Artist Talk Magazine issue 7

ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE

January 2019 www.artisttalkmagazine.com

DISCOVER MORE www.grantmilne.com

FEATURED ARTISTS BENJAMIN BURKARD

4-9 ÀSÌKÒ

10-15 THE UPPER HOUSE

16-21 AM DEBRINCAT

22-27 MIHAIL SIMEONOV

28-33

ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE Milne Publishing is proud to present Artist Talk Magazine issue 7.

Once again, I am pleased to showcase more incredible artists from around the globe.

All of the artists featured within this issue have given interesting, in-depth honest accounts about themselves, their work, views and ideas. In addition to the amazing images of the work they produce, which I know you the reader, will enjoy and be inspired by.

We have lots of incredible talent within this issue, with a wide range of subject matter for you to explore and enjoy.

The cover of this issue is from AM DeBrincat, who is a Maltese-

American painter based in Brooklyn, New York.

Her work blends painting, digital photography and printmaking into layered works on canvas, that explore how we construct identity in an online world.

Thanks for reading.

Grant Milne, Founder of Artist Talk Magazine

HASAN NUMAN SUÇAĞLAR

36-41 TAYLOR BOWEN

42-47 ALICE GUR-ARIE

48-53 LA CHHOUK

54-59 JOHAN P. JONSSON

60-65

artisttalkmagazine ArtistTalkMag artisttalkmagazine

COLIN PENNOCK

66-71 DISCOVER MORE www.artisttalkmagazine.com

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BENJAMIN BURKARD

About Creativity, Free Choice and Machines “Our World seems to be a continues Moment of Change. It is a construct of moving Mechanisms, in between we are able to control only directions which we call some sort of life.�

Benjamin Burkard is a machinephilosopher. His point of view in Art begins and ends with the Machine, which he sees as a big system consisting of thounsands of little elements, which are working together to simulate a word, which we call life. He is continuesly searching for the ghost in this machine by haunting hundreds of different forms of this

mechanism. They can approach to him in form of animals, humans, plants or can even appear to him by architectural symbols of culture.

He tries to connect everything he knows, and bounds them together to find out what is behind the curtain. Some Points are always missing for him, he marks them as complete abstract elements and so they stay far behind our comprehension. His works are mostly classical paintings and are influenced by Futurism and surrealism. One Intention in one picture is not enough for him, he varies them. And this is what makes his position in art so exciting to watch.

Benjamin Burkard is a fully

classical painter and paints with oil, acrylic and varnish. Usually he begins with a phase of complete abstraction by just plotting colour on the canvas on the points he uses later as front-parts of his mental constructions. While Painting he is leaving slight traces of his hands and other materials on the liquid colour. Layer after layer the picture grows. First the choatic colour states are getting sorted, by adding shadows, then a figurative element is painted and gets destroyed directy after a quick pencil brush. This Alternation of detailed and concentrated work and intuitive, almost random quick-brushes and devastation is a symbol of a work made by Burkard.

KERNEL

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He has studied Art and Biologie at the University of Landau, Germany. While studying he was chosen for a scholarship for painting, which granted him a studio and a flat for free for one year. This time was the beginning of an intense and intimate confrontation between him and his Paintings. He began with just painting little machine-like objects.

Mostly as a still-life. Then he arranged more and more objects together to a big clusters and called them “cities”. The Theme of machines did not let him go, so he chose to intense his mental work for his Examina.

“Humans and Machines in art” was his title for the near 200 pages long book, he wrote for examin the university. In it, he explains the machine out of the history of humans and concluded, that there has never been a time, when Machines and humans were seperated. In opposite: He discovers the machine as a personification of the human creativity. Thats why we are always looking for a machine look and interact like we do. For him Creativity means, that we are able to copy, transform and combine everything surrounding us.

Everything is one in our mind, and the machine is just the surface who

describes a face of our creativity.

Prizes in one year.

As his lectoral researches grew, it also had an influence on his paintings. At first he began to use a bright colour for the metallic surfaces of his machinepaintings to irritate the regardand. Burkard says:

He painted big arrangements of machines, combined them with animal beings and with humans. He invented big landscapes in which we as regardand are discovering a lot of different living beings, as the machines itselfes are not clearly identified as machines. For us, the Perceptant, every painting is a choice. We can choose to look at it and see only the natural beings, or we can see it as a complete construction of our world made of mechanicals. In the picture, they both exist.

“Our Perception and understanding of machines still lies back in the beginning of the 19.th century, when the Machine was an artistic allegoration for an apocalyptic future. Psychologically a Machine stands for the Devastation of the human spezies. And that is totally incorrect. We have to surpass this Thinking by Accepting the fact, that we as Humans can only survive with Machines.”

But it didn’t end with this thinking.

Burkard also develloped his Theories about machines and began studying the Books of different Philosophers, Physics and Cybernetics. After Burkard read the Books of Norbert Wiener in 2015, the creator of a new Science, called Cybernetics, he began changing and evolving his painting as his Understanding of the system of machines grew as well.

That was the beginning of a well coordinated series of paintings, with those he won several art

THE PROBLEM WITH FREE CHOICE

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Burkard wants to challenge the regardand. He wants to talk to them trough his paintings, he wants them to question theirselves about their viewing habits. On the first view, everything looks confusing, like a big chaotic storm: uncoordinated, pure diffusion. But the more time you spend on regarding, the more you are discovering. You are able to discover Humans, animals, plants and of course machines. They seem to be interacting in some sort of way but its still not conclusive. It seems like if the regardand is trying to complete the puzzle and the last part is always missing.

That is an intentional method of Challenge the painter is working

THE RESCUE

with. For him it is important, that every way through his constructed aberration stays individual. At least he gives us little hints to solve the secrets.

In his latest work series, that began in 2017, the Arrangements of his works got a new note.

Throughout the process of his paintings he conciously chooses some parts of the canvas to be let open. This means, that his normal way of creating a painting was disrupted and irritated. Burkard forced himself to control all his movements and traces on canvas.

The free Choice of painting, as a result of the neverending process, was layed down to get a better idea of how he can control his flow.

Burkard says: “Theoretically, you can’t make a fault in painting. If you don’t have the right proportions, then overpaint it. If you don’t like it,

and no one will ever find out. I want to experience, how my inner mechanism works, this thing called creativity. And i think i can get closer to it by trying to control every step i do on canvas”

visble and perceptuable form. As he concluded from his studies, a machine is more, than we usually expect. A Machine is a metaphor of creativity, and depends on our percetion of the world.

As a result of his thinking, his Paintings are getting more open, they are getting a very wide and bright surface. The sprectrum of colours is more direct, the forms and surfaces of machines were develloped from natural pencil brushes and werde added by some sort of architectural influences, especially from the antique ages.

