Category: Art Circus Spotlight

Art Circus Spotlight
‘The Rehearsal’ by Brogan Ramm

Brogan Ramm

“I am neither subject nor object but a subject who feels he is becoming an object: I then experience a micro version of death… Ultimately, what I am seeking in the photograph taken of me… is death.”
– Roland Barthes

I like to bring to the forefront, that which exists in the shadows: focusing on the forgotten or ignored details that surround us in all aspects of our lives. Having experimented with different methodologies and media, my work often has varied finished styles. However, there is an eerie, hollowness present throughout.

Photography, as Barthes (quoted above) suggests, allows us an insight into that which we often find most uncomfortable: Death. When working with such a weighted topic, you obviously have to be aware of the impending clichés, but by keeping my outcomes subtle and the descriptions of my practice vague the viewer remains engaged in the work for a longer period of time – truly questioning, and taking in, the entirety of the piece. This subtlety is evident in my most recent work, The Rehearsal. By moving Barthes suggestion to the forefront of my photographic practice, this ‘rehearsal’ becomes a conscious element in these images – with the sitter listening to the noise of time passing – a three-minute rigid stillness that feels more like a lifetime.

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The noise I am referring to above is the main piece of equipment I have been using of late – a flatbed scanner. By constructing pinhole camera obscura’s atop flatbed scanners I have created images, using modern equipment, which capture the essence of early photographic practice. The subject’s intense stillness for the duration of the exposure, coupled with the life sized scaling of the images (when exhibited), creates a haunting aura – an eerie, hollowness – that, as I have mentioned before, is present throughout the majority of my work.

What attracted me to the scanner pinhole camera? In this instance, much like the early photograph, these images are created over an extended period of time. However, unlike the long exposure prominent in early photographic practice The Rehearsal is a compilation of aligned moments, instead of overlaid ones. The subject’s authenticity is compromised through their slight movements, in a manner that is much less obvious than these early photographic images – though the same eerie quality remains.

In short, these images are rehearsals; they are death masks for the living.

See more photographs by Brogan Ramm

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Puddle reflecting a glimpse into the architectural past, a past that should persist in the present’ by Fatima Khan

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I have been continually challenged to rediscover classic traditional architecture of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, allowing lost period to be witnessed by modern eyes. Through my paintings I am trying to bring the old world charm in new era. My recent paintings combine neglected architecture of the past and elements of present time, using different forms of reflection; such as a glass window and in a water puddle, the later which can be seen in ‘Puddle reflecting a glimpse into the architectural past, a past that should persist in the present’, shown above,

I am interested in forgotten and neglected architecture of the past; working on the idea that past architecture should persist in the present. While at the same time there is a sad sense of loss and passing of an era. I am combining elements of past and present. It’s an overlap of historic architecture and current times.

My interest in past architecture has allowed me to keep buildings as my main object. My central object is recognizable, yet has the evanescent quality to it. These old buildings represent precise moments in history. These are not famous historical architectural landmarks, yet these neglected buildings are part of history which interests me. It’s a symbolic and emotional representation of personal search of buildings that are partially masked by today’s world and how they eventually reveal inner realities. I have worked from found photos along with the ones I took myself. Photography is the reference point. Some amount of alteration is done for aesthetic composition. There are no figures in the paintings, allowing the viewer to engage with the work and be part of it.

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This Painting is titled ‘Reflection that overlaps current times onto threatened historical architecture.’ The neglected building is from Ahmedabad, Gujrat, India. The building is encased in a glass and reflection on the glass window is of London Street, that is, the current time is reflected on it. The reflection shows that how the current times or today’s world has masked these buildings of the past. It is all about past architecture and present time. This painting is made up of 5-6 photographs. And it took me around 6 weeks to make it. The interesting thing about this painting is that it was this piece that changed my painting style and lead to making of the other three recent paintings of reflection.

See more paintings by Fatima Khan

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Mind Field’ by Shawn Mcgovern

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In my work, forested landscapes are used to explore an altered state of consciousness that exists between the surrounding world, and the inner psyche; between waking and the dream state. In ‘Mind Field’ I have borrowed from Art History using detailed section of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting to create a number of miniature worlds. Their discrete presence often missed at first glance, means that they are never entirely present, nor are they absent. There is a sense of something, that is about to happen but it is never explicit, thus it robs the paintings of narrative resolution, leaving them in a state disequilibrium.

See more paintings by Shawn Mcgovern

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Green Lady’ by China Jordan

China Jordan

My painting values are very old fashioned, but my concepts are timeless. Sex, eroticism, voyeurism; all are natural humanistic properties which I am just starting to tap into. I find the figure increasingly attractive in any way it comes and I like to mix up characters to create erotically teasing scenes. The most important element of each of my paintings is the confrontation of the gaze a character can bring. The look which speaks to you without words and makes you ask questions that even I don’t have the answer’s too. It is the viewers choice and own personal histories that affect their interpretation of  the situation of my paintings and so far, the feedback seems to be that the work is all about adultery, violence and prostitution. However, my paintings are a lot softer and painted in a more tame manor with an innocent intention. How they got to these conclusions must be a reflection on their character or on societies need for confrontation and drama.

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Art Circus Spotlight
‘Time and Coffee’ and ‘The Best Bit’ by James Ng

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The puzzling relation between need and want has been the focus of my art practice. Choices come to us everyday, and the meaning of our necessity shifts, depending on the moment. Want becomes need, or need becomes want. It is super fascinating.

