James Iveson - Campaign
10 Feb - 24 Mar 2012
A palette of rich peacock blues, petrol greens and shadowy greys along with smears of brighter aqua and acid green, burgundy and fluorescent yellow; nighttime in a forest, where dense thickets of leaves loom and tropical fruits fall under the light of a haughty moon.
In James Iveson's striking new series of paintings, the colours, textures and shapes hover, tangled between abstraction and representation - their forms suggest and hint at their possible inspiration but they remain colour, texture and shape. Iveson is not creating a scene, but instead is imbuing a canvas with marks - attempting to do away with or remove the problem of illusion and to simply re-make. This attempt acts to abstract the original object of inspiration - the represented figure within the frame - obscuring it but not obliterating it and thus create both a dependance on an original reference and a simultaneous removal from it. Here, colour, texture and shape are both qualities of the things he has depicted, and of the painting itself. It is as if Iveson is able to deal with both possibilities at once; allowing the real and the painted to slip back and forth between the images themselves and the canvas of the painting - mutating into one another and creating a luxuriant and vibrant atmosphere.
Iveson works in series, and while each painting can be seen on its own and is unique, it is in the process of reiteration, of an evolving sampling joined with their individuality that the work generates energy. Repetition causes mutation and through this the series becomes alive; the works become an investigation into shifting light and space, material and surface, the interchangeability of two and three dimensionality; one painting after another...
The exhibition's title 'Campaign' emphasises this approach, composed as it is of a number of complementary works aimed at achieving a single objective, constrained by self-imposed parameters. Together the works are a collection - similar to a fashion collection - they have family resemblances but also, contrasting notes which act as punctuation points, breaks and affirmations and perform in relation to one another and the viewer as he moves between them. Changing the order of the paintings highlights a particular turquoise or red, while an nocturnal light offers a particular hue and tonal intensity. Human sized, they are hung in sequence, panel-like, so that each work holds the eye while at the same time the next demands attention. Where works meet at corners of the room there is a curious doubling effect, simultaneously emphasising the works' differences and similarities - as if they operate together like a false mirror.
Indeed this parallel to a fashion collection is not arbitrary for Iveson has not simply taken inspiration from an exotic trip or an imaginary enchanted land, instead they are inspired by motifs from a recent Gucci campaign. Sourced from magazines and the internet, images of the collection are amalgamated, zoomed in on, abstracted and reproduced. This appropriated palette has been chosen, as with past series sourced from Gap, Stella McCartney and Versace collections, for its strong identity, and ebullient, bold attributes rather than the specifics of the brand itself. However, in a progression from past works, where Iveson selected a single fabric or article of clothing, the palette in these new paintings is not from one fabric but rather a series of visual clips from the clothes, the catwalk show and campaign photo shoot within which the forest motif appears as a muse and prop.
Standing in front of the paintings, it is not a question of constantly referencing back but rather understanding the ways in which the paint on the canvas is pre-determined by its source so that the shimmering fashion fabric is mimicked by the oil-slick paint on the canvas of the painting; the body of the model echoed by the size of the canvas and the procession of clothes on the catwalk mirrored by the paintings hung around the gallery walls.
Iveson's paintings reframe and focus in on the detail; the aim is to have the same qualities of the garment itself. Importantly, Iveson is not simply describing these elements, he is utilising them as established anatomies (the cut of a jacket, the print of a fabric, the back of the model) and re-making them as painting, for study as painting. As such, the works are not simply referring the original object, nor even copying it as a curiosity, but interrogating and re-making as direct presence.
Rose Lejeune
In James Iveson's striking new series of paintings, the colours, textures and shapes hover, tangled between abstraction and representation - their forms suggest and hint at their possible inspiration but they remain colour, texture and shape. Iveson is not creating a scene, but instead is imbuing a canvas with marks - attempting to do away with or remove the problem of illusion and to simply re-make. This attempt acts to abstract the original object of inspiration - the represented figure within the frame - obscuring it but not obliterating it and thus create both a dependance on an original reference and a simultaneous removal from it. Here, colour, texture and shape are both qualities of the things he has depicted, and of the painting itself. It is as if Iveson is able to deal with both possibilities at once; allowing the real and the painted to slip back and forth between the images themselves and the canvas of the painting - mutating into one another and creating a luxuriant and vibrant atmosphere.
Iveson works in series, and while each painting can be seen on its own and is unique, it is in the process of reiteration, of an evolving sampling joined with their individuality that the work generates energy. Repetition causes mutation and through this the series becomes alive; the works become an investigation into shifting light and space, material and surface, the interchangeability of two and three dimensionality; one painting after another...
The exhibition's title 'Campaign' emphasises this approach, composed as it is of a number of complementary works aimed at achieving a single objective, constrained by self-imposed parameters. Together the works are a collection - similar to a fashion collection - they have family resemblances but also, contrasting notes which act as punctuation points, breaks and affirmations and perform in relation to one another and the viewer as he moves between them. Changing the order of the paintings highlights a particular turquoise or red, while an nocturnal light offers a particular hue and tonal intensity. Human sized, they are hung in sequence, panel-like, so that each work holds the eye while at the same time the next demands attention. Where works meet at corners of the room there is a curious doubling effect, simultaneously emphasising the works' differences and similarities - as if they operate together like a false mirror.
Indeed this parallel to a fashion collection is not arbitrary for Iveson has not simply taken inspiration from an exotic trip or an imaginary enchanted land, instead they are inspired by motifs from a recent Gucci campaign. Sourced from magazines and the internet, images of the collection are amalgamated, zoomed in on, abstracted and reproduced. This appropriated palette has been chosen, as with past series sourced from Gap, Stella McCartney and Versace collections, for its strong identity, and ebullient, bold attributes rather than the specifics of the brand itself. However, in a progression from past works, where Iveson selected a single fabric or article of clothing, the palette in these new paintings is not from one fabric but rather a series of visual clips from the clothes, the catwalk show and campaign photo shoot within which the forest motif appears as a muse and prop.
Standing in front of the paintings, it is not a question of constantly referencing back but rather understanding the ways in which the paint on the canvas is pre-determined by its source so that the shimmering fashion fabric is mimicked by the oil-slick paint on the canvas of the painting; the body of the model echoed by the size of the canvas and the procession of clothes on the catwalk mirrored by the paintings hung around the gallery walls.
Iveson's paintings reframe and focus in on the detail; the aim is to have the same qualities of the garment itself. Importantly, Iveson is not simply describing these elements, he is utilising them as established anatomies (the cut of a jacket, the print of a fabric, the back of the model) and re-making them as painting, for study as painting. As such, the works are not simply referring the original object, nor even copying it as a curiosity, but interrogating and re-making as direct presence.
Rose Lejeune