2 A4 pencil drawings from the series 'Art Dads' for an unrealisable film.
ART DADS
My unrealisable idea would be to go back in time and be the son of different ‘art dads’. This would consist of me being filmed doing various father and son activities including cowboys and Indians with William Burroughs; a game of cards such as ‘snap’ with Francis Bacon; football with Keith Richards; fishing on the weekend with Quentin Crisp; boxing and self defence with James Brown; Kung Fu with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry; cricket or rounders with Syd Barrett; chess lessons with Marcel Duchamp; marshmallow toasting on a camp fire with Andy Warhol and bedtime stories with Captain Beefheart
The idea is unrealisable firstly because they are all no longer alive and even if they were, it’s unlikely any of them would have been interested in playing my father. However in a sense I feel more akin to them than my biological father in that they have greatly influenced my thinking and creative development. They have been role models and father figures to me.
In the drawings I have made, I am seeking out protection from these ‘proxy’ father figures and in real life I also seek protection from them in the form of the inspiration I receive from their example. In a sense artists are always orphans in ‘normal’ society until they discover their own guardians in their relevant sphere of interest. Art itself also offers protection against the blunt reality of the physical world which we enter into in a random way, finding ourselves with parents with whom we share flesh, blood and genetics and little else,
All of my work deals with identity, specifically my own. I usually work ‘by proxy’ taking dialogue and imagery from these external influences and recontextualising them to suit my own purposes. It’s a form of self-portraiture created through other people with or without their consent, in this instance forcing them into a father-son rapport as we are forced into this relationship in real life.
2 A4 pencil drawings from the series 'Art Dads' for an unrealisable film.
ART DADS
My unrealisable idea would be to go back in time and be the son of different ‘art dads’. This would consist of me being filmed doing various father and son activities including cowboys and Indians with William Burroughs; a game of cards such as ‘snap’ with Francis Bacon; football with Keith Richards; fishing on the weekend with Quentin Crisp; boxing and self defence with James Brown; Kung Fu with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry; cricket or rounders with Syd Barrett; chess lessons with Marcel Duchamp; marshmallow toasting on a camp fire with Andy Warhol and bedtime stories with Captain Beefheart
The idea is unrealisable firstly because they are all no longer alive and even if they were, it’s unlikely any of them would have been interested in playing my father. However in a sense I feel more akin to them than my biological father in that they have greatly influenced my thinking and creative development. They have been role models and father figures to me.
In the drawings I have made, I am seeking out protection from these ‘proxy’ father figures and in real life I also seek protection from them in the form of the inspiration I receive from their example. In a sense artists are always orphans in ‘normal’ society until they discover their own guardians in their relevant sphere of interest. Art itself also offers protection against the blunt reality of the physical world which we enter into in a random way, finding ourselves with parents with whom we share flesh, blood and genetics and little else,
All of my work deals with identity, specifically my own. I usually work ‘by proxy’ taking dialogue and imagery from these external influences and recontextualising them to suit my own purposes. It’s a form of self-portraiture created through other people with or without their consent, in this instance forcing them into a father-son rapport as we are forced into this relationship in real life.