“Time and Coffee?” is based on a Starbucks experience in West-End London. The efficiency in coffeehouse chain made coffee always strike me. Using minimal yet efficient communication between staff, my order arrived within matter of seconds . While enjoying my refreshing coffee in a comfortable seat, a question came in my mind: Who’s the one that really need the coffee?

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“The best bit” is the first painting of tooth brush series. We must brush our teeth. I think the mundane quality in this activity is amazing because it is both the contrast and the foundation of the fantasies you have the rest of the day.

See more paintings by James Ng

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Staring at the Sea’ by Philip Mckay

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‘Staring at the Sea’ is an image based on loneliness. The solitary figure of a lone man standing on an empty beach with thoughts in his head. It was an idea i got from visiting a stretch of coastline by were i live.after seeing the Anthony Gormley creation called “another place”– where 100 iron statues of iron men are spread out along the beach, i wanted to create my own version of this. The image had to have mood and atmosphere to make this a tranquil scene. Its a sad story of a man fighting to clear the demons in his head.

See more photographs from Philip Mckay

Art Circus Spotlight
‘The Water Park’, ‘The Claw’, ‘Lollipop’ and ‘The Love Machine’ By Jennifer Maidment

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I live in Cleethorpes – a seaside town in North East Lincolnshire, UK, which holds a population of around 30,000 people. The best summary I can give you of my feelings towards my neighbourhood is this: I’m nearly 30, I live with my parents and I want to shoot my next door neighbours 11 noisy children with a pellet gun.

A short while ago, I decided that making spreadsheets and answering phone calls probably wasn’t going to aid my career as a painter, so I moved away from London and in with my parents to save money and time: the dreaded yet common plight of the ‘Y generation’. Cleethorpes is a ramshackled, run-down sort of place. It’s not where I’d have chosen to live, nor where I grew up; but it is, for now, my corner of the world.

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The paintings I am working on currently are about this ‘corner’ I occupy. I paint/draw/make obsessively, therefore, my work often reflects what is happening in my life at that particular moment in time. My overwhelming sense of Cleethorpes is that it is poor but in a way where it’s more successful history is still very evident. Our house sits directly in-between docklands and seaside resort – both not what they were in their respective heydays. As the economic and technological climate of the UK changed over past decades, this small part of the country became a neglected space.

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However, whilst Cleethorpes tells a sad story in part, there is also a sense of nostalgia and frivolity imbued into the aesthetic of the still existing amusement arcades, rock shops and theme park. The portrayal of life in Cleethorpes encapsulates part of UK heritage in a way that incorpoartes sadness, complexity and commercialism but also nostalgia, colour and fun in to one picture. In essence, I am just telling a story from part of my life but what my story, or experience might mean on a larger scale correlates to the state of the UK in general, if not the world.

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In terms of aesthetics, I have been interested for a while in finding out whether there is a movement currently afoot that follows on from the Super Flat method of painting: using heightened colour and merging elements of graphic design, consumerism and infantile imagery into one piece of work; though differing from Super Flat art in terms of painterly technique and content. In my own work I use this same method of distracting from a serious, banal, sinister or sad (in other words, sober) subject matter by beautifying the work. I have always loved finding the colour in life, so this is also a part of what I do.

See more paintings by Jennifer Maidment

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Deine strahlenden Augen’ and ‘Fanz Offiziel’ by Silvie Jacobi

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My work is based on historical references and my curiosity surrounding them – I imagine how it would have been to be there. The two works shown here are based on family photographs that a distant West-German family member has collected. He showed them to us with the aim of completing our family tree. This has proven difficult due to the forced-upon lack of communication between family members in a divided Germany.

These two paintings portrait each a young girl wearing formal dress and hair style. Their gestures are rigid, inward-looking but at the same time alert. I am fascinated by how our perceptions about discipline and hierarchies have changed, and how gestures of people can illustrate this.

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I use historical photographs as documents that help me to establish content for my work. I do not create sketches in preparation for my work. Instead I analytically research sources that signalise an instinctive meaning and aesthetic transferability to me. The imagination process is highly important at this stage and even more so in the painting process. I enjoy precision as much as I enjoy openness in a painting – this can be expressed through a good sense of drawing, perspective and a consistency of style i.e. being committed to paint spaces flat, while at the same time looking for the right moment to stop or to disrupt style.

I believe that the process of imagining, interpreting and analysing somehow connects me with the people and situations that I portrait – however romantic this may sound in an art world that is increasingly concerned with looks, quantitative values and impersonal concepts.

See more paintings by Silvie Jacobi

Art Circus Spotlight
‘Delightful Oddities and Snippets’ by Alannah Barker

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These drawings work as part of a series “Delightful Snippets and Oddities” which was produced during a residency in Portsmouth Art Space. An inquisitiveness into the undue significance into glances of unfamiliar people, along with the idea of a contact being created through the snap-shot are both ideas that inspired this series of drawings. The sense of incompleteness is poignant and disturbing, evoking alternating thoughts. Placing the subject in empty dimensions of the paper can further this thought process, giving the character the potential to move around the boundaries of the paper.

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Art Circus Spotlight
‘Landscape with Two Eggs’ by Hyunjeong Lim

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The primary focus in my art practice has been that of evoking, through a visual medium, the sense of fantasy – which is naturally inherent in human beings.

‘Landscape with Two Eggs’ was made when I began research into the Northern Renaissance painting: especially, Flemish paintings. As I’m interested in the notion of unconscious memories and creating imaginary world, Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch’s eccentric imaginings have given me abundant inspirations. This painting is an homage to Pieter Bruegel and also a trial to play with the historical visual references with my own inner imaginary world.

See more paintings from Hyunjeong Lim