Martin bradley Artist

dusun quarterly e-journal of Asian Arts and Culture

special edition

martin bradley

artist

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dusun quarterly e-journal of Asian Arts and Culture

my inspiration Honey by Martin cover martin bradley editor martin bradley email martinabradley@gmail.com Dusun TM dusun is a not for profit publication

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martin bradley

artist 3

northern memory 4

July 2014

Martin Bradley

was born in Clapham, London, lived in East Anglia (England), then Chennai, India, and has resided in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. for over a decade.

Martin gained two diplomas in Art & Design, and Graphic Design from the Colchester School of Art, England and later went on to study philosophy (B.A.Hons) and Masters degrees in Art History & Theory, and in Gallery (exhibition) studies. at the University of Essex, England.

Exhibitions Group Arte digital por la PAZ, Digital Art, Spain 2008 Surrealism Now 2006, Digital Art, Surrealism Now Gallery, W.W.W 2006 Solo Gouache paintings, Library, Walton, England 2005 Correspondences, Digital Art and Photography, Les Livres Gallery, England 2005 Digital Art,Vagabonds Gallery, Ipswich, England, 2005 Eastern Digital Prints, Photographs and images of India, Library, Walton, England 2005 Flora, Flower Photography, Library, Walton, England - 2003 An Eastern Eye, Photographs and Digital representations of India, Curry in a Hurry Restaurant, Colchester, England - 2001 Motorcycle Tank Art, Private Collection jewelers, Colchester, England, 1983 Gouache and Air Brush images, Trinity Galleries, Colchester, England 1982

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inside

9 22 50 82

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art in the age of mechanical reproduction

floral dance

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ikat tiga satu udang

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a penchant for phantasy

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modern - isms

illustrations

gouache paintings

it takes two, sometime three 7

glamour of the night 8

art in the age of mechanical reproduction

i woz ‘ere 9

twosome 10

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agua air 12

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sunday 14

kampong house Malaysia's rural villages have many legends. If stories are to be believed there are many ghosts, not just supernatural but echoes of tragic stories left behind by families, lovers and unique interactions by rural humanity.

For almost seven years I travelled along rough tracks in my Jeep, taking my camera with me. There were so many wooden kampung houses just left to rot as the previous owners had died, and the younger generations had fled to the towns and cities to make the living they were unable to do in those secreted villages.

All along the kampung dirt tracks, overshadowed by banana and coconut trees there were these dilapidated buildings waiting to fall, covered in flora and immense character. Snakes and insects had made them home in a mosquito filled environment. Termites built hills nearby the small forgotten orchards of rambutan and mango, colourful beetles launched from unkempt torch ginger flowers to land on bushes of pandan.

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floral dance Continuing the series of digital artworks created while Martin was living in rural Malaysia.

He had started using digital layering in Photoshop back in England, some decade and a half ago. By the time he had left England for Malaysia Martin had given up physical painting altogether. It just was not practical to carry bags of gouache colours and paintbrushes around with him.

Digital layering relies on Martin taking many digital photographic images of the countryside around me, often cutting out the main image, by hand, then adding different photographs, in layers and manipulating their density, colour, sometimes erasing parts of the photographs to let other layers show through.

The final image is arrived at in a process similar to abstract painting, in so much as you know, roughly, where you want to end up but anything can, and does, happen along the way. He stresses that ALL the images he uses are taken by himself, not rummaged from the internet. It is important that he is seen as the whole originator of these images, that he has selected the images all the way through the process trying to ascertain the 'essence' of Malaysian rural life, at any one moment in time.

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always leafing never

staying

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batik dance 18

batik new 19

Batik has been a craft form found in Indonesia and Malaysia for centuries. Several decades ago it was elevated to an art form

by Malaysian artists working in this media.

Here Martin translates these batik forms and symbols into digital art.

digital batik 20

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pop modern isms

dylan 22

stranded 23

Pop Modernisms is a digital solution to narratives about ‘digital art’ and popular music. Many of the images in this series make referrence to music, musicians or artists fondly remembered from Martin’s youth.

she’ll tell you what she wants whe she wants it

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viral on the net

en 25

some splash after david 26

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wayward seed 28

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i remember al stewart 30

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a warhol lotta love

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did andy eat yu 33

deserted cities of the heart 34

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a night on the...

