Field Dynamics

Update: I'm going to be making a time-lapse film for the mural. It covers 50 meters squared in total!

The Venue:

Toms Bar is going to be the venue for my next exhibition…

It's an amazing space and perfect for me to put into practice a growing interest in Jungian theories on archetypes and the unconscious mind, specifically the rebirth process.

In many mythological tales, and in many dreams also, we have experienced a decent into the depths of the unconscious in order to reach the goal of a higher (more integrated) consciousness. This process can be seen as a rebirth, or on an energetic level, as an equalisation.

In Toms Bar I am going to use the murky, disjointed nightclub space downstairs as a platform to express the unpredictable, ancient behaviours of the unconscious mind. The spatial dynamics are already unusual and I hope to use this to my advantage. The journeying downstairs and then back up again will work as a metaphor for my exploration of the rebirth concept. In viewing the downstairs space people will return to the ground floor to see the more formally presented individual paintings in (hopefully) a new light.

Hi all,

Okay so I've never blogged before; this will be my virgin trial… let's see how things go (neither have I written about painting properly for around 2 years!)…

I thought it might work out to talk about the development of Field Dynamics, both the specific exhibition coming up (details) and a wider attitude towards/understanding of painting…

The term Field Dynamics is aimed at representing an inter-dependant state of being, where all the elements involved form a balance. It's about the connections between things. However, Instead of a rigid structure or an image of scales, I want to convey a sense of stasis-flux, that is a constantly moving and continuously balanced state of being. Something akin to the concept of Harmony.

When it comes to my painting practice, I can only really describe it as process-based thinking, rather than a technique or approach or concept. It's as much psychic and temporal as it is spatial.

There's often a kind of polarisation that goes on. Some of the most peaceful paintings I have experienced have been through very angry stages, usually just before completion. In order to balance a painting I have to start with an imbalance (not out of choice!) which is generally internal, and gets made external through very loosely controlled gestures onto a surface. Although I am beginning more and more to see ahead in the process it often is only a potential outcome and usually the stages of balancing take new directions so many times that the end result is unpredictable and reached before I can see it coming…

That's all for now, don't want to get lost in this… It's easy to get into a funny state of mind when you're up in the eaves late at night…

More to come!