ARTISTS TALKING

Having taken part in a group painting show last year at Contemporary Arts and Spirits, the gallery invited me back to present a solo show of my bubblegum paintings. This was an excellent opportunity, as it would mark my first solo show and allow me to introduce my work to a wider international audience.

I planned to make a new set of six bubblegum paintings in the gallery over three weeks. This would be safer and cheaper than sending such fragile works by freight, and it would also allow me to get a taste of the art scene in Japan and strengthen relationships formed during my previous trip. However, it also represented an incredible amount of chewing and I had a few concerns about the toll it might take on my physical and mental well-being, and ultimately whether I would be able to complete the project.

The fact that I would be making the work in Japan also gave me the opportunity to seek funding from the British Council. I had self-funded my previous trip to Osaka myself, and although it was expensive, it certainly was an interesting and worthwhile experience and the gallery was impressed that I had made the effort to travel over for the show. During my stay I gave a talk at the gallery, which affirmed their interest in my work and led to the offer of the solo show.

I started the bubblegum paintings around seven years ago, and have continued to do them in between other projects. The works examine the language of abstract painting and respond to more recent process-driven work. They are of course humorous and absurd – and sometimes I think totally dumb – but at the same time they are very beautiful, visceral and intoxicating.

The exhibition title ‘From the Lagado Academy’ is taken from Gulliver’s Travels. In the academy there is a blind painting professor who teaches his students to mix pigment by smell and touch. I take a similar approach. My pigment – the various flavoured and coloured gum – is mixed in my mouth, which acts as my palette, naturally.

I spent around two-and-a-half weeks in the gallery chewing. During which time I suffered severe stomach cramps, bleeding gums and chronic diarrhoea. I finally finished on Friday 28 – just in time to hang the show and clean my teeth.