 Christopher Stevens Somewhere Else "Somewhere Else", Christopher Stevens's new exhibition for The Andrew Mummery Gallery, is a cycle of paintings whose sole subject is the artist's own palette. "Somewhere Else" continues Stevens's interest in the omnipresence of reproduced images but withdraws the focus away from the external world to the landscape of his own palette and paint itself. While these paintings are taken from spaces no bigger than postcards, titles such as "Crossing The Rubicon" suggest a sense of the unknown, a journeying across an uncharted region. There is an element of the heroic pioneer as he attempts to conquer and record these foreign territories, yet ultimately his efforts are tinged with failure in the knowledge that it is impossible to reach a conclusive summation of his labours. Instead, the narratives are left to the paint itself, embedded within the landscape. "Somewhere Else" developed from "Diary of an Omnivore", a group of works that attempted the hopeless task of painting the whole world. While producing the paintings for "Omnivore", Stevens began to photograph his palette. Selected images were scanned and digitally altered to correspond to his memory of the view. He then used these images as source material for the resulting landscapes. The palettes for these new paintings would once again be photographed, thus making the process circular and potentially endless In lip service to the power of the modern reproduced image, Stevens uses only the CMYK colours used in commercial printing processes (with the addition of white) although the narrow colour range of the final paintings points to the fact that, unlike mechanical printing, in painting the mixing of colours will always degenerate towards a sludge like grey, reminiscent of a state of entropy. The format of the works (all dimensionally the same as a 35mm still) mimics those of a standard laboratory print; yet at the same time their manner of production continually asserts the dominance of paint. Despite their photographic appearance, the paintings refute photography and photo-realism through their relationship with a process that of necessity occurs over a period of time, leaving behind the visible traces of their history. The method of painting creates its own surface, affirming paints potential to become everything and anything. Christopher Stevens was born in 1961 and lives and works in Brighton. An artists' publication has been produced to coincide with the exhibition and will be available from the gallery. Exhibition: 2 July - 14 August, 2004 Gallery hours: Tu-Sa 11 am - 6 pm Andrew Mummery Gallery 63 Compton Street UK-London EC1V 0BN Telephone +44 (0)20 7251 6265 Fax +44 (0)20 7251 5545 Email info@andrewmummery.com www.andrewmummery.com |
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