It seems the machines are moving to the background, they merge with the architectural elements and with the abstract forms. Flora and Fauna are beginning to fill the open spaces. Together they give us the feeling of a living thing. With this, Burkard wants to express the idea of an all connecting system, that stays behind the

Benjamin Burkard is a machinephilosopher. It all begins and ends with the machine, and for collecting and spreading his ideas of the world he uses the most classical form of communication: the painting.

“If you want to catch the ghost of the machine, there is no need to use modern techniques, that just expresses that you are looking at it in your actual time. If you want to catch the ghost, you have to counter the fast-changing time with eternity: And this is nothing else than a painting” DISCOVER MORE www.benjamin-burkard.com

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ÀSÌKÒ

I AM WOMAN

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Àsìkò was born of Nigerian parents in London and spent his childhood in Lagos. He returned to London as an adolescent and studied Chemistry at university. Àsìkò is a self-taught visual artist, who translates his concepts through photography and mixed media. His cultural background is imbedded through his work, and still contributes to his decisionmaking processes as an artist.

His work is a response to his experiences of identity, heritage and culture, which he visually articulates with a balance of fantasy and reality. His photography is emotionally resonant and biographical, exploring his roots as an African and his connection to the world he experiences.

His project ‘Layers’ was featured on the BBC, Huffington Post and exhibited at the South Bank in London. One of his most recent works, ‘Looks Like Me’ (Black Panther portraits) was featured on Channel 4, Essence and Vogue magazines earlier this year. It was also exhibited at the British Film Institute.

DISCOVER MORE www.asiko.co.uk

BEAUTY TRAP

In 2016 a work colleague told me her story of female genitalia mutilation and how the cultural practice created a lasting psychological and physical impact on her life. In her story she detailed how she was cut at the age of 14 and how most women of her age from Somalia are cut as a normal occurrence.

This led to creating the work ‘Conversations’; a set of conceptual images about violence against women and its intersection with African culture. As I discovered these aspects of my heritage I

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became aware of the lasting impact of a patriarchal system that uses culture as a tool to ensure its durability, by suppressing female expression and sexuality. In the images, I use plants and flowers as symbolic expressions of culture, representing beauty, fragility and destructive power, likened by the role of culture in male dominated societies. In the images I created symbolic representations of physical and psychological effects of these violent practices of female genitalia mutilation, breast ironing, child marriage, sex slavery.

EXHAUSTING

SUFFOCATED DESTINIES

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DUALITY OF PURPOSE

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FERTILE OFFERINGS

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THE UPPER HOUSE

LEVEL 4 ENTRANCE - FACE OF THE MOON CYNTHIA SAH

A Journey of Upward Discovery at The Upper House.

A sense of arrival awaits guests at The Upper House. Rising above Pacific Place in Admiralty, the hotel’s Asian influenced and timeless design reveals an understated calmness throughout.

Opened in October 2009, The Upper House, sister hotel of the award winning The Opposite House, is the second hotel by hotel group, Swire Hotels. The Upper House was named to symbolise an ‘upward journey’ to a retreat above the bustling city.

Andre Fu of AFSO, hailed by Vogue UK as ‘Design Wunderkind’ and Conde Nast Traveler US as an ‘Asian Design Sensation’, is behind the design of The Upper House.

Andre’s previous notable projects include Piacere Italian Restaurant and Nadaman Japanese Restaurant for Shangri-la Hotel Tokyo, Cassia Chinese Restaurant at Singapore’s Capella Resort, Agnes b. La Loggia Flagship Store in Hong Kong, JIA Shanghai’s eclectic lobby as well as the private residence of international actress Michelle Yeoh.

Natural materials, original sculpture installations and seamlessly proportioned spaces are integrated to create a sophisticated and modern “Asian influenced” residence. “With an intention to create a small luxury hotel reminiscent of a private residence, I have purposely conjured a sense of tranquility throughout the design and ambience of the hotel,” says Andre Fu.

Entry through a Bedonia stone doorway façade by Thomas Heatherwick evokes the image of a curtain being opened to welcome guests to a private residence. A subtly-lit driveway then leads to a dramatic 13ft high textured nickel front door, enveloped by floor-toceiling glass walls that appear to sit on top of pools of water.

Inside the entrance, a circular bamboo enclosure, ‘the Lantern’, marks the beginning of the ‘upward journey’ along a dimly-lit escalator with walls lined with bespoke lamps leading guests into Level 6, flooded with natural daylight, and featuring ‘The Lawn’, a lush grassed area for relaxing with cocktails and bean bags for lounging under the sun.

Ascending into the hotel’s 117 spacious guest rooms, each is designed to provide a sense of understated luxury. The contemporary monochromatic design features natural timber, shoji glass, limestone and lacquered paper panels. All rooms including 21 suites and 2 penthouses are presented in two colour schemes: ‘Bamboo’ with solid ash flooring, bamboo timber and lilac upholstery; ‘Celadon’ featuring green tea upholstery, limed oak flooring and creme oak timber.

The room layouts offer abundant space including 300 sq ft bathrooms with walk-in rain showers, dressing areas and free-standing bathtubs with breathtaking panoramic harbour or island views. Lined with Italian ‘Perlato Svevo’ natural limestone floors and Beige Turkish ‘Terre d’Oriente’ limestone walls, the bathrooms are simple and uncluttered.

The highlight of the ‘journey’ is Level 49, which showcases the architecturally intriguing Sky Bridge. Infused with a skylight above a 40 metre high atrium, the Sky Bridge leads to the Sky Lounge and signature restaurant & bar, Café Gray Deluxe.

The warm and inviting Lounge with a centerpiece fireplace serves drinks and cocktails throughout the day. Intimate sofa seating in soft hues of green tea and mineral blue complement the 4 metre high ceiling.

CAFÉ GRAY DELUXE

Café Gray Deluxe, a 21st century ‘grand café’ overlooking Victoria Harbour, marks the return of celebrated Chef Gray Kunz to Hong Kong. The vibrant restaurant is highlighted by a 14 metre long open kitchen and equally long bar, designed to enhance the guest experience and serving ‘everyday dishes’ with an accent on local organic produce and relaxed service.

The main dining room seating approximately 100, offers spectacular panoramic views.

Semi-private dining areas are designed with full view of the open kitchen stations. A private room for 12 is available for exclusive harbour view dining. The bar and lounge, seating 88, is contemporary and vibrant.

Displayed around the entire hotel are fascinating contemporary artworks and sculptures in sandstone, ceramics, marble and bronze, perfectly complementing Andre Fu’s over-riding concept of serenity.

