Through painting and sculpture I aim to explore the profiles of post-industrial warehouse environments, the impact of singular colour and theories on abstraction. Linking colour with industrial material creates the basis of my extended painting practice.

 

Process starts by taking photographs of abandoned, dilapidated warehouses or old factories. The architecture contains faults. The buildings can be falling down, have broken windows sometimes even just a single wall is left standing. This is referenced in the sharp, angular, dynamic formations of the work. The construction of the works uses a multitude of different industrial machinery, with a minimalistic approach.

 

Working mostly with metal sheeting, I also use raw splintered chipboard and steel tubing to convey a reflection of line and the edges of buildings. Whilst manipulating the metals surface from hard and harsh to something more fluid and tangible. Focusing on angular, sharp, straight-edged linear fragments that when taken away from their original image environment become isolated and unrecognisable from their original form.

 

The work continues to investigate methods of connecting shapes through the use of welding, nuts and bolts, slotting of the sections and industrial cable ties. The slotting of the sections allows for easier construction and transportability, but there is also a factor of being composed not exactly as previously; one sculpture can’t be positioned in the same way twice. I work with compositions as they develop, responding to the materiality of the metal, balance, weight, space, agility and gravitational forces. The approach aims to break down the traditions of both painting and sculpture to push on the Minimalist’s defining of art. Isolated singular colour sits on some or single sections with a playful assignation.

 

I aim to create my own visual language through the practice of industrious, ductile materials. Reductionism in terms of form and shape is of importance in my practice. When an image gets reduced to shape and then down to line I want viewers to be intrigued. To not understand what they are looking at thus force them to search for new ways to understand, to become interactive and respond spatially and somatically to the work. Aiming to think more critically about the connecting of metal sheets, the implications of scale and the juxta-positioning of mixed media collaged elements. Understanding more about where the barriers of painting and sculpture are, will help to define where the work sits between the two.