RUSSELL BEIGHTON

The possibilities of paint as a building and constructive medium are ongoing concerns in Russell Beighton's practice. Sculpture and object hood merge with the messiness of paint, exploring the notion of the painting as a living object - whereby a work's process and history is evident in the object itself. The space behind the painting is of equal importance to the artist, engaging the viewer in a three-dimensional sculptural relationship rather than a frontal, pictorial one. By Liz Aston(Feb 2007, Curator, for Axis Arts UK).

Edge and Seep

Russell Beighton interviewed by Ellen Pearlman
(May 2007, Editor-at-large for The Brooklyn Rail)

E: Let's talk about the relationship of your flat pictorial plane to the more three dimensional seeping ooze that emanates from your canvas. It's an interesting combination to have two mediums interact that way.

R: When I first started doing these works I questioned the hidden aspect of painting, like what was shown and what was not shown. Using the back of the canvas, I realized it also opened up to the possibility of another dimension; that of duplication and reflectivity through the use of mirrors and other materials. Some of those materials I use are made out of expanding foam coated with a mixture of enamel, varnish and oil based glossy paint.

E: Yes, I can see that. However, what I find most interesting is the breakaway space almost like a gummy mixture, when one swath or coating of material is stretched out to reveal another surface underneath.

R: That way of working came out of a series of charcoal sketches. I became interested in the whiteness of the paper underneath the dark layers of charcoal. Once I saw I could do that successfully I decided to try the same experiment on canvas. This time I became interested in the surface underneath the applied mixture of oil and varnish, instead of the predictable surface represented by the oil and varnish.

E: How about your use of geometric patterning, which hearkens back to a more Op/Pop time.

R: From a certain angle the effects mimic the disappearing surface but in a more optical way. They do not build upon a three dimensional mass, but imply surface buildup.

E: Ok, but you also use the actual reverse frame of a canvas revealing the cross of the stretcher and the raw, unprimed linen sitting upon a bed of black viscous goop. In that piece you create a sculpture out of a canvas.

R: For this piece I wanted to investigate further the pre-sized stretchers I had lying around the studio. I was interested in the frame which was not visible under normal circumstances and to investigate what was behind. This gave me the idea to build up a seeping mass of expandable foam covered with layers of varnish and oil paint.

E: The mirror image is rich in associative meaning, for art, literature and even science. You explore mirrors both as sculptural and painterly objects, yet mirrors do imply even more than that.

R: I wanted to combine the idea of the object as it is, and its reflection, or the object as illusion. This brings up the notion of the hidden or reverse side of the mirror a bit like Alice in Wonderland going down the rabbit hole. When I create a piece using mirrors, I am working with a flat shinny surface and coating it with a thick dark tactical elastic skin to produce a specific tension between the mirror's flatness and depth. This tension is illusionary but it works by oscillating between the built up material and the material's reverse image in the mirror.

In the future I want to explore my mirror paintings further both in size and complexity by using new materials and changing the structural support of the mirror itself. I want to make my paintings more three dimensional. By Ellen Pearlman(May 2007, Editor-at-large for The Brooklyn Rail).

AND ALSO INTERVIEW IN BEIJING TODAY by HE Jianwei (June 15th, 2007)
Online at http://english.qianlong.com/article.jsp?oid=21268441

Russell Beighton

Qualifications and training
1994 Art Foundation course, Chesterfield College, Chesterfield
1994 BA, Coventry University school of art, Coventry

Solo Exhibitions
2007 Transitions, Solo Exhibition, Imagine Gallery, Beijing, China
2006 Solo Exhibition, Azure Gallery, Beijing, China

Group Exhibitions
2006 Group show open studios, Suo Jia Cun artists village, Beijing , China
1997 Fine art degree show, Coventry School of Art, Coventry
1997 Grasp group show, Custard Factory, Birmingham
1997 Donkey, Chinese Quarter, Birmingham

Private commissions
1997 Untitled, Coventry University, Coventry

Artist's Statement
For the last four years I've been developing my painting practice, something I had a break from for a period of time in order to experiment with other mediums and ideas. My practice is an ongoing questioning of the possibilities of painting and paint as a building and constructing medium. I combine elements of sculpture into painting, working with concepts and ideas along the theme of 'paintings as a living object', by this I mean their history or creation is evident in the finished work. They exist as an experiment with movement, time, and ideas of growth within the construction of the painting itself.

Some of the work is a metaphor for ideas of revealing, and the opposite, the hidden or concealment of surfaces and layers that act as metaphors for what is beyond the visible: openings and closures of space within the object- (painting) and the space around it, or the wall or floor it is laid against.

I see the works as experiments of discovery, a personal journey and questioning through the organic properties of paint and The support it is constructed upon, working with and questioning ideas and concepts of minimalism within painting and what possibilities this has.

For me the space behind the paintings is just as important as the paintings themselves, and for the viewer to be engaged with the work, as an object with varying dimensions that are not limited to a traditional 2D format of painting.

I use paint as a medium to express concepts rather than as way of making images or pictures the work goes beyond the purely visual they require the viewer to be engaged with the work as an object in time.