'Creating Playful Abstractions...' Aesthetica Magazine Feb/Mar 2015

Simon Kirk free associates images and text to create playful abstractions. He is interested in the ambiguous subjective ‘hidden’ narrative where the ‘story’ remains oblique or partial. The work is multidirectional and open ended. Meaning is inherent but impossible to pin down precisely. The work is primarily layers of painting combined with collaged elements. However, he also uses the decollage technique – cutting, tearing or sanding away parts of the built up surface image to reveal layers below.

A: Tell us about the work listed in the magazine.
SK: The piece is a good example of how I free associate my text and found images to create a self contained scenario with its own reality. I’m a big fan of haiku and the gentle playfulness that helps us view everyday life with fresh eyes. I like to use this device a lot; the inherent simplicity of my cut up text leaves a lot of room for the viewer to find their own meaning. The characters within the scenarios are challenged with weird and impossible predicaments, and the viewer is asked to join them in confronting the strangeness.

A:Who or what influences your work?
SK: Films inspire me – I love films that don’t have a linear plot, like David Lynch films for example. You recognise all the scenarios, you can understand the language and you almost know what’s going on, but not quite… It’s open to interpretation. Artistically I look to Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly and Jean-Michel Basquiat among others. I love the work of William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski – both have a very dry dark humour that appeals to me.

A: Your work combines painting, collage and decollage, what lead you to working in these media?
SK: It was my solution to the problem of translating my sketchbooks to a wall. I always found this work far more dynamic, and much was lost in simple reproduction. So I began working on my pictures as I would a sketchbook. I build up layers, paint areas out and rip bits off; ideas are developing and decisions about composition are all taking place on the piece itself. Everything filters through me quicker and doesn’t have to be rendered a second time. It’s taken years for me to develop my style, and it’s the way I feel most comfortable working.
- See more at: www.aestheticamagazine.com

Credit:
1. Kenneth 6 x 4” (10 x 15cms) Collage on Decollage on Board, 2014.
2. Quantum Art 6 x 4” (10 x 15cms) Collage on Decollage on Board, 2014

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ArtBookGuy Michael K. Corbin's 101 artists to watch in 2015

I'm delighted to be one of ArtBookGuy Michael K. Corbin's 101 artists to watch in 2015. Michael is an avid art collector, writer, full-time broadcast journalist, yogi and runner. A New York City native, he writes for various art websites that include www.absolutearts.com and of course www.artbookguy.com

"Simon Kirk is a talented British artist whose work really captures the spirit of everyday people yet it’s also quite sophisticated. I enjoyed his postings on social media for some time before I contacted him for this interview. I’m so glad I did because we had a great chat."

READ THE INTERVIEW HERE: http://artbookguy.com/simon-kirk-folk-sophistication_954.html
 
2015 marks the 4th anniversary of the Super Hot Artists List. 
See the full list here http://artbookguy.com/101-super-hot-artists-2015_957.html

Sketchbooks And My Work

One of my artistic concerns has always been how to translate what it is in a sketchbook onto a wall. The relationship between a viewer and an image in a sketchbook is entirely different to the relationship between viewer and image on a wall. With a sketchbook, they can be tactile; they hold the book in their hands. There is a notion of intimacy, that they are privileged to the secret thoughts and journal of the artist. They are becoming involved in the creative process, seeing the raw workings and being invited backstage, as it were.
This is in contrast to the image on the wall, which they cannot touch, and which has become ‘a piece of art’ with all the weight that carries. Even though it may be essentially the same image, the expectations are higher and it is there to be judged by all. Does this translation process ultimately compromise the ideas and images in a sketchbook, as notions of aesthetics and the gravitas of ‘Art’ take over? 
I work primarily on the A4 size, because my sketchbooks are A4. I cannibalise my own sketchbooks – rip out pages, cut out images, photocopy, scan, re-use. The work fuels itself. Very few sketchbooks survive untouched these days.

Text and Image in My Work

I am fascinated by the combination of text and image – by adding text to my work it introduces the notion of a narrative. However, because the text does not describe the image and the image does not illustrate the text, it creates a tension; undefined scenarios and ambiguous ‘hidden’ narratives.

Much of the text is cut from pages of novels, but rather than following the story I scan through the prose to find poems or phrases by linking words from sentences. In my variation of the cut up technique, I must be able to cut the ‘poem’ I create out in one section – it functions as a collage piece in itself. This is distinct from the cut up technique of cutting out words or strips of words and re-arranging them randomly.

I am using what is on the page but distorting the sense through my editing.

Here are some examples:

Lost (or gained) In Translation

When I'm in Denmark with Karen I love to go through all the magazines and newspapers looking for collage material and text - for me the language is similar in many ways but also different enough to be completely absorbing. Because there are often