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CHOI TAE-HOON, THE FOREST- MANDALA

The Forest – Mandala, created by Korean artist Choi Tae-Hoon, is made of small parts of blackened steel welded together, each of which forms a shape reminiscent of the Korean and Chinese character for people. The circular shape of the overall sculpture is reflective of yin and yang and the Oriental philosophy inherent in The Upper House, but also as the basis of Choi’s oeuvre.

suites at The Upper House. They have a distinct sculptural look to them and have been created from cut-up fabric rose petals, arranged with three to four layers of gesso, placed on panels and then further layered to create the final threedimensional sculptural look.

pair of large, circular forms, one of which is a brass piece with her signature burnt-holes motif while the second part, created from the lighter strips of metal that reflects the more solid brass piece and lean against it. This comes from the Chinese concept of “Pairing is perfect. Pairing is good.”

DISCOVER MORE www.upperhouse.com

MAN FUNG-YI, MYTH OF STARS

GERARD BOOKLE, BED OF ROSES

British artist Gerard Bookle created 43 pieces of this piece for the walls of the guest rooms and

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Man Fung-yi is recongnised within Hong Kong’s contemporary art scene for her distinctly feminine sculptures which often exhibit the value she places on Chinese tradition as she strives to keep her heritage alive. Myth of Stars is a

THE UPPER HOUSE EXTERIOR

MAN FUNG-YI, WEAVING INTIMACY,

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AM DEBRINCAT

AM DeBrincat is a MalteseAmerican painter based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work blends painting, digital photography, and printmaking into layered works on canvas that explore how we construct identity in an online world.

AM DeBrincat was born in San Francisco, California and studied literature and art at the Universidad de Sevilla and the University of Oregon. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Parsons the New School for Design in New York City. In the past five years she has exhibited widely, including in Mexico, Europe, Canada, Australia, and throughout the US. She has received grants from the Durst Foundation and the Deming Fund, and been artist-inresidence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Chashama, and the Wassaic Project. Following a solo show in Sweden in 2017, DeBrincat had her first solo show in Australia at 19 Karen Gallery in May 2018 and will have a solo show at 212 Arts in New York City in November 2018.

AM DeBrincat’s paintings create unique worlds where online and offline life meet and merge. Her mixed media technique combines fragments of images sourced from social media and online image searches which are xerox transfer printed onto canvas and intermingled with lush oil painting.

Combining digital and analog media like pieces in a visual puzzle, DeBrincat builds paintings which explore how we create identity and sense of self in the digital age.

THE NEPTUNE MACHINE

DISCOVER MORE www.amdebrincat.com

THE UTOPIAN

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LIMERICK

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HARLEQUIN

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MERINGUE MASQUERADE

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GAZELLE

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MIHAIL SIMEONOV

As time goes by, it becomes more and more difficult to speak about my art work since, I believe it should really speak itself. I was born in Bulgaria and educated in a European art academy where, for 6 long years, I drew from live models and copied classic Greek art day and night. Meanwhile, the Soviet army had rolled over us and, along with the murders, ushered in a strange style of art called Socialist Realism. So great was the fear that “The West” would make an attempt to smuggle their brand of aesthetic formalism into our art academy that it was patrolled by armed guards. Ten years later I got into trouble with the country’s communist president who ordered my public monuments, sculptures of national heroes, writers and poets, destroyed. I went into exile.

I landed in Tunisia, land of bright sun, vast desert, blue water and ancient culture. In 1914, Paul Klee became enchanted by its colors and where Michel Foucault had taught philosophy. I felt resuscitated, saved. One Sunday morning, a series of images appeared in my mind so powerful and pure that for many years, and still, they have a profound hold on me: the ladder, wheel, mirror, leg, sky-walker, stela. I have explored their form and meaning in paper, paintings, aluminum, bronze-any and every material I can get my hands on Around 1974, now working in New York City, I became fascinated by the idea of casting from nature, capturing the pulse of living things. I thought of casting the world, literally taking a mold of the Earth continent by continent. I began back in Tunisia, in the Sahara desert, taking a cast of the sand and salt flats. In Alsace, France I cast the grass.

In New York I took molds of manhole covers, sprinkler valves and elevator panels. Finally it dawned on me--I had to cast a live wild bull elephant In Africa’s and install a bronze statue-symbol of all wildlife at the United Nations

DRAWING - 1977

THE CAST IN AFRICA

Headquarters in New York. And that was that. I became obsessed.

Four years later, I was in Kenya, hurtling through the bush in a Land Rover, behind me, two water trucks, a crew of 40, a dozen international journalists, and two dentists from New York. Ahead of us, a bull elephant, above us, a helicopter carrying the Ministry of Wildlife’s top veterinarian. A few

hours later on the BBC Morning News, and after the ringing of Big Ben, came the announcement: Mihail has cast the elephant in the bush of Kenya.

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But as we see this magnificent animal stand before us today, it was worth the wait. The sheer size of this creature humbles us. And so it should. For it shows us that some things are bigger than we are. It tells us that Earth is not ours, but a treasure we hold in trust for future generations. It teaches us that if our global village is to be a truly desirable place for all of us on this planet,it must be guided by a wish to nurture and preserve, and not to threaten or destroy, the variety of life that gives it value.

AFTER CAST

It took me five years to complete the model and then the Sleeping Elephant was exhibited in New York’s Hirondelle gallery on Broome street. Here is what filmmaker Harry Minetree wrote for the occasion: Ten years ago New York sculptor Mihail started on his spiritual safari to free the Elephant from the shackles of Man’s dominating ambitions and return the natural glory of its birthright as the substance and the symbol of the way the world was meant to be. Finally, after five years of planning and exhibitions in Milano, Stockholm, Geneva, Lausanne, Gstaad and Basel, on the nineteenth day of March, 1980, in the deep bush of Kenya, Mihail cast the living wild bull Elephant...and then freed him for the first time since prehistoric Man had usurped his image. Now, Mihail is preparing to cast the first of eleven bronzes that will remain forever the property and the legacy of the sleeping elephant, the collective liberated soul of all the beasts that roam the Savannas of the living Universe...as long as Forever lasts.

For another 13 years, I had to run.

I had to rush around the globe to raise awareness of the meaning of the Elephant project, exhibiting related works and soliciting support from Sub- Saharan countries that had elephants along with India and Nepal. Finally the bronze cast was ready for installation at the United Nations Headquarters, presented as a gift by Kenya, Namibia and Nepal. The day arrived when the Sleeping Elephant covered with flags and flowers stood solemnly in his rightful place and Secretary General Kofi Annan started his speech. Karen Blixen famously wrote in Out of Africa that elephants pace “along as though they had an appointment at the end of the world”. Our friend here certainly did; we are glad he survived the trek.