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semiotic salves 37

sometimes we see dragons 38

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i’m beginning to see the light 40

mapping her slowly 41

ikan tiga s Martin writes - ‘For nearly seven years I was living in rural Malaysia, two hours away from the capital Kuala Lumpur, in a land of lakes remnants of Tin Mining. During this time I was concerned with capturing the essence of the area in which I was living, the environment and the people.

While much of my work was concerned with the abundance of flowers all year long, and the close proximity of what remains of the jungle, indigenous tribes people, I had become fascinated with trying to depict both the eating habits, and also the leisure activities of many of the local people - Malays and Chinese especially, as there were few Indians close by. The chief leisure activity seemed to be fishing - in the Mining Pool lakes opposite my bungalow house.

Men, and it was mostly men, would arrive at the series of lakes opposite my house early morning, or early evening. It was too hot amidst the sand, to fish during the punishing heat of the day.They would mostly fish for Talipia, which occurred mostly in black, though there were some red ones too. Flowerhorn fish survived there too, though to catch one was a rarity. One enterprising Chinese man would come with a large net, cast it out, then wait and wade into the lake to pull the struggling fish to himself. Another hoisted a flat bottomed boat into the lake and net cast from that.

Ikan means fish in Malay, and Mati death.The image is literally Dead Fish.

I had visited the morning market in the nearest town (Kampar) many times, and was intrigued by the different types of dried fish available.

Over time I bought various types of dried fish, photographed them and set about making those images my own to represent the people and place in which I was living, using Photoshop layers. Each image would have multiple layers of photographs and therefore a composite.’

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satu udang

ikan mati 43

ikan mati dua 44

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ikan mati tiga 46

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udang

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illustrations water buffalo

fondly remembered kampong 50

graphic kampong

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For three years, once a month, Martin created illustrations for The Expat Magazine, Malaysia. They accompanied his page of autobiotravel writing, talking about rural Malaysia. This was to be found as the last page (last word) each issue.

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Comissioned illustration for the front cover of Sharmini Flint’s book The Undone Years, Singapore.

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a penchant for

phantasy

the goddess

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From his early pen and ink drawings for the British Fantasy Society, in the 1970s, Martin has loved fantasy imagery.

Moving into digital painting and drawing has enabled him to work more successfully in this media.

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green man 58

Martin has always had an interest in the folklore of the country of his birth.

The Green Man is central to some of the pre-Christian beliefs. Perhaps due to his dual ancestry - English and Irish, the legends of pagan Briton strike a cord with him. Images of Celtic lore, Celtic knots, images of The Green Man and The Goddess point back to Martin’s days growing up in rural England. An England surrounded by woods, forests, rivers and streams. Flora and fauna enough for a young imagaination to grow into.

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green glade

other times 60

deeper seas

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The Green Man, The Goddess, fables, stories of faerie permeate a romantised Albion

by the river I wept

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dream 63

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sprite

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far away

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green glade

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flora-abunda 68

falling towards the light 69

eye of the beholder 70

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serene artificial breath of inspirati 72

ion

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madonna flowers

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orange flower planet

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wira kampong

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aishwarya

Since Martin’s various journeys to Malaysia, visiting Indian friends there, (beginning in 1981), Martin developed a fondness for Indian ‘Bollywood’ films and their music.

On return from one of these trips he created a large gouache painting of the Indian film star Aishwarya Rai. Later he re-drew that image as a digital artwork, in various guises. Text by Baudelaire

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Give Peas a Chance was exhibited in Spain, at ala Municipal de exposiciones de Torredelcampo -Jaén- (26 march to 11 april 2008) Sala e exposiciones de la Escuela de Arte José Nogué Jaén- (21 to 30 april 2008) Universidad de Jaén (may 2008) Escuela de Arte Gaspar Becerra de Baeza -Jaén- (26 to 30 may 2008) as part of the ARTE DIGITAL POR LA PAZ (Digital Art for Peace) 2008.

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give peas a chance

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a selection of

gouache paintings

Inspired by his various trips to India, and watching the Indian miniaturists working with their fine brushes, Martin bought brushes in Rajastan and began working in gouache (opaque watercolour).

Those years of symbolic and philosophical gouche paintings came to a close when Martin moved first to Chennai, and later to Malaysia, where he settled to work, in earnest, with the new digital media, something he had begun working on in his final years in England.

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serious selfie 83

tamil om

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