Maiden England

I got along to see Iron Maiden recently at the O2, and spotted some fantastic battle jackets in the crowds - here's a few examples. Thanks to everyone who let us photograph their handiwork, and for permission to use the images. There should be some paintings to follow from these.

This jacket features a great range of bands - from the classic metal of Motorhead and Maiden through 1980s thrash of Slayer and Megadeth to new wave West Coast punk of Offspring and even 90s rappers Cypress Hill. Not forgetting some classic British rock from Queen, Pink Floyd etc. and goth instigators Sisters of Mercy are also represented. It's good to see a jacket that reveals the range of its owner's record collection. I also like the symmetry of the patches on the back, with good balance between the round patches in the four 'corners' and even spacing between the elements. And of course the badges - an old skool touch!

Like the previous example, this jacket features an eclectic range of bands - select a track from each of the bands here and you'd have a pretty good playlist charting much of the history of (mainly British) mainstream rock and metal. The small patches on the front are in many different shapes and sizes with the result that its owner has chosen to space them across the garment rather than fit them tightly together. This gives some good visual rhythm and keeps things interesting.

This jacket is in a minority in that the sleeves have been left attached. The advantage of this is that there more space for patches! The back of the jacket leaves us in no doubt about the owner's favourite band. Most of Maiden's best known albums are represented, with a couple of more recent additions as well. The front side opens things up a bit to include a wider range, from Pink Floyd to Kiss, Motorhead and Alice Cooper. The main back patch features one of my favourite pieces of Maiden artwork - on the way back from the gig I met a (very drunk) Swedish metal fan who had an excellent version of this tattooed on his arm. Well done sir!

Motorcycle Cultures Exhibition and Conference 4-6th July

I'll be showing some of the new 'Battle Jacket' paintings in this exhibition opening next week at the Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London.

Aegis - ASC Window Space 04/05/13 - 05/06/13

I am currently showing work at the ASC Window Space, London SE1 - more info here:

ASC WINDOW SPACE |

TOM HELYAR-CARDWELL | AEGIS   

May 4, 2013 - June 5, 2013

ASC

tel: +44 (0)20 7274 7474

email: julia@ascstudios.co.uk

ASC Window Space

Erlang House, 128 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8EQ, UK

Aegis

According to Homer’s Iliad, the aegis was a mythical piece of armour bestowed by the gods Zeus and Athena, bearing an image of the head of Medusa and offering divine protection. In common usage the term has come to mean a source of protection offered by a powerful benefactor.

These paintings depict suits of armour both as historic and cultural objects and as symbols of power, identity and disguise.

Tom Helyar-Cardwell’s practice sits within a tradition of contemporary object painting, with direct reference to the still life painting of the Northern Renaissance. Objects from various periods in cultural history are chosen for their potential to carry multi-layered meanings. These items are re-presented through painting as sites for symbolic narratives that reflect on the societies that produce and value them.

Helyar-Cardwell studied MA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art, and is currently undertaking practice-based PhD research in painting at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

www.tomhc.com

Paint Club: A Visual Symposium

I'll be participating in the upcoming Paint Club Visual Symposium at Beaconsfield, London on Friday 26th April. The symposium is accompanied by an exhibition which will be open for viewing from 6-8pm. 

Paint Club is a research network based at University of the Arts London, which gives the following definition of its aims: Painting here is defined as an expanded field that relates to the specific histories and traditions of painting. Our activities publicly explore and debate what it means to research painting within the context of contemporary art practice. 

More info about Paint Club here

Visual Research

Some of my recent paintings based on 'Battle Jackets' that were shown recently at the Visual Research exhibition at Chelsea College of Art.