Eighteen years have passed since Mihail Simeonov went to Kenya, tranquilized a wild bull elephant and took a cast of it before releasing it unharmed into the wild.

Since that day, the story has taken many twists and turns.

And so, as the animal that never forgets, let the elephant serve as our institutional memory; let us remember that when future generations come to this garden as mature adults, this elephant will still be here. As we walk by it today and in years to come, may all five tons of it stand as a daily reminder that we are all in debt to Mother Earth; that we ignore this at our peril; and that, if and when the elephant wakes up because we have failed in our duty, chances are it will ask for much more than peanuts.

--Secretary-General Kofi Annan Statement at the Unveiling of the Bronze Elephant in Garden of United Nations Headquarters (SG/ SM/6800 HQ/589) Artist contemplate and create, and when the work comes to life, it affects them, too. My work comes in series. Time becomes irrelevant.

I’ve both left the Sleeping Elephant behind and still working the idea.

Recently, I got interested in white aluminum trim coil, an otherwise uninspiring construction material, and a new idea grabbed me. A door opened wide. Where, recently, my work was full of color, now there was none. Only quiet. Suddenly work poured out effortlessly, it still does, and my studio is full with an absence of color.

DISCOVER MORE www.mihailstudio.com

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DISCOVER MORE www.aasebirkhaugart.com

HASAN NUMAN SUÇAĞLAR

EAST WEST

concept of the city, which has immense elements, the concept of the slum that I enjoy mostly. As I said, this interaction based on my childhood; It is due to growing up in the slums neighbourhood.

PRIMBEAUTY TOWER

My name is Hasan Numan SUÇAĞLAR. I live in Turkey. I have been interested in ceramic art for 12 years. I have completed my bachelor’s and master’s degree in the field of ceramic art. I will complete my doctorate very soon at Ceramics Department of Hacettepe University. This

university is located in Ankara, capital of Turkey.

I am a ceramic artist trying to describe the cities in which I lives.

The idea of building structures and watch the cities comes from my childhood. I like to comment on every layer of the city. In the

My work was not based on expressing the buildings which are the elements of the city with all their wonderful postures. My work actually consists of a chain of metaphors. The chaos in my abstract structures comes from the dynamics of the city, because the city has invisible faces. The invisible faces are darkness, poverty, longing, fatigue, depression.

Usually no talk about them and no comment. Beauties are asked to be seen. If we only talk about the negativities, I will be unfair. If we look at the slums, we can find basic happiness in all those negative things. Most beautiful form of love, the most intense longing, the largest of sincerity is experienced in slums. I’ve had them, I’ve seen and felt.

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ROOKERY

I look at today’s cities and feel sorry. Something’s going wrong, we’re losing some things. Actually, buildings are just like people. These buildings, which look like humans, lose their color. The reason I call color is because I try to relate colors to human emotions. Colors are fading, buildings are rising unreachable sizes. Skyscrapers cannot be reached just like today’s person. The skyscrapers are basically hiding loneliness behind its luxury and modern appearance.

Structures, dimensions and perhaps quality increase but human values are observes in terms of decline. Cultural losses in today’s cities are another dimension.

Let’s imagine a city: when we mention the name, formed in the cultural descriptions of our minds. How nice it is to say that city has a cultural feature. From the buildings to the streets, from animals to animals, the cities have

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their own character. Can we find these tastes now? If we look at ourselves as individuals, do we see any change in us? In fact, the cities do not change we are changing.

We are far from devotion to a culture. In pursuit of luxury, our colors are breathing as we walk side by side with technology. We don’t need culture anymore. I don’t know if we need it. Cities that look like each other, I just feel like I’m overwhelmed. It’s not my fight, that’s what I see in my living space.

Today, our relations have weakened, we cannot tolerate each other.

Consumption ambition is our biggest enemy. It is not possible to keep pace with the speed of technology. Everybody wants to be rich, everyone wants to be famous; human values, cultural sums were buried in the ground. We change, but for the sake of what we are changing.

KINGDOM OF WHITE TOWER

Within the city we know and see every day, when we start to question and compare places and cities; we want to keep our insufficiency under pressure with the illusion we are wrong. With the creative impulse brought on by the oppression, we are moving in the mutual problematic of what we see and what we think. We create new narratives in order to gain awareness by creating new thoughts while the city is regularly or irregularly changing our landscape thoughts.

The ghetto neighbourhoods of ancient cities are to the suburbs, It seems inevitable that a new city memory will be created as the suburbs become the kitchy luxurious neighbourhoods of today.

I try to relate the possibilities of colors, plans and materials in their forms to vision and thinking, and I try to create critical works on the newly formed city memory.

It is the integration and interpretation of the artist in the urban memory, seen in the urban perception. Sharing with the audience also shapes the vision and thinking through another point of view. Finally, to think a bit more on what we see. With plastic touches, it stands out.

Cities are real and we live in‌ DISCOVER MORE www.hnsceramics.com + Instagram: @hns_ceramics

UNGAINLY

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TAYLOR BOWEN

BLACKOUT

The themes in my artwork center greatly around the human condition from the mental and emotional issues that plague us to the addictions we fall victim to, often as an escape from our realities. They mainly come from my own personal experiences and viewpoints. I observe the disconnect between the fake promises we’ve grown up with and the world as it actually is.

Im uninterested in the clichéd advice and false positivity aimed

at subduing us into the status quo.

Creating is my way of working through these things in hopes that by reflecting an honest perspective we can reach a better plain of existence.

I’m a born and bred New Yorker.

I grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. Both my parents are artists. I was raised in a very creative environment, which inspired me to begin illustrating and painting at a young age. I’ve

always enjoyed experimenting with different mediums and techniques.

Now I mainly work with Acrylics and Inks. Recently I have begun experimenting in Animation. I’m always looking for new ways to express myself.

DISCOVER MORE www.hausriot.com

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THE FORGOTTEN

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DISPLACEMENT

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ALICE GUR-ARIE TO THE WEIR (FRANCE)

RED V3 (ICELAND)

sweet spot where painting and photography converge.”

Describing herself as an interpreter who strives to “engage both head and heart,” she takes photographs around the world and repaints them digitally by hand into contemporary fine art images.

Alice holds degrees in English literature, Education and Business from York University in Canada.

She is a self taught artist.

In what ways do you think your previous career has influenced your work?

MOUNTAIN (ICELAND)

Alice Gur-Arie is a London based mixed media artist whose work has been auctioned at Christies and exhibited at the Iceland Embassy of London. It is held in collections in the UK, US, Israel, Germany and Canada. She has been nominated for the Terry O’Neill Tag Photography Award and long listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize and The Secret Art Prize.

