ROSE WYLIE PAINTER TO TAKE NOTE OF

Kill Bill (film notes) detail, oil on canvas, 180 x 308cm

Painting these days tends to be dull whilst claiming to be sophisticated and clever, yet the most sophisticated painting in a truly sophisticated sense is that of the artist Rose Wylie.

This week Rose Wylie opened her first UK retrospective “big boys sit in the front” at the new Jerwood Gallery, Hastings. The new Jerwood space is a lovely piece of architecture acknowledging the space around the gallery as well as offering plenty of it inside. On a night which was similarly celebrating the new grand space, I was amused that one of Wylie’s canvases “getting better with water” 2011 was bordering on too large for the gallery. Inching slightly over the crisp white wall almost bursting through the ceiling, the work spared millimetres for the concrete floor. This canvas is made up of four huge panels and it is this type of scale that Wylie enjoys to work, she works on unstretched canvas so it is always an amusing challenge when a gallery space takes on new work.

In the offering at Jerwood are several awesome canvases from a fraction of Wylie’s repertoire. All are large, one gigantic and another “red blue and green twink” spanning nearly 15 meters manoeuvring around the right corner of the gallery. Presented with all of this I still crave yet more works bursting out of an even bigger space.

installation view @ Jerwood  Gallery Hastings, Getting Better With Water 2011, oil on canvas, 366 x 340cm

             
Many writings on Wylie’s work firstly assumes child-like, for me these works are not similar to a child, they only share their sincerity and charm, instead these are works of a painter who knows exactly what they are doing, every brush stroke is knowledge every erasure and daub oozes experience.

Wylie is interested in painting subjects that she finds amusing or intriguing, these are subjects that much of the population would find amusing or intriguing which makes the works within reach, yet it is what she then does with her subjects that forge a new kind of intrigue and amusement. Part of a large series of film paintings is Kill Bill (film notes) 2007.  A memory of a moment in film becomes a new experience when it is transformed into a painting. This is a double canvas measuring 180cm x 308cm and depicts two views of one scene, one view-point being slightly closer than the next. Wylie’s minds eye becomes the new camera and the brush stroke is the new action, two views of the same shot behave like a camera zoom but is equally Wylie’s memory working. At the base of the right side canvas we are drawn into the crown of Uma Thurman’s head, her painted blonde locks every bit as lush as Tarantino’s set pieces. It is not the perspective of Uma or Tarantino, here we have the perspective of the spectator, in this case Rose, but also suggested is the way our mind operates when we think back to a movie moment. We are left with a painting which is flat yet dynamic, robust, shamanic and every bit as exciting as the movie. This painting is as cinematic as painting gets.

These are in no way simple paintings they are full of intellect and complexity, a master who makes it look easy. Wylie challenges the viewer not just to look at a cat but how you can perceive it, interact with its unfathomable body, movement and personality. In the catalogue of her work you can see a series of drawings. One that strikes me is a collage of papers in a wonky fashion. Painted in water colour is “crimson cat drinking” 2010, this is not in anyway how we logically see a cat, unless it had been crushed by a steamroller. This is a painting depicting the affection and the belly chuckle amusement of a certain cat at a certain time.

In 2010 Rose Wylie was selected for an exhibition in Washington DC entitled “Women to Watch”, although well meaning this kind of referral only under values her genius as she is a painter regardless of gender, instead what we have here is a “painter to take note of”. If you are not familiar with the work of Rose Wylie the inaugural show at Jerwood Hastings is the perfect excuse to visit the seaside town and familiarise yourself with possibly the countries most exciting painter.

installation view @ Jerwood Gallery Hastings, Silent Light (film notes) 2008, oil on canvas, 183 x 366cm

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2011

I opened this up to celebrate the Hackney Wicked Festival, although the Wicked was pretty bad the drink made it all the better.
On the nose wafts of heather and grass, followed by a sweet smoke. first creamy over the tongue, when it glides down vanilla is replaced by strong medicinial TCP and bandages, quite dry finish with a hint of bitter melon at the end. I wasn't sure at first, quite dry but I grew to love this expression and it gets sweeter with every mouthful, very agreeable for an 8 year old.

Driller Killer Remake?

There has been much speculation that there is going to be a remake of the great Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer. What a shame in the most pointless fashion to take a movie which is just brilliant for it's low budget, heavy acting, distorted sound, grinding sound FX  and drawn out monologues then bring it into the digital age. Possibly a disasterous idea, until my wife said she wanted to make a remake of Driller Killer. Now that's an idea! Especially as I get to play the lead as Reno - now I am excited!
We will make a autobiographical account of the film and shoot it straight to VHS, a nice nod to the video nasty fiasco. It is set in E2 London and will feature my own artwork as well as the real life difficulties of living in a communual environment with other so called creatives. It is a no budget film with people pretty much playing themselves.
Driller Killer E2 will be a smart blend of reality and fantasy addressing the issues that a struggling artist encounters today - as like Reno when the anxieties of never becoming successful become so torturous it feels like a maniac drilling into your brain. AAAAAGHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!

WATER

Yes it has been a while since I last blogged; that is because I have been drinking way too much booze, going out to private views, gate crashing expensive parties, beaten up by friends and generally being hung over, bruised and abused. Well That's it folks, I am quite fed up with this lifestyle - it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere, but hey I've tried it out for a very long time.
So my drink of the week this week is WATER.
I'M GOING CLEAN LIKE CHARLIE SHEEN!

