Supporting statement recent body of work

Russell Frampton

The Gold Block series and Solar discs.

The Gold Block series

This recent body of work is informed by my continuing research into the physical and metaphorical nature of archaeological artefacts and votive objects, allied to the referencing of the symbolic forms and materiality of alchemy. Central to this practical investigation has been the use of ‘gold’, and the qualities that the material, with its obvious chromatic and symbolic values, seems to possess. This has driven both the conceptual and pragmatic concerns within the evolution of this work. Gold is an alluring and complex symbol of many, often conflicting meanings, avarice, greed, wealth but also of purity and celebration, and has been used as the adornment of spiritual and religious iconography as a devotional act for millennia.

In terms of my process, I apply metallic imitation gold leaf to a canvas ground of dense acrylic black paint, using aerosol adhesives and I overlay water based varnish to seal the leaf. The method of application involves the manipulation of each sheet to form tears and cracks and I allow chance marks to work with pre cut shapes from the sheets to gradually form a final composition.  The ‘painters eye’ for how a work develops is informed by the complexities of both the large structural elements and the detailed minutiae of the fissures and cracks that open almost like river tributaries or coastline. The leaf is in a way ‘carved’ to allow the black ground to become the ‘graphic’ mark, with each of its surrounding areas displaying a range of ‘weathering’ and surface anomalies that imparts an organic sensibility to the surface.

There are also references to the architectural structuring of the plan view, and the aim within each composition is to create a self-referential sense of order and balance, but one that allows the dynamics of both the materiality and the constructional process itself to be paramount.

 The grid like nature of the regular square sheet size imposes a structure of sorts that the darker ’negative’ forms arise from. The grid being a reference to both earlier paintings I have made using a regular matrix and to ideas of order imposed on the void. Perceptually the black ground connotes a sense of infinite space, juxtaposing with the overlain thin veil of gold creating a dynamic spatial flux. In a sense there are both contradictory sensations of distance and proximity at play, which seem to engender the work with a degree of vibrancy and oscillation.

Whilst I aim to impose no real sense of the ‘recognisable’ within the forms that occur, there is often the tendency for the viewer and the artist to interpret them. Perhaps these canvases are inviting a ‘Rorschach test’ like response, where the subconscious of the viewer can in a way, complete the picture. Some of the forms that manifest to me personally refer to mythology, ancient history and my own painterly history of mark making and the personalised, autographic construction of symbolic forms over many years.  

The titles refer to connections I have made with the forms themselves, often when making a painting a word will emerge which acts as a form of poetic catalyst. ‘Parsival’ or Percivale/Peredur was the knight questing for the holy grail, ‘Taranis‘ the Celtic god of thunder, ‘Votive forms’ reminiscent of the objects ritually deposited in well shafts to form archaeological strata.

The Solar Discs

The Solar discs are direct references to established archaeological finds. The idea of the sun as a form of deity has been represented in cultures ranging from the Neolithic through Egyptian and Greek periods to its continued use today. The disc acting as a form of codified, calendric wheel of prediction, that is both a cosmological instrument of measurement and a receptacle of meaning of lore and knowledge.  The discs also relate to the constructional form of wooden slatted, warriors shields, with the central circular space where the protective shield boss would be. The surfaces are incised, chiselled and drilled to suggest the weathered and aged patina of a rediscovered artefact, one that bears the marks of both its implied practical and mythic use and its constructional history.  The symbolism of the shield as a protector, a barrier, and as the carrier of insignia, as well as its obvious wheel like connotations, are aspects of the depth and diversity of associative responses to this work.

Russell Frampton Sept 2018

Russell Frampton MA, PGCE currently works as a lecturer in Painting, drawing and printmaking on the MA and BA program at Plymouth College of Art and as a lecturer in Digital performance and Dance film at The University of Plymouth.