Between the lines: A Q&A with artist Ian Davenport
PUBLISHED May 8th, 2012 05:59 pm | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
This week, the work of the widely acclaimed British artist Ian Davenport will burst with vibrancy onto the walls of one of our favourite art galleries – Art Plural – in an exhibition entitled Between The Lines. Having seen a couple of his works already on display at the gallery, I am rather excited. And there are quite a few reasons to be. Now where shall I start?
Well firstly, this is the very first solo exhibition in South-Asia of the work of the former Turner prize (Britain’s most prestiguous and coveted art award). But moreover I am excited about the works themselves which are vibrant, intense and extremely uplifting. His poured paintings are a crescendo of colours presented in a row of lines and behind each and everyone are unconventional practices to achieve what we will see before us.
However even more exciting is the fact that in the run up to the exhibition, I was honoured to have the opportunity to interview the artist himself and delve a bit deeper into his art, inspirations and techniques. And so here I am presenting a Q&A with Ian Davenport…
What does you work take its cues from?
I try and work from the things I see around me. That might be the shiny surface of a new car, the colours from an industrial neon sign or more recently the sequence of colours taken from another artist’s painting.
Could you tell us a bit about your art and its process?
I have always been fascinated by the materiality of paint. Even when I was younger at school I was always experimenting with the stuff and what I could do with it. I remember once mixing glue in to the mixture to make it thicker and give it more texture – the painting worked out okay but it was a bit of a pain to clean the palette!
Having realised at college that using paint as the subject for a group of paintings could allow a very open ended approach to making abstract painting I was then able to investigate using different processes and techniques.
Those who know your work know that you love to break the rules – could you give us some examples of how you do this in the techniques used?
Well I remember a tutor telling me once that you should never mix oil paint and acrylic paint, so of course I went off to see what would happen if you do. Actually it made a very interesting painting! I like playing around with different ways to to make paintings. I’ve used fans, enormous brushes, poured paint , flicked it, used watering cans, nails, syringes anything you can think of. It really is amazing what the possibilities are. However as I have developed as an artist I have tended to focus in on a particular group for a time so I can also find the subtleties within a series.
The paintings in this exhibition are from a body of work made over the last 5 or 6 years where lines of acrylic paint have been carefully poured down a surface. The dripping lines are controlled and the colours orchestrated to create different effects. In some of the works the bottom edge of the painting breaks in folds and waves of colours formed by pools of paint. These are from a series of painting called “Puddle Paintings”.
How do you choose which colours you work with and what inspires or affects your choice?
This is enormously important to how my works appear and the colours are choreographed in specific ways. Most of the large works begin with a number of smaller studies that then build to a the finished piece. I look at the colour values in a work and build a composition that intrigues me
How much and what sort of planning goes into each work?
Lots. But the work can change for the studies to the finished piece. There is a level of unpredictability to the dripping paint lines so I need to adjust and temper the work to give it balance as it develops.
Your work is very mesmerizing and uplifting – is it intentionally so?
Thank you. Yes!
You’re celebrated for expressing the endless possibilities of abstract art…but do you think we will ever reach an end?
No – it’s rather like music. I remember once someone telling me that now all new musical melodies have been exhausted and so music is no longer relevant. That clearly isn’t the case. Any art form constantly reinvents itself, often by rejecting it’s own past in order to move forward again.
Ian Davenport: Between The Lines is running from 11 May – 7 July at Art Plural Gallery, 38 Armenian Street, 179942. Open Monday to Saturday 11am – 7pm. For more information see their website here.
Written by Ms Demeanour
