Tag Archives: Art

Complicit

"Complicit l"  - abstract monoprint by David Smith

“Complicit l”
Plant extract stains on Snowdon Cartridge 59cm x 84cm

I have been working on this series since the turn of the year. They are, perhaps, the most political works I have ever made. I have always tried to lead an ethically decent life: I’ve campaigned on ecological issues, been on marches, try to buy locally, gardened organically and yet I rarely openly touch on these issues in my work. In my collages and Tidelines work I have certainly hinted at my anger and despair at the way we dump things in the oceans and my titles for pictures give the game away, but this is the first time I have started to explore my conflicted feelings about our consumerism and it’s intertwining with a capitalist system which is clearly breaking society and our environment. At last, everyone seems to be talking about the scourge of plastics, a dream gone wrong, and what we can do to cut down on our use of it before it totally chokes life here on the planet. This has encouraged me to deeply look again at what I can do to use less of the things that damage our world and I find that it is almost impossible to be free of complicity.

So I am starting from the standpoint of a favourite quote from Beth Orton and am trying to  “…learn the trick to turn|What’s not so pretty|Into something more beautiful”. I will be writing more about the series and the story behind these monoprints, but it needs a clearer mind before I do.

"Complicit l"  - abstract monoprint of plant extract stains

“Complicit l” (detail)
Plant extract stains on Snowdon Cartridge 59cm x 84cm

Art-as-art, Art-as-art, Yeah!

"Art-as-art, Art-as-art, Yeah!" large abstract drawing by David Smith

“Art-as-art, Art-as-art, Yeah!”
Pencil on Snowdon cartridge 59cm x 84cm

The title of this piece comes from Andrew Hamilton’s “For People Who Like Art” which I was listening to as I finished it off. The words of Hamilton’s piece are taken from Ad Reinhardt’s “25 Lines of Words on Art Statement” so my title is quoting a quote. I have been really caught by his music and I had already started work on an another piece (still in progress) inspired by though not trying to represent this composition, which I am calling “For Musicians Who Like Art”. Hamilton has a number of works titled, “For…” which echos some of the titles of another composer I admire, Morton Feldman. Notably, Feldman wrote “For Philip Guston” and “For Franz Kline” among other work about art or artists. So my title, “For Musicians Who Like Art”, is an echo of an echo. I will post more about this when i have finished it and have got some decent photographs. Andrew Hamilton kindly sent me the score of the piece and I am thinking about doing more work directly related to his music. (I also have it in mind to do some work responding to Meredith Monk’s work!)

If you want to hear my favourite recording of Hamilton’s “For People Who Like Art” by Crash Ensemble you can do so on SoundCloud

Rodwell Tunnel Mural

Poster advertising the exhibition of entries to the Rodwell Tunnel mural competition

Rodwell Tunnel Mural Exhibition Poster

I was pleased to be asked to be a judge for this, along with Liz Wright and Peter Sheridan. The prize-giving exhibition revealing the winning design for the proposed tunnel mural will be held at the STEPS Club For Young People, Weymouth, on Friday 23rd March.

The aim of all this is to improve an eyesore and problem area on the Rodwell Trail with a community project. The plan now is to train a group of local young people to support Peter Sheridan, the artist hired to transfer and develop the winning design as a stunning feature along the Rodwell Trail, hopefully attracting more people to the area.  The tunnel painting will be carried out during three weeks this August and hopefully it will bring a lot of people together in Weymouth and attract a lot of tourist and media attention.

More added to the “X Marks The Spot” series

More Dirty Work At The Crossroads - contemporary, abstract drawing by David Smith

More Dirty Work At The Crossroads
Graphite, ink and collage 59cm x 84Cm

I have been continuing working on my X Marks The Spot series which started at the end of the 50 Collages Before Christmas project I did last year. The last one I posted, X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet took the work into the area of conflict, confusion and misdirection, so it is no surprise that I continued the theme when asked to exhibit at The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, in Art On Conflict to tie in with Jenny Holzer’s SOFTER installation at Blenheim Palace.

The three pieces here will accompany X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet to Woodstock in what I am sure will be a fascinating and provoking exhibition.

Forget Not The Righteous Tsunami Of Hokusai - contemporary drawing by David Smith

Forget Not The Righteous Tsunami Of Hokusai
Graphite, acrylic & collage on Snowdon cartridge paper 59cm x 84cm

At Cross Purposes - contemporary drawing by David Smith

At Cross Purposes
Erased graphite, Magic Tape and acrylic on Snowdon cartridge paper 59cm x 84cm

 

X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet

"X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet" abstract drawing by David Smith

“X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet “
Erased graphite, Magic Tape and stickers on Snowdon cartridge paper 59cm x 84cm

After a period when I could not work on large drawings because of a bad back, I am now back on form and have been working on a strand of the erasure work I began during my 50 Collages Before Christmas project.

Detail from "X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet" abstract drawing by David Smith

“X Marks The Spot Where We Buried The Hatchet” – detail
Erased graphite, Magic Tape and stickers on Snowdon cartridge paper 59cm x 84cm

Three shows in Bath

"Triple Double - Nothing Lost On Me" (detail) - drawing by David Smith in graphite, Inktense pencil and acrylic on paper

“Triple Double – Nothing Lost On Me”
Graphite, Inktense pencil and acrylic on paper 560mm × 760mm

I am delighted to be showing work in three places in Bath. The work above, “Triple Double – Nothing Lost On Me”, was selected for the Bath Society of Artists Open Exhibition and is on display in excellent company at the Victoria Art Gallery until 15th July 2017. It’s a show that is well worth a look.

