Statement

Art

I am committed to the belief that one must become an artist each time one begins to work. Art, then, is not so much in the idea, but in the execution of that idea. Each painting is therefore a search for meaning what is the purpose of art in the 21Century?

Stylistic variations are the result of a reluctance to impose anything that might get in the way of the individual painting; in the same way that Stanislavsky counsels the actor to get out of the way of the character, the artist must set his ego aside, indeed, he must give up all social and career ambition.

Self-expression is kept to a minimum, as far as that goes, self-expression ends with the choice of image. Besides which, there is an inherent problem with self-expression; beyond a few core values, the self is malleable, this is why one must become an artist every time onesets to work.

This is an almost impossible task.

The Paintings

Many of the paintings have a thread of violence running through them, whether its the insincerity of the politicians eyes, and the free pen, suppose to elicit our votes, in Electioneering.

Or, Nude in a Shop Doorway, a prostitute, literally cut from the street and held up as an icon, naked outside a fashion house. Though were looking at her, we are also looking down on her.

When I cut pieces out of the canvas, its a necessary function of the paintings meaning; you can take the gun out of the hands of the child soldier in Musicians Fingers, but can never truly replace what the gun has taken away.

The Pornography

The eight pictures in this gallery are derived from pornography that I discovered while searching for images suitable for painting some traditional nudes. I was struck by how mechanical the pictures were; one could argue the photographs were not of women at all. I wondered how those images would look if pushed to the extreme; I was searching for a higher aesthetic than that of the source material.

I downloaded some pictures and began to fold them; in some cases I overlaid the results with spots of digital paint; others I converted to hand drawings, still others,to grids. What was particularly interesting was the discovery that not every image is suited to this technique, and many pictures were discarded along the way

The portrait of Sophie Iremonger aside, these images are not merely representations of pornography, they are actual pornographic images pushed totheir logical conclusion.

In keeping with the theme, these images are only available as mass produced laminated prints.

For those who don't know, Sophie Iremonger is an artist based in Germany.

Anthony Chapman