China Wild - Mary Place Gallery Paddington, 2014.
THE STORY NO ONE ASKED FOR
So gather round whilst I up the word count and try make sense of it all…
I’ve always felt comfortable saying less or nothing at all about my art. I enjoy making it beyond words… Does anyone really care? Possibly not.
Things slow down, you miss the glory days.
CHINA WILD. BECAUSE ART PHOTOS.
China Wild was the name of the second major exhibition I held, off the back of a largely successful sell out show the year before. Major to me. I had a thing and it kept me company!!!
CHINA EXCURSION
A whirlwind trip to the land of the East, saw my best friend and fellow urban beautification expert. Tailing his awesome obliging Father to his factory outfit deep in Huadu, Guangzhou, China. Producers of high end music components. It was unfiltered. I had never traveled anywhere that smelt so different, felt so different. It was mind blowing, at times a little scary if I’m honest. It was exactly what the Dr ordered. I has come to realise I had taken most of my life for granted and there was some shame to that.
PROCESS EVOLUTION
Whilst killing time in the factory in between hair raising car rides through roads that looked like war zones. Our driver with a high octane rice wine breath pushing the pedal through the floor and showing us spare passports incase we crashed and needed to hold one WTF. We would embellish every scrap of paper with our monikers, over and over and over... In a foreign country, we were both expanding our horizons beyond our norm. The rudimentary letters transitioned to flowing gestural expressions and I felt I couldn’t stop. I remember the moment well. We were both in our element, the age where it was still ok to be figuring it all out. The area was so different to our hometowns. Walking around the rubble was pure bliss.
SELF VIBING
I was now feeling in tune, present and all the hesitation was distilling into something I understood. The addiction of destroying paper with basic words had evolved into an own able strange language, my way of saying what I’ve never had the courage to say out loud. It was not immediate and continues to evolve to this day, but a pictorial account of my mood can be dropped in plain sight, without feeling exposed, with no obvious beginning or end.
SELF VIBING 10x
The story is open and I can look at older work and see anger at times. The times when addiction had it’s grip and times when everything was perfect. I had always considered myself an average drawer but it doesn’t really matter when you are carrying a backpack full of supercharged spray paint that you are in tune with. I now didn’t care as I found a way to travel to my own place where it was no longer important. This was now a way to object to the rules of the game. With all respect to graffiti and the purists. It was always a self serving activity for me.
PROCURING MATERIALS
I didn’t consider myself an artist, to me the work was simply graffiti, on ‘found objects’ and. It did fascinate me that objects that came to me free of charge, could be converted into hard cash. Especially the real estate signage. The covert nature of graffiti had equiped me with natural instinct, or muscle memory when out looking for treasure. Feeling completely relaxed carying signage larger than my car strapped to the roof with one arm out the window, using all my strength to keep the momentum up back to my Father’s basement. Where it’s transformation from gaudy advertising panels to childlike tapestry took place.
Little did I know, I was become a child…
SHOW BUMP IN
The approach for show ll was much different. Going it alone to procure a venue and take a punt on myself. But I had this pressing urge to get it out there and was high off the confidence of show I. There are obvious pros & cons. It was a little terrifying presenting unvalidated work. It made my day when my favourite liquor brand/s wanted to be there to fuel the fire. That is all the validation a person with a dangerous relationship with alcohol needs. The showman was born. Couldn’t shut me up if you tried.
It wasn’t about getting recognition as such Graffiti played up to my ego which was plenty.
I noticed the work made people light up and It was genuine. It forged new friendships. Long relationships with painful endings. I was terrified people showed up to see me. Two I would never see again.
I loved that I could spread some joy and bring people together… (welcome to the party ego)….and loved even more that it was a complete misrepresentation of how I was feeling.
The work was bright, colourful and fun. I was drowing in darkness, burning the candle at both ends and of the brink of self destruction. I loved putting up this wall I could hide behind safely. The faster I painted. The safer I felt from scrutiny. I had orchestrated the perfect conditions to live ‘China Wild’…. Rehab promptly followed.
If you made it this far. I commend you. For some reason lacing the story with the embarrassing stuff makes art easier for me to explain.
If you’re stuggling with addiction and want to chat. Always got time for you. :)
