Paint encrusted Adidas trainer's form the basis of this exhibition. Photographed microscopically at the Tate Gallery, dramatically enlarged prints are made from details of the highly coloured fractal surface of paint on footwear.
Customisation is taken to the ultimate extreme. Rendered functionless by a decorative graffiti of paint splatters, the trainers become source for an endless customisation of the image through photography. The spectacular paint virus spreads over the shoes, producing a further mediation of the mass customised commodity object turned individual art object.
The oldest medium, paint is still part of the world shaped by IT and e commerce. Painting has always been influenced by scientific and technical developments and still is today e.g. Chaos Theory.
Globalisation via universal access to the pc has led to a new visual language developing outside the narrow ethnic and historic window of the European tradition. In order to reflect this in my work I have developed a new kind of paint (striped) means of application (thrown) and scale (variable). To do the latter I use photography using different lenses, particularly microscopic, from which prints of various sizes and scale are made. These photographic prints are often exhibited alongside the paintings from which they are taken.
Photography can change the meaning of painting; painting can make photography significant in its own right.
Painting originally took place on found surfaces, e.g. cave walls. Now it is done on specially manufactured surfaces e.g. canvas, paper. I have started to paint on surfaces not made for painting, e.g. footwear. In this I owe something to graffiti, Schwitters and Rauschenberg, who used discarded items. I use new manufactured items (Duchamp) often branded products seen by some as the icons of our age, in this case Adidas trainers.
The exhibition crosses over boundaries: art and fashion, painting and sculpture and by the use of photography, the real and the virtual.
CONTACT: JOHN BALDWIN home: 01524 702329 mobile: 07931 534866
GALLERY: 0207 2785666