She began her career as a conceptual copywriter, graphic designer, and creative director, eventually responsible for positioning global brands, and developing and executing their marketing and communication strategies. Several years ago she returned to her creative roots, publishing work that “sits in the

I saw first hand that communication that appeals to the head and the heart is more engaging and memorable. I also learned never to make assumptions about how someone will respond to a piece of creative work. There is no right or wrong; every reaction is individual, and valid. So I strive to create work that appeals on both levels, and I continually seek feedback - good, bad or indifferent, it’s all useful.

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BECOMING HARLEQUIN (ITALY)

and one’s place in it. At one end of that continuum is insatiable yearning; at the other, sometimes overconfident certainty. I offer the viewer the opportunity to re-examine what they think they see and believe, and a chance to relax into “different” that they can, in the end, turn away from if they wish.

Your work is an interesting mix of digitally altered photography with multiple layers of edits, and what appears to be brush strokes. How do you make your art?

CAESAR’S LIGHT (ISRAEL)

Why do you make art?

I like imagining different endings. I like discovery, asking questions. I enjoy change, and making things different from how they are or seem to be. There is nothing like the emotional and psychological adventure of inventing, the adrenaline rush that comes from both creating and walking into the shadows of an image, of feeling texture and shape and depth with my eyes. I have always been the person that explains, interprets, defines - believing that if I don’t, someone else will do it for me. In the end, I want to shape the world the way I want it to be.

What is at the heart of your practice?

The concept of “seeing”. By combining photography with digital painting, I invite the viewer to replace the window through which they see the world, with a lens that interprets the world into something that is both familiar and foreign. And then I ask: what do you think about this? how does it make you feel?

I believe this: the human psyche is driven by, among other things, the need to understand the world,

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People frequently ask what software I use, but my work is not about digital technology. It’s first and foremost about the image, without which there is no art, and my ability to transform it into an aesthetically compelling, memorable, visual experience.

I start by taking photographs, mostly in foreign locales. In some cases, the mode of transport is integral to the finished image, producing aerials like Over Nevada. Treating the photograph as my canvas, I digitally repaint each picture by hand, using a combination of washes and pixel by pixel “brush” strokes achieved by blowing up the image.

I always allow myself to be steered by what I see happening in the process. As a result, the final image may be very different from what I thought I would create. But sometimes I just have to let the image lead me where it will. When I say “the picture tells the story”, this is what I mean.

Please explain the diversity we see in your work in terms of subject matter and style.

My passion is storytelling, interpreting, and reinventing - mostly, but not entirely, the natural and animal world. I am not studied in any one area (birds, for example), and much as I love

photographing and painting birds, I would find it constraining to make this my raison d’être. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just not for me.

I feel the same way about my creative approach. My mantra is, “images are my visual voice.”

Just as one’s physiological voice has a range that enables us to sound different depending on the purpose of the communication, the audience, what you want to say, and how you want to say it, so it is with a visual voice. Each image is a story deserving to be expressed in its own unique way.

Combining photography and painting presents a broad continuum of possibility to convey what I see, and what the image offers up. Some of my early work, like Mountain, is much more photographic. Most of my recent works, like To the Weir, are quite painterly, showcasing the stunning textural effects that can be achieved. Where some of the abstracts sit, is an interesting discussion.

But it’s not only about diversity.

Having the freedom to respond spontaneously to creative ideas and not be bound by a category of “what I do” is my lifeblood.

Becoming Harlequin, one of the rare examples of portraiture in my mixed media work, is a telling example.

I can’t explain why I took a picture of this face; it had an indifferent air, and no unusual features. I decided to create a progression to explore “truth” and “beauty” both deeply related to “seeing” as a metaphor. So I embarked on painting iterations of the same photograph, finding each face progressively more human, more complex, and much darker than the preceding one. Selecting the final 5 felt exciting, dangerous, omnipotent, profound. Each of the faces works individually (the fourth is especially strong as a single

want. It’s the artist’s responsibility to help their client articulate this; without this effort at the start, the process is bound to be lengthy, and fraught with frustration (for both parties) and wrong turns.

We often hear about an artist “being true to themselves”. What does this mean for you?

OVER NEVADA (USA)

work), and each has a title based on Comedia dell’arte characters.

But the series is intended to always be shown together, either in one framed arrangement, or in one room/environment where all of the images can be seen from one vantage point.

Commercially, the path I have chosen is a challenging journey, because the art world loves to categorise, and I do not fit into one category. But then I look into the eyes of Becoming Harlequin, or the shadows of Over Nevada, and I carry on.

Do you see any particular artistic context for your work?

A lot of my abstracts are eerily reminiscent of the experimental works photographers such as Siskind, Brassai, Bourdin and Minor White created in the mid decades of the 20th century, taken to extremes. The technology has changed everything, of course, but the underlying exploration of light and dark, creating abstraction by seeing and presenting things differently, that’s the connection.

You are a writer as well as a visual artist. Does your writing influence your photography or vice versa?

I am working on a book of 12

thematically linked short stories and poems and approximately 80 mixed media images. How it evolved is a lovely tale; it was a spontaneous, off the cuff comment about an image, made by a friend, that prompted me to write the first story. I knew I had to write the other 11. In this case an image was the catalyst for the decision to write the stories, but in terms of creative approach, they developed independently.

Years ago, when I was just starting my practice, I was very upset when a portfolio reviewer told me my images “were not true”. But what is truth? The way I see, is my truth.

The way I choose to express what I see, is my truth. I doubt you will see things the way I see them.

You may willingly consider and ultimately accept my vision, or you may be ambivalent, or you might completely reject it. These are all possibilities, and they are all valid.

That’s what this is all about.

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How do you find working to commission? Does it push your work in new directions?

The catalyst for “new direction” certainly can come from a client, and is always welcome. But I believe the drive must come from within. No one pushes me harder to strive for new approaches and outcomes, than I push myself.

For many years I commissioned artwork, so I know that effective communication between artist and client is critical. I’m comfortable tackling a tight and specific brief, or starting with a blank page. The trick is achieving a clear understanding of what is desired and/or the objective to be achieved, before the project begins.

Most clients know what they like when they see it, but many find it difficult to describe what they

DISPLACEMENT (FRANCE)

All images are ©Alice Gur-Arie

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LA CHHOUK

La CHHOUK Recycled and Creative Fashion - the artists as social entrepreneur who design and produce recycled dresses, show out the ability of LGBTQ people and preserve the Cambodian’s art to be alive.

