ‘Where is the control? Where is the freewill? I the mere helpless substance that is pushed around by matter.’
The creation of the seven paintings is purchased through seven days of fortitude; however the work continues. These states exist in the realm of opposites, union and reunion, death and rebirth, Love and hatred, lightness and darkness. A thought can often endure for a time much greater than the life of the man who had conceived that thought; a man in possession of free will shall act upon that thought and may spend a lifetime seeking its existence. The mêlée created in the mind of the staff (person) is conceivably part of the endless work. The journey persists, Inanna, Prometheus and Theseus! In rectitude the state is transformed into a mutation and this knight errant performs a mock epic!
Auto destructive - exercising free will Ambiguous - Duality
As one continues the work…so I bestow and become more manifest in the destruction…this is in the work & the egoic self. Are the virtues put at risk as virtue is the exercise of good intentions yet this is creative destruction. One is delivering monstrous images manifested out of love. One becomes acutely aware of one’s failings to attain goodness - this is part of the ego and human characteristics.
The Carrier Awaits (Outdoors)
2012 -2013
As the process of destroying my work took place in 2012, so I decided that there would be a stay of execution for some of this series ...this extension perhaps is inevitable given the nature of my thinking...things are seldom ended or committed to some form of conclusion. I have since making this work some six years previous become interested as to how I can re-define my painting practice (and possibly the nature of painting)...there is every possibility that this has all been done before...however as I have stated once before the act of painting is a verification as to what it is to be human, and as such we humans can sometimes repeat that what has gone before.
These paintings were installed in the rear gardens of Primary between the dates 28th May 2012 and 30th May 2013.
Upon their day of reckoning so three were finally cut up and consigned to the dustbin...others remained in the studio...to become reincarnated until such a time they to were destroyed.
Note: The first three images were taken at the Oldknows Studio Group shortly after completion of the mere jelly HQ (joint studio space)
These paintings were installed in the rear gardens of Primary between the dates 28th May 2012 and 30th May 2013.
Upon their day of reckoning so three were finally cut up and consigned to the dustbin...others remained in the studio...to become reincarnated until such a time they to were destroyed.
Note: The first three images were taken at the Oldknows Studio Group shortly after completion of the mere jelly HQ (joint studio space)
Header Image: Installation of the Carrier paintings (Wildflowers exhibition)
Notes on Painting December 2005
A young artist reviews the work of a Turner Prize nominee. They reflect on the work of artists generally and on mortality. The young artist was taken with the possibility that through art which is left so the artist attains some kind of immortality.
The painting continues it remains incomplete, transient it modifies and changes for its time. It ages, matures and decays.
The paintings are they filled with melancholia ?
This returning, It comes at a time when I feel least able to commit to them, How can I possess so little confidence yet at the same time possess the will to proceed with them.
The works are not as pure as they once were, the prospect of layering thin veils of liquid oil rich paint over them could be construed as being a contrivance , a mere act. And so it could be, but an act is an act nonetheless and in this theatre as in this life there is no repeat performance, similar actions take place but never repeated one hopes. It is through the act of the climb that one seeks elevation.
Conscious shocks - How has this started and come to bear upon the labours of canvas and paint. It has gripped my soul I feel. Don’t let go and commit to the realisation once again. It may truly be a path that I left and now have rejoined. Caesar your work needs to be continued least I understand that much. Can two thousand years stand between us at the moment of my realisation. Was it at your death that you grasped failure or did you spend a lifetime wrestling with its constant presence. Breathe we must and fill our lungs with the air, rejoice at life, celebrate it, participate and mark life with considered actions. Be true and be guided by the heart, yet this beating organ can sometimes know more than the mind, be faster than the mind even if we are slow to understand its meaning. It is as it should be. The heart shocks and the conscious shocks resonate. It reminds me of my mortal state, the imperfect human, breathing and loving.