| Russell Beighton: When I first started doing these works I questioned the hidden aspect of painting, like what was shown and what was not shown. Using the back of the canvas, I realized it also opened up to the possibility of another dimension; that of duplication and reflectivity through the use of mirrors and other materials. Some of those materials I use are made out of expanding foam coated with a mixture of enamel, varnish and oil based glossy paint. |
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Edge and Seep at Imagine Gallery, Beijing
Ellen Pearlman Interviews Russell Beighton
Ellen Pearlman: Let’s talk about the relationship of your flat pictorial plane to the more three dimensional seeping ooze that emanates from your canvas. It’s an interesting combination to have two mediums interact that way.
Russell Beighton: When I first started doing these works I questioned the hidden aspect of painting, like what was shown and what was not shown. Using the back of the canvas, I realized it also opened up to the possibility of another dimension; that of duplication and reflectivity through the use of mirrors and other materials. Some of those materials I use are made out of expanding foam coated with a mixture of enamel, varnish and oil based glossy paint.
EP: Yes, I can see that. However, what I find most interesting is the breakaway space almost like a gummy mixture, when one swath or coating of material is stretched out to reveal another surface underneath.
RB: That way of working came out of a series of charcoal sketches. I became interested in the whiteness of the paper underneath the dark layers of charcoal. Once I saw I could do that successfully I decided to try the same experiment on canvas. This time I became interested in the surface underneath the applied mixture of oil and varnish instead of the predictable surface represented by the oil and varnish.
EP: How about your use of geometric patterning, which harkens back to a more Op/Pop time.
RB: From a certain angle the effects mimic the disappearing surface but in a more optical way. They do not build upon a three-dimensional mass, but imply surface buildup.
EP: Okay, but you also use the actual reverse frame of a canvas revealing the cross of the stretcher and the raw, unprimed linen sitting upon a bed of black viscous goop. In that piece you create a sculpture out of a canvas.
RB: For this piece I wanted to investigate further the pre-sized stretchers I had lying around the studio. I was interested in the frame, which was not visible under normal circumstances and to investigate what was behind. This gave me the idea to build up a seeping mass of expandable foam covered with layers of varnish and oil paint.
EP: The mirror image is rich in associative meaning, for art, literature and even science. You explore mirrors both as sculptural and painterly objects, yet mirrors do imply even more than that.
RB: I wanted to combine the idea of the object as it is, and its reflection, or the object as illusion. This brings up the notion of the hidden or reverse side of the mirror a bit like Alice in Wonderland going down the rabbit hole. When I create a piece using mirrors, I am working with a flat shiny surface and coating it with a thick dark tactical elastic skin to produce a specific tension between the mirror’s flatness and depth. This tension is illusionary, but it works by oscillating between the built up material and the material’s reverse image in the mirror. In the future I want to explore my mirror paintings further both in size and complexity by using new materials and changing the structural support of the mirror itself. I want to make my paintings more three-dimensional.