Founded in 2014, by a team of students that directed by leadership of Mr. ITH Sovannareach who was a graphic design student from the Royal University of Fine Arts which is based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Along with the whole teammates, they are not in fashion design major but trying to gather trash to form amazing dresses that using out of recycled materials such as bottle, can, newspaper, plastic, straw etc. All those materials, people throw it away as a waste of space for the reason that they just do not know about advantage and disadvantage of it or those are super useful to reuse or recycle it. As consequence, La CHHOUK efforts to show out the ability of LGBTQ people because the majority of people in their country treat LGBTQ like a trash or a stranger, they think that those people are destroying the culture and the world but their thoughts are probably wrong because actually the LGBTQ people are the most talented mans among everybody. Moreover, they are attempting to preserve the Cambodian’s art to be alive as we could see nowadays, Cambodian’s art is about to end because of the influences of modernism that is why people almost forget to inspire their ancient art and culture to the world.

According to those reasons, La CHHOUK got the idea to collect trash and transform it into other products or artworks. Furthermore, they divide it to two kind of things.

The first one, it is an artworks that they design and produce recycled dresses for a fashion show that they have the LGBTQ people to be their model, makeup

artist, designer, photographer etc.

The second one, it is a products that they design and produce for people to use in their daily life such as tote bag, wallet, tee shirt, backpack, apron and stuff that they have the LGBTQ community to be their staff of production.

All those artworks and products, La CHHOUK try to involve Cambodian’s art, culture and nation style into design, specially, they produce all those things by using out of recycled materials because they want people to know the value of trash and desire to recycle it into product like what they are doing also then people could earn some money from those trash and it is a part of saving the world from disaster as well.

Since 2014, La CHHOUK made around 200+ outfits through 11 collections and there are the Rainbow Life collection, the Khla Thom collection, the Wild in Style collection, the Season of Flower collection, the CambodiaEgypt collection, the 60s-70s collection, the RED collection, the

Reborn collection, the Ram Leuk collection, the WhiteSad collection, the CHHOUK collection and together with 5 masterpieces along those collections such as Neang Ousaphy, Neang CHHOUK, Neang Sbai Thom, Neang Neak and the Rainbow.

The Rainbow Life collection, there are 7 outfits inside this collection that depict about the 6 colors of LGBTQ flag by each dress which RED represent life, ORANGE represent healing, YELLOW represent sunlight, GREEN represent nature, BLUE represent harmony/peace and VIOLET represent spirit. La CHHOUK made this collection by collaborated with Swedish LGBTI NGO “the Upstraight Museum” and Cambodian NGO “CamASEAN” for the event called Rainbow Life to show the support and raise awareness of social acceptance by Khmer families and community in Cambodia by showing the ability of LGBTQ people through catwalk show with the design.

MASTERPIECE OF RAINBOW LIFE COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHED BY PRANG VATTANAK

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WHITESAD COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHED BY PRANG VATTANAK

from Khmer traditional costume that almost be dead “Sbai Thom”, mostly it is worn by traditional dancer but we rarely see this costume nowadays.

In general, Neang Sbai Thom is design to express the heart of students to the Royal University of Fine Arts plus incorporate a reminder to young generation to turn their attention back to take care of their beautiful culture and do not overly excite with other culture till they no longer know who they are.

WHITESAD COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHED BY PRANG VATTANAK

The WhiteSad collection show about the sadness of thousand students with the Royal University of Fine Arts which is a school that share the art skill to every single one of them that the university need to move out to another further area from the city, so La CHHOUK made this collection with the main materials of rice sack

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and newspaper which are white and gray color to represent the sad feeling.

Moreover, they found a masterpiece design called Neang Sbai Thom that is a floral creation with newspaper flowers that is 999+ pieces and the length is around 4.5 meters which animate

EXHIBITION OF NEANG OUSAPHY, PHOTOGRAPH BY PRANG VATTANAK

GIANT IBIS OF SAVING WILD COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALEX BUTHA

The Wild in Style collection, La CHHOUK has collaborated with Sovrin Magazine in a mission of protecting wildlife to make dresses that are inspired by 6 endangered and danger wild animals in Cambodia such as Sarus Crane, Giant Ibis, Soft Shell Turtle, Irrawaddy Dolphin, Giant Catfish and Kouprey. As we already see most of wildlife in Cambodia have been tortured, killed, traded and their habitats are destroyed by human acts with no mercy as well as it is all about the pollution problem that give a strong effect to their living for example like the action of throwing trash into the river that lead the fish to dead like giant catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin. Along with these reasons, that is why they try to organize a mission to shock the audiences to protect those wildlife by the love in case that they would not be exist like Kouprey that is the national symbol of Cambodia.

Through this collection which represent 6 wildlife that they use out of recycled material like rice sack, plastic bag, cement sack, box, plastic cup, newspaper and many more materials to make a new things in fashion design by a great concept to struggle to preserve the environment like they try to protect the wildlife through these works.

For the whole collection, La CHHOUK got a masterpiece dress called Neang Ousaphy that they inspired by Kouprey as a national costume of Miss Earth Cambodia 2017 to join Miss Earth

competition in Philippines. This national costume made from recycled materials such as disc, bottle cap, coffee sack and stuff as a concept because they want to showcase their commitment to protect wildlife and environment that would be perfect for the competition of Miss Earth 2017 through the main goal of the environment education program.

In fact, this costume is associated with Khmer identity that La CHHOUK inspire from Kouprey and they have added some stuff of Khmer dance accessories such as So Rong Kor, Ksae Chiang etc. Along the name of Neang Ousaphy means “the queen of the cow” according to the word “ousap or ousaphreach” means “the king of the cow”.

Moreover, when the model catwalk with this costume, you would hear the bell sounds like when the cow walks on the way with its bell, as well as it is a boost to the audience.

Lastly, La CHHOUK hope this national costume would present Cambodia to the world through Miss Earth competition.

Through these works and productions, La CHHOUK has already worked with many organizations of charity events, LGBTQ rights events, environmental events, fashion exchange, volunteering events competitions and stuff including the event called Keep Bangkok Clean that was organized by Three Heart Foundation, Saving

Wild that was organized by WWF “World Wildlife Fund” and Tiger Beer, United Nation Day that was organized by United Nation Cambodia, Fashion Exchange that was organized by the Royal University of Fine Arts in Cambodia and Bunka Fashion College of Japan as well as they have worked with other organizations and companies like Coca-Cola, PSE “Pour un Sourire d’Enfant” and stuff.