Tom Helyar-Cardwell Manowar 2012 38 x 26 cms Watercolour on Paper

Tom Helyar-Cardwell Iron Maiden 2013 38 x 26 cms Watercolour on Paper

Tom Helyar-Cardwell Sabbat 2013 38 x 26 cms Watercolour on Paper

Tom Helyar-Cardwell Amebix 2012 38 x 26 cms Watercolour on Paper

 

Still Live

I really enjoyed Emma Bennett's second solo show at Charlie Smith, London which was
a nice contemporary take on C17th Dutch/Spanish still life. At first glance you could almost think these paintings were made at the same time as their historical antecendents, but after closer inspection you realise the paired-down compositions and mysterious configurations of objects root them firmly in a more contemporary moment. In this, Bennett manages to walk that fine line between over-referencing sources on one hand, and appearing too obviously 'now' on the other.

Emma Bennett Nor Any Haunt of Mine 140x110cms Oil on Canvas 2012

 These paintings absorb the viewer in a ghostly world where the objects, whilst ostensibly inanimate, become protagonists in an unspecified drama which unfolds before the indeterminate dark space of the backgrounds which unite each composition and comprise a link between each field of existence. These are assuredly symbolic spaces, where each element is carefully orchestrated for dramatic effect, the sparse arrangements locked in high tension which draws the observer in.

Emma Bennett Unknown Quantities 122x91.5cms Oil on Canvas 2012

I have also noticed Damien Meade's work in a number of group shows including The Future Can Wait, as well as the focus of an article in Turps Banana by Geraint Evans. Meade, like contemporaries such as William Daniels and Paul Housely, paints from strange models that he makes in the studio - in this case they are anthropomorphic shapes fashioned from clay, wire and other basic materials, which reference the classical portrait bust.

These works remind me of the classical terms in Poussin's paintings, or the crumbling sculptures in the game paintings of Jan Weenix.

Damien Meade Talcum 2011 Oil on linen on board 66.5x44.5cms

Nicolas Poussin A Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term  1632-3 Oil on canvas 98 x 142.8 cm 

Another contemporary painter working from models in this way is Meade's countryman Donal Moloney.
Moloney constructs intricate environments featuring organic shapes and plants, over which he projects psychadelic patterns, the results of which are rendered in painstaking detail on small canvases. These still life pieces set up disorientating spaces in which the viewer is unsure of what exactly it is that they are looking at, whether a real or imagined scene, a narrative or abstract space, yet one which is presented in almost hyper-realistic detail.

Donal Moloney Shrines 2011 Oil and acrylic on canvas 43 x 58 cms 

It is exciting to see so much evidence of the continuing revival of the still life  in contemporary painting, when not so long ago it seemed to be a genre that few thought could ever be relevant again.

American Revival

John Frederick Peto For the Track 1895

 Whilst in Washington DC this summer I was interested to come across some work by the late C19th American painter John Frederick Peto. It seems there was quite a lot of interest in the Dutch Fine Painters in the USA at this time, as Peto was just one of several artists working directly from their canon.
Peto is effectively trying to pay homage to Cornelius Gysbrechts, even down to employing the motif of the wooden panel, letter rack or door as a backdrop to a collection of objects presented in a trompe l'oeil style.
The obvious difference with Peto is his choice of objects that are particularly contemporary to American life of that era. I'm not sure if there is anything particularly conceptually interesting about this - Peto doesn't move the genre on particularly, but then again perhaps revivals are always de facto different from their references, just by dint of context. The paint work isn't as fine as Gysbrechts either, a little more gestural, not quite so painstaking.

John Frederick Peto Letter Rack 1894

Cornelius Gysbrechts Still Life with Portrait of a Soldier 1670

Cornelius Gysbrecths Letter Rack c.1670

 I keep coming back to these type of trompe l'oeil paintings for some reason - I think it is to do with the idea of making painted copies of things that are already artworks or secondary images - there's an ostensible pointlessness about this on one level, but actually the re-made image becomes something radically different. This is evident in the work of artists like Warhol, Harland Miller, Glenn Brown and Gerhard Richter.

Harland Miller Bridlington; Ninety Three Million Miles from the Sun  2002

In my own work I am currently exploring this idea - beginning to work from images of images, rather than objects, such as I have tended to do in the past, as in the recent example below.

Tom Helyar-Cardwell Urbis Aqua 2012