The Argo Photograph

I collect and horde a variety of visual information that allows me opportunities of re-animating them in regards to multiple readings and surface. A wide spectrum of forms, gestures, motifs and images are translated into paint via an aesthetic and labour intensive accumulation of paint on temporary surfaces independent of the support. Over time, image becomes mass and ultimately sculptural which then is peeled or scraped off and saved for a future role. A whole new range of possibilities for these skins, lumps and fragments of paint is now evident forcing me to react and engage with them. Unexpected narratives emerge as different edges and skins of paint are juxtaposed by formally treating them as collage and decollage. What interests me is how this treatment of the image through layers of paint and ooze interrupts passive acceptance of them. The aesthetic after this layering process resembles detritus or monuments to satisfied desires within our consumer culture now celebratory reborn. These fragments when assembled engineer a kind of alchemy; subverting and bringing new context to the standard signifying identity of the base parts depending upon how much slippage occurs through matter in their cultural, economic and sexual meanings. The thick calcifying surfaces reinforce the ability that paint has of infinite transformations which I draw attention to by also making paint replicas of certain nostalgic objects. I see this as a concrete and playful affirmation of the hopelessness of a return or retrieval of the past. This is an awkward relationship that I find stimulating in terms of the dynamic between the specimen and the image which are both engaged together on the canvas. Both trying to seduce us into believing their idealism/authenticity is the one we should invest in. The most recent paint surrogate I have made is one of a vinyl record that will actually play on a record player. I enjoy this aspect of self reliance and fantasy where paint is added the further dimension of sound. Punk d.i.y. where everyone gets to put their own record out.