I was also selected for the Bath Open at 44AD, part of the Fringe Art Bath festival, where I am showing another erased/redacted work, “Are We Nearly There Yet”. That show finishes on Sunday 11th June. There are lots of very interesting shows, installations, performances and events on in Bath during FAB.

"Are We Nearly There Yet" - drawing by David Smith in ink and acrylic on paper

“Are We Nearly There Yet”
ink and acrylic on paper 560mm × 760mm

I am also represented in the slimmed-down version of “The Transformed Landscape” exhibition that was at The Brewhouse, Taunton, Somerset earlier in the year, which has now transferred to the Norman Foster-designed Circle Hospital, which has a regular programme of exhibitions, until December 2017.

"Cogden Tideline" mixed media on paper by David Smith

“Cogden Tideline”
Collage, watercolour and jetsam on Saunders Waterford Paper 559mm × 762mm

50 Collages Before Christmas – an update

Collage by David Smith

“Making Up For Lost Time”
Collage: paper and photographic elements on card

I have been merrily working away at this project in a measured kind of way. It has been interesting to work with collage in a much bigger way than I have ever done before with some at A1 and one almost A0, though most are around the 50cm x 50cm mark. I have found that some have taken much more time than I ever could have imagined – just physically gluing and trimming takes proportionately longer to ensure everything is just right.

The reason I chose to do the project was to give me a focus. Having been out of the studio for a while I was stacked up with ideas and didn’t want to be flip-flopping about. Well that didn’t work: the project is spawning more ideas than ever and it’s difficult to focus on any of it.

However, I am happy with the direction things are going and I have quite a few pieces on the go and working well (plus a few that don’t want to go the way I hoped!) I have been blogging about the process on a-n so you can read more about it there. Below are some of the collages to date. I’ll create a page with all of them when the project is complete.

Detail of abstract minimalist collage & drawing by David Smith

Abstract Drawings For Dummies I: The Tiny Section of My Soul

Abstract minimalist collage & drawing by David Smith

“Abstract Drawings for Dummies I The Tiny Section of My Soul”
Collage, ink, erased graphite, print and acrylic on Snowdon cartridge 59cm x 84cm

This piece, Abstract Drawings For Dummies I: The Tiny Section of My Soul marks the start of two series of work: Abstract Drawings For Dummies and 50 Collages Before Christmas. I had been adding small sections of collage into my erasure and redaction drawings and decided to include text – something I did quite a bit in drawings 45 years ago (including erasing the words and writing what I had done!) and occasionally more recently during my #Collage 365 and #Letter365 projects. I have always had a leaning towards the surreal and absurd with a bit of tongue-in-cheek conceptual thrown in. Influences from cartoons and illustrations, exploded diagrams and information boards, maps and instruction books and much, much more form a lattice of lunacy in my brain. Lay on to this the soft spot I have for Frank Zappa, Bonzo Dog, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and other slightly odd (and some other decidedly, very odd) music it is not surprising this kind of thing will surface in my work from time to time. The series title Abstract Drawings For Dummies obviously refers to the hugely successful series of “how to” books. The books are, in my experience, well-written and of a high standard and the use of “for dummies” is in no way demeaning or patronising. By using “Dummies” the publishers are signalling to ordinary people they don’t need to feel threatened by experts and that everyone is quite capable of attaining a working knowledge of the subject of the book. Most abstract artists are continually asked to explain what their work is about and during my #Letter365 project where the artwork was sealed unseen into an envelope and sold “blind” I was particularly strongly questioned. At that time I devised a series of works that might help people find a way into art they were not readily comfortable with: works which have instructions, directions and explanations as part of the composition. This new series is planned towards the realisation of that idea. It also features some of the convoluted workings of my brain which had a small opportunity for expression, sometimes quite wittily, on the envelopes of #Letter365.

As I was clearly fired up to do all manner of work I chose the moment of completing this piece to commit to 50 Collages Before Christmas too.

You Didn’t Try To Call Me

"You Didn't Try To Call Me" - Abstract collage by David Smith

“You Didn’t Try To Call Me”
Photographs, cardboard and acrylic on canvas 50cm x 50cm

The sixth offering in 50 Collages Before Christmas features more of my photographs of grids: some more from Bruce Nauman’s installation at the Hamberger Bahnhof, Berlin and some from boarded-up shopfronts in Bristol. Sometimes it is difficult to stick down collage elements in the precise positions so everything aligns exactly as I want but everything got measured, cut and positioned perfectly almost effortlessly. The photo has a little shine on the left which makes it difficult to see the small dotted marks on the photo which mimic the perforations in the cardboard – my favourite bit, except perhaps for the section centre left which delights my eye with its ever-so-slightly trompe l’oeil misleading.

You Were Meant To Follow The Plan

"You Were Meant To Follow The Plan" Abstract collage by David Smith - acrylic & cardboard on canvas

“You Were Meant To Follow The Plan”
Acrylic & cardboard on canvas 50cm x50cm

Number 5 of 50 Collages before Christmas is You Were Meant To Follow The Plan was nearly the first to be done but I could never stick to the plan!

"You Were Meant To Follow The Plan" detail of abstract collage by David Smith - acrylic & cardboard on canvas

“You Were Meant To Follow The Plan” (detail)
Acrylic & cardboard on canvas 50cm x50cm