To sum up their impact during all these works, they highly hope that all the LGBTQ people could come out for who they are more than they used to then people would accept their rights, give much value to them, treat them well as they are super powerful to the world and discrimination would not exist afterwards. Among other things, La CHHOUK aims to inspire people to love trash and treat it like a treasure gold to collect them then reuse it or transfer into other products that people could use or sell for their business so that they could reduce the amount of waste also they aspire to be a source of recycled product tutorial for people to follow then they hope those mans would be influenced by the way they share how to recycle trash to other things else including some knowledge about waste consequently they would share those activities by one person to another ones.

Eventually, La CHHOUK hopes all the artworks that they made would get a strong support internationally plus they always looking for new opportunities and connections to grow their impact and spread around the world, to learn new things and collaborate with event organizers in addition to improve their plan to save the world, preserve the art to be alive and support the LGBTQ people.

DISCOVER MORE Facebook: @LaCHHOUKofficial Instagram: @lachhouk

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JOHAN P. JONSSON

Art talk between Johan P. Jonsson and art critic Therese Engström A figure equals an expression - that is how the sculptures of Johan P. Jonsson appears. His figures are full feeling; man caught in a moment when he is stripped of politeness, presentability, dissimulation. Forged and jointed by all sorts of materials and objects a frail human form, often miserable, vulnerable to life’s pain, steps out and presents itself. Sometimes the sculpture consists of two or more characters, enrolled in some form of relationship to each other, yet there is seldom any expression of spirit of community, each figure carries its own existential loneliness.

When we look at the figure we get a glimpse of a story, we can imagine a drama or trauma; something is going on, or has happened, outside the boundaries of the sculpture, and we see only its effects.

3X WHISPER

When I told Johan that I often see loneliness, sadness and desolateness in his sculptures, he replies that he too sees it, and continues: “I also find this much more interesting, and that is the case for me in art, music, literature: the people who interest me are almost exclusively people who do not fit together properly. Friction creates tension and therefore is a person who is not homogeneous a lot more interesting. He adds: “But it need not be such a person completely” and explains what he means by talking about how he once saw one of his godchildren gallop around the way nine-yearolds do. Suddenly, struck by a thought, she halted and started to move shrunken, seemingly completely enclosed within herself.

That attitude of the child remained in Johan’s head and he thinks he can now see exactly that posture in one of his sculptures. “So, the sculpture is not a depiction of a particular person, or a reflection of how a person is at all times, or

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show a certain type of people who are always depressed or being outcasts of society - it could be that I have borrowed only a certain emotional state.”

I know that Johan is working hard and disciplined and that he is hard on himself when it comes to his own art. With most of the sculptures he makes, there’s an increasing discontent over time and the sculptures are taken apart so that the material can be reused and become new sculptures. He does not in any way make it easy for himself and when I ask him about what it is that drives him in his work and makes him continue, despite all efforts, he replies: “I’ve always felt that I suffer from some kind of compulsive curiosity that drives me and forces me forward; so it’s kind of an exploration, kind of a search I’m persuing. This forced movement forward is both good and bad: of course it also makes you dissatisfied with almost everything you do. Instead of stopping, I’m being forced forward, somewhat against my own will sometimes it would surely feel damn good not to have to continue on this route.” “You’re a bit at the mercy of this curiosity?” I ask and Johan replies, “Yes, I guess that is a good way of putting it.”

This compulsive motion forward, a restless wandering where nothing is constant except the moving itself, also characterizes Johan’s sculptures. Johan tells me that Ahasver -“the wandering Jew”, the man who according to legend denied Jesus a rest outside his house on Jesus’s walk to Golgotha, and who Jesus therefore cursed to forever wander - is somewhat a keynote in his work. Johan continues: “Tonus is also such a keyword, which has always existed in the background. It’s not that I consciously work with these two concepts and try to portray them in any way, but they seem to come back to me over and over. I see tonus as a kind of muscle strain

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THE QUE I

even at rest, as the tension and preparedness that exists in the muscles so that they can start quickly from a resting state. It is motion stuck in a standstill! So even if my figures at the moment is stationary, there is a defense readiness and a movement they’re on their way.”

We’re looking at the sculpture The Que and we talk about it and about how Johan work. When he began working with the sculpture

he had no picture in his head of what it would look like, with its two waiting figures: His working process is more of a search for what it is that works. “Sometimes I rely on chance, too,” Johan says, “it is something that I’ve used on and off for quite a few years now, to resolve problems and to force myself to think in new ways. For example, I could use a dice to decide that I have to add one, two, or more figures to the sculpture and then I’m forced to somehow

solve that problem. I sometimes use other forms of randomness.

On my workbench I have all sorts of scrap and sometimes I just pick an item randomly which then have to be part of the sculpture - just to force a character to take a new direction.” “So that can be for example a piece of a folding rule or a nut?” I ask. “Yeah, pretty much anything... a tail light for a car... It doesn’t always work, but sometimes, every now and then, it turns out right. And at other times it has given birth to an idea that lets me continue experimenting...”

I return to using The Que as an example and asks: “So this loneliness and desolation which I believe are characteristic of these two figures, even if they stand together, were not something you specifically struggled to portray?”

Johan replies, “I actually never struggle to portray anything. That’s simply not the way I work.”

One of the reasons we are talking about The Que is that it is one of few sculptures that Johan still feels okey with even now when some time has passed. He says that he, when he looks back, can see a direction in what he does and he says about The Que: “Somehow... this piece sums up what I have long tried to do. This is what I’ve been looking for for years, when it comes to expression, theme, materials, and the mixture of materials.” Johan also mentions an older sculpture, The Game, who some years ago was sold at the gallery in Oslo, as a piece of work he actually still feels happy with: “It has that raw, primitive quality that I am after. It is the least processed of the sculptures that have made it through the final sorting out. The materials are very raw and shapes, expressions, faces are very incomplete, non-human.

It is almost an intermediate stage between human and animal, when it comes to faces and bodies. So both The Que and The Game are

somewhat key works. At least they’re important checkpoints along the road.”

being decoration, interior design, a nice touch of color that matches the couch.”

Johan continues to talk about his development and his artistic search, that his work is aimed at reaching what he terms the “basic figures”, the ones he has always known that he has within himself, how he constantly struggles to get them out of the material and how much closer he has gotten.

“It’s a bit strange, because when I made my first sculptures I saw the figures I am doing nowadays in those clumsy, almost half abstract shapes; it’s just that I couldn’t pull them out. But it’s towards this I’ve been heading all the time.” I say that I think his expression is more stripped-down these days, I think that a few years ago he used more of entire items in his sculptures.

Johan agrees and says he now uses less of whole items because he cannot make it work, it expresses something he can’t stand for. I ask if the objects themselves then steals too much attention and Johan replies, “Yes, the history of those items then haunts my sculptures, people easily see it as some sort of clever recycling of those objects, and that is simply not what I’m trying to do.” He is however careful to point out: “But my interest is always this mix of materials and objects, using several different ones and get it to work.”