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Liam Scully’s Spring Mackerel Spaghetti:

Serves one

Makes a great lunch in 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Salt and pepper

Sliver of scotch bonnet chilli, chopped

3 x garlic cloves, crushed

1 x medium Courgette, chopped

Half a small white onion, chopped

1 generous pinch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 generous pinch of dill, chopped

1 generous pinch of coriander, chopped

Knob of butter

Splash of white wine vinegar

1 tbsp good olive oil

1 fillet of mackerel

Wholemeal Spaghetti

Tsp Salt

Method:

Bring water to boil, meanwhile prepare ingredients and heat olive oil in pan, add Courgettes, garlic, onion, chilli, salt, vinegar and pepper to pan, fry until soft but not brown,  add herbs and a knob of butter stirring in .

Remove from heat and blitz ingredients with a blender until rough, leave aside and add pasta to boiling water.

When pasta is cooked al dente drain then return to pan before adding the puree to pasta, add a drizzle of good olive oil, mix up well and serve piping hot on warm plates. Dress with the mackerel fillet and some Parmesan shavings, season.

Great!

Why can't I go to Rome?

Another yet failed proposal was my application for the Abbey Painting Scholarship in Rome. Maybe I don't fit the criteria for Rome, perhaps they think my paintings are shit, do I not know the right people? or it could be that my proposal read as ridiculous. Like many others I received a flimsy photocopied piece of paper sealed in my own self addressed envelope. It read something like the usual bollocks - unfortunately on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful due to the high volume and high quality and all that high crap, basically you are rubbish! Well I am not rubbish I am brilliant! So at least give me the decency of writing the rejection on nice paper; i mean I did pay £25.00! of which I do not have! you said around 90 applicants got rejected that is 90 sheets of nice paper at a cost of about £4.00 when they paid a total of £2'250 - you still get £2'246!
Anyway take a look at my proposal and see if I deserved a rejection on a decent piece of paper.

Abbey Scholorship in Painting Rome Rejected Proposal

Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads where he handed over his guitar; the devil tuned his guitar, played a few licks and returned it to Johnson. In exchange for his soul Johnson became one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

In the movie There Will Be Blood, Daniel Plainview needs to get an oil pipe through someone’s land. It is explained by the landowner that this can only happen on the condition Plainview surrenders to the local church, where he suffers a humiliating baptism by the bizarre preacher Eli Sunday. This secures his final Hurdle of obtaining an ocean full of oil thus reaping riches beyond his wildest dreams.

As a child I remember my father who lived away asking my protestant mother to have me baptised and send me to catholic school. These requests fell on deaf ears and I went through Church of England school and I never received a christening. Until recently this never seemed a priority.

10 year after my fathers passing and in light of this project I wish to fulfil my late father’s wishes. It is on this Rome Scholarship that I wish to become baptised and build a body of painting in response to this enlightenment. My baptism in Rome will empower my work in ways

I cannot yet foresee. Through partaking in this ritualistic experience alongside the most astonishing religious art anywhere in the world - I will be sure to undertake an incredible body of work.

My plans for Rome are to utterly immerse myself in the city and its practices. I am eager to be hypnotised by the scent of frankincense and invigorated by the sound of church bells. Here I will learn the language, comb the archives and walk the streets absorbing the historic, religious and artistic power of the eternal city.  

Caravaggio transcended all religious painting that went before him. He used the streets, real people and flesh to realise his astounding work. 400 years on and as a promising painter I am interested where religious painting can go now? Can one still produce masterpieces in the light of religion? With dwindling church numbers can this type of painting still be relevant? Or should it be left to the outsider artist (Howard Finster, Reverend Jesse Howard)? The Abbey Awards Scholarship is the perfect opportunity for me to ask these questions and investigate in depth the relevance of religious painting beyond 2011.

Embarking on this exploration I hope to open up new passages of painting, threading my own sensibility, outsider art with that of the masters. The studio and financial freedom will enable me to commit to this project on a most intense level. It is this concentrated 9 months that will conclude my desire to make great painting.

Exhibition Proposal

Mountain of the Cannibal God/Goddess!

This promises to be a multi-faceted show, celebrating Sergio Martino’s 1978 classic, Mountain of The Cannibal God, starring the beautiful Ursula Andress.

Accompanied by an 80’s synth soundtrack, two aspiring white artists (Simon Ould and Liam Scully) and a gorgeous blonde/supermodel (yet to be announced) journey into the dark and difficult terrain of Papa New Guinea, hoping to find truth. The destination is a mountain that imposes itself on the lush landscape. The cannibal natives say the mountain is cursed and guard it with their lives; the difficulty will be avoiding these savages and making it to the top.

MOCG questions where savagery lies. White explorers exploiting natives for their resourses, or natives with their cannibalistic practices? Simon and Liam use the movie as a metaphor to question where exploitation resides in our contemporary creative landscape. Everyone wants to see Ursula Andress undressed. She gets paid. The people who pay their money are the stupid young people who give a lot of money to Oxfam. Half the Oxfam money goes to the wealthy young white people. Diamonds and pearls and platform shoes in the jungle, that’s the power of it. Let’s give it to Ingrid tonight. It’s a good jungle of thought. It’s something to go on. Shall we change the font to jungle font? This looks like it’s from the Foreign Office. Stop.

Expect Mountain of the Cannibal God/ Goddess to serve up a show of, sex, death, fashion, masks, bamboo, affordable art, jewellery, Goldman Sachs, weapons, politics, Terry Richardson, nudity, midgets, cannibalism, cardboard, Prada, Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, rotting flesh, cutlasses, optimistic synth soundtracks, POP, PCP, Gaffa tape, Vogue, I.D., Dazed and Confused, crystal maze, man traps, and much more…