2D week 2: Simon Callery and Mark Bradford

Why am I choosing to lay down these materials to test? These are are packaging materials collected through online deliveries in Lockdown, and natural materials gathered in the park that we explored in our Hour of Daily Exercise, so to demarcate a time and place.

Artists recommended to research By Brendan re. Materiality. Some artists that I had not heard of before.

 'Simon Callery does not want his paintings to be understood, rather he wants them to be perceived, sensed in the same way that the play of light or a textured surface is sensed'

'[...]which he hopes will delay the connection between eye and brain.'

'The more sophisticated we get the quicker we are able to do this.'

(https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/art-now-simon-callery)

I find this idea of scrutinising perception really interesting since I now understand the control of our brain between what we see and what we perceive. Earlier in the year I had a whiplash injury in a car accident and developed PTVS, a syndrome where you lose the connection between our eyes and brain and have problems perceiving the world around you. Perception is a marvellous thing and you don't realise you have it until you loose it, it isn't as simple as 'being perceptive' and noticing things others don't, it fundamentally controls how we navigate colour, spaces and movement. 

Mark Bradford

I tend to build in layers of paint when I am working. Because I work quickly I often have several paintings on top of one another, making textures, and allowing the older works to shine through in places, I suppose for me it adds an extra level of narrative. So the work of Mark Bradford in its painterly layers, weathered in appearance sings out to me. I am drawn to collage in paintings, or works on other media than canvas, with the inclusion of collage I often find this lets you know a little more about the artist.