Britney

Remember the good ol’ days when the humble grid was an easy way of transferring image onto canvas? Now with all the OHP’s and projectors out and about, it seems almost a waste of time to resort back to the amateurish grid when there are easier options. So obviously to start with a grid is a very conscious decision. And one that perhaps is an interesting area to play around with. Thus leads us to one of our own’s new venture. Simon’s obsession with all things cubular and square has been dominant in his practice to date, but recently, he tells me he has been taking things back to ideas of transfer and the grid. And in his usual light-hearted way, he has chosen Britney Spears as his subject.



He tells me that although at first, it was more of a way of trying out traditional portraiture, he has started to see some relevance to his practice and a way in which he can manipulate ideas of grid and geometry, to the point where the dominance of the subject can eventually shift into other territories.

This got me thinking of ways in which he could start pushing ideas of the wider influence of the grid in society, feeding such into his own practice. Whether it is something as simple as grid-like design (computer keyboards, fences, vents etc) or the impact of social grids, new world order, people herding and general inner-city pressure. Perhaps it is a case of mathematics he is interested in, formulae and algorithms. Science and technology. Mapping and systems of organisation. Such musings are really only the teeny tip of the iceberg, and in Simon’s case, to be continued in Studio this year. Development that perhaps we will track!


Britney = Social structures = Looking at ourselves

Just like a Circus.

- Agnes

p.s. A couple of quick little links for you to check out Simon,

A show curated around the idea of ‘Living inside the grid’ and some back story about the grid method

And Funnily enough, have just received an email about James Cousin's show opening at The Gow next week:

Cousins states: The grid, once submissive to horizontality and verticality, now maps multiple events; the canvas is now a site of indeterminacy brimming with possibilities whilst continuing to exercise a form of homage to late modernist practices and processes, recent work exchanges end game reductivism for other possibilites. Morphed or corrupted logic reinvent the processes inherent in earlier work with a new divergence and opulence.

Griddy Gooooooodness