Johan wants his art to affect people. He sees a problem in contemporary art, especially the conceptual art, which he believes is too often created out of a desire to achieve a sensation in the viewer, something was created to give a striking impression and then, afterwards, the reasons for it was thought out, it is given an intellectual superstructure. It is art that leaves no lasting impression in the viewer: “It is ... entertainment really, it’s there to produce kicks. There’s contact for like two seconds, and you think, then, almost as a factual finding that that was quite awesome. And that’s all there is to it. It is so intellectualized that there is no connection to the emotions.” I say: “You do quite the opposite, one could say, a kind of anti-intellectual art.” “Yes,” Johan replies, “it’s based on emotions.”

He continues: “I reckon that the only thing I can do, is to channel what I do through myself, I flush the working process, or ideas, or the cretive process in so concentrated a form as possible, through myself, and what comes out is something that reflects me, in one way or another. The only way to do something that can affect another person - is to do something that is me.”

Many times during our conversation, Johan says he’s looking for “that raw quality and energy”. He shows a sculpture that he has begun to see a lot of shortcomings in, “especially in the way it’s handcrafted”, and points out, among other things, a foot that he believes should be done in a different way. But he hesitates, the expression he strives for is lost if he overelaborates, it’s the defects that yield the energy he is looking for and he says: “There is always a fear that it will turn out too decorative, that it will lose this raw, primitive.

If it gets lost the sculpture risks

The conversation between Johan and me has lasted long. It is challenging to capture in words and formulate internal processes and towards the end we’re both a bit tired. Therefore, a fairly resolute statement of Johan will constitute the final words in this portrayal of his art: “Actually it’s quite prosaic: it is a hard damn work, for several years, where I feel that there is a line which starts at one point and which will continue as long as it continues. Quite simply.”

DISCOVER MORE www.byjohan.se

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COLIN PENNOCK

COLIN PENNOCK

Past Voices A serene landscape comes with baggage.

Standing viewing any landscape I often imagine all that have lived there and how they have left their mark or a sense of them exists, maybe in a spiritual way. The landscape’s tapestry is not just about what is there now but what has been there.

Painting allows me to reflect on my life and experience. As I begin to work I see things in the paint and I follow it. I am reminded of a place, and my emotions connected to that place.

Past experience and memories are like Past Voices of departed loved ones in my mind and speak to me in quiet moments.

Coast Run is a painting about my memory of a shared journey with my father on a coastal road trip.

Artist Statement - Colin Pennock

“The more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the more easily is one able to judge it, and the whole world as well, with the spiritual detachment and generosity necessary for true vision,” wrote Edward Said, in one of the best-known passages from his book, Orientalism. “The more easily, too, does one assess oneself and alien cultures with the same combination of intimacy and distance.”

Said’s major theme is the relationship between the cultures of the east and the west, but his observations apply equally as well to those artists who travel from the old world to the new; from places where religious or tribal rivalries are ingrained into daily life, to countries where national identity is still being debated and contested.

Colin Pennock’s current home on the Sunshine Coast is a long way from his birthplace in Northern Ireland but in these semi-abstract seascapes he travels back and forth.

Confronted by the rocks and waves of sunny Queensland Pennock thinks of that cold, bleak – but still beautiful coastline he left behind.

PENNOCK AT HIS STUDIO IN THE NOOSA HINTERLAND, QUEENSLAND

In leaving Ireland Pennock has tried to shed those days he spent working as a policeman during ‘the Troubles’. In 1981, when Pennock joined the force at the age of 17, Bobby Sands died in a prison hunger strike, a martyr to the cause of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Bombs were exploded across Northern Ireland and soldiers killed in PIRA ambushes. In the following years the violence spread to London, and even to the Tory party conference in Brighton.

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It was a frightening time to be a policeman, as the PIRA had declared that anyone who worked with the security forces would be treated as a traitor. The bombings, assassinations and ambushes would continue until 1998, when a fragile peace agreement was signed.

Long before this, Pennock, had decamped to London where he would attend St. Martin’s School of Art from 1985-89. His admission came on the basis of sketches he had made while on patrol, looking for bombs or snipers.

By the time he left Northern Ireland Pennock had seen his share of death and destruction, fear and brutality. Drawing was a way of escaping the tensions of life on the frontline, an attempt to make pictorial sense of a land torn apart by sectarian violence. These memories have remained with him wherever he has gone, subtly influencing his work.

Living in the Noosa hinterland Pennock has been described as a recluse. While his nomadic life and need for solitude has been nowhere as extreme as that of Ian Fairweather, who spent his last years as a hermit on Bribie Island, he shares the same desire to be away from the distractions of society. Like Fairweather, Pennock flirts with abstraction but never abandons the figurative element.

These turbulent views of the sea are as much about the act of painting as the subject. Pennock piles on the paint with savage thrusts of the palette knife, layer upon layer, building up a dense, variegated surface. Somewhere behind the heavily worked foregrounds, which record each glimmer of light with a solid dab of oil paint, lie the artist’s memories of Ireland. Those waves may be beating against the shores of Queensland but the paintings inhabit two contrary worlds.

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COAST RUN

This may not be obvious to the viewer but when we learn a little more about Pennock’s approach it becomes clear that his seascapes are not simply impressionistic transcriptions of nature. Like the ocean itself there are surfaces and depths. The ferocious energy with which the paint has been applied testifies to the artist’s emotional investment in the work.

There is a cathartic aspect to these pictures as Pennock wavers between moment and memory.

He says that the painting Coast Run recalls a journey he took with his father, and one assumes every work has a similar personal association. What we see, however, is only the objective correlative - to use T.S.Eliot’s term for “the formula of that particular emotion” 2 the poet wants to evoke in each reader’s mind.

Ut pictura poesis – in painting as in poetry. The artist doesn’t present his audience with concrete propositions but with open-ended suggestions. The content of a work may remain private without lessening our appreciation. We

can feel the emotion in a picture without knowing the specific cause.

It’s very similar to music, which plays on our emotions without the use of words or images. For instance, it’s not surprising to learn that La mer, Debussy’s symphonic work devoted to the ocean, was composed at a time of great personal upheaval. For Pennock these seascapes represent a different stage of life - when the traumas of the past have begun to recede in diminuendo to the horizon.

John McDonald Art Critic, The Sydney Morning Herald DISCOVER MORE www.arthousegallery.com.au Artworks courtesy of Arthouse Gallery.

Photographer: William Mansfield Represented by Serena Morton in London Arthouse Gallery in New South Wales Scott Livesey Galleries in Victoria

INSTALL MOCK UP

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