Richard Grayson

Lecture Notes:

• 1998 Curator, AEAF

• Series of oil paintings, "Things I Don't Understand" - How do we build understandings? How do we build worlds? - Concepts of the real
• Text in the canvas - explorations of space - receding into background, angles of placement

• Currently - contemporary art something for incredibly rich people to buy
• Something that you buy - consume the idea that art can change the world

• The Current Inability to construct a Viable Alternative to Global Capitalism - red, greeny black textured background 
• Ways of the World's End - Christ Scientists, Zeta talk - end of the world only exists in language
• Spiralling texts of prophesies - disappearance into a void
• David Berg - leader of The Family (Children of God) - book of Revelation mixed with Science Fiction
• Anti-Christ

• World's In Collision - time of counter-culture - 1960s and 70s
• Benedict Drew - analogue and digital, post-it notes and projectors
• Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige - Artist film makers - refuse to show films in art galleries, show them instead in cinemas - CACSA in Parkside, carpet of a stamp commemorating first Lebanese rocket in space
• Susan Hiller, Channels - transmits voices from archive of people's near-death experiences, analogue technology
• Paul Laffoley - trained as architect and classicist - employed by Andy Warhol to watch television between midnight and 6am - hours of snow effect. Ideas of mapping? Possibilities of progress and transcendence (in robots!)
• Ra di Martino - abandoned Star Wars sets in North Africa - being pillaged by locals e.g. to build goat shelters - archaeology
• Katie Paterson - travelling lunar rock - "Second Moon", very small moon in very small orbit
• Fred Tomaselli - painter - layers of resin - luminosity - makes work out of his hobbies: bird watching, drugs, music - "interventions" using front page of New York Times
• Artur Zmijewski - noise of political and social motion - simultaneously played demonstrations and protests

Richard Grayson, Negative Space (Things I don't Understand), 2000, oil on canvas, 203 x 168 cm

Richard Grayson, Negative Space (Things I don't Understand), 2000, oil on canvas, 203 x 168 cm

Richard Grayson, Ways the World Ends (Zeta Talk), 2002, acrylic on canvas

Richard Grayson, Ways the World Ends (Rasputin), 2002, acrylic on canvas

This week for Artist Speak we were visited by Richard Grayson, the curator of the currently showing World's In Collision  exhibition across several venues around Adelaide. I loved that Grayson showed us photos of what to expect in the exhibition, but more than that I was curious to see images of his own artistic practice. I found it very useful to hear that the inspiration for a lot of his work is apocalyptic sources, such as Christ Scientists and Zeta talk. Grayson has worked a lot in the past with text in his art, which is something I am similarly curious about trying this semester. I love how he investigates ideas of the space of the canvas by attempting 3D effects with the text. I think it is important to have this extra element to the painting to prevent the eye from skipping over the work because it is boring and completely flat. I also like that it appears he often includes some background texture, such as scumbling a lighter colour over a darker one, which contrasts nicely with the precision of the text. I have worked with text in painting before, but I think it will be important for me to adapt these elements into my own work to add visual interest and prevent the work from looking too "designed".

The Handmaid's Tale

This semester I intend to use film as one source to begin creating imagery from. I have started looking at dystopic films, and an interesting example of this has been the 1990 adaption of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It tells the story of women in a dystopic future who are forced to play the role of "handmaid" for childless couples to use. Fertile women forced into this position of servitude must suffer being inseminated and bearing a child to be taken into possession by the wealthy. Motifs that are repeated throughout the film are the colours red and blue, and the uniforms worn by the handmaids which features a veil. I am curious about taking screenshots whilst I am watching these films and examining composition, framing, camera angles and symbology.

Preliminary Artist Research Continued

Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgement, 1482, oil on wood, 163 x 247 cm

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, La Chute des Anges Rebelles, 1562, oil on panel, 117 x 162 cm

Caspar David Friedrich, Abtei im Eichwald, 1809-1810, oil on canvas, 110 x 171 cm

For more clarification on what I would like to theme my paintings around this semester I have done a bit more looking for work that appeals to me, with these works taken from Fantastic Art edited by David Larkin (1973, Ballantine Books, London). These works appeal to me both aesthetically and thematically, which I realise all reflect some disquieting elements and symbolism. The Last Judgement and La Chute des Anges Rebelles I enjoy because they have strong illustrative and narrative feelings to them. I love that the picture plane is filled with imagery, giving plenty of visual interest to the viewer, and the colours are rich and eye catching. On the other hand, Abtei im Eichwald by Caspar David Friedrich is arresting in its minimalist palette and selected filling of the frame, and I think it explores the same thematic concerns of apocalyptic visions, but in a successfully alternative manner. I am both inspired by this minimalism of palette and the filling of the frame with pictorial elements, and I would like to somehow incorporate both of these elements into the work I will be generating.

Preliminary Artist Research

As preliminary research for developing my own imagery, I have been flicking through art books and highlighting any works which I feel I am interested in and have noticed a common theme of dystopia. Each of these artists works very differently stylistically, but I feel there is an undercurrent in each of darkness, imperfection and symbology. I have also noticed that I have been predominantly selecting artists who work with landscapes, so I think this is the premise I should work with to direct myself this semester. I think the reason I have been drawn to these works is the appealing aesthetics of the artists' colour palettes which generally seem quite muted, which is starting to make me consider creating a series of work only using black and white. I think it will be interesting to see what results from setting myself rules such as limiting my palette, and hopefully in a realist sense will give me more time to work on the imagery itself, rather than worrying about resolving colour.

L S Lowry, Coming Out of School, 1927, oil on plywood, 34 x 53 cm

Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, 1948, tempera on panel, 81 x 121 cm

Salvator Rosa, Rocky Landscape with a Huntsman and Warriors, 1670, oil on canvas, 142 x 192 cm

William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, 1854, oil on canvas, 86 x 140 cm

Ernest Meissonier, The Barricade (Memory of Civil War), 1848, oil on canvas, 29 x 22 cm

Pieter Bruegel, The Hunters in the Snow, 1565, oil on wood, 117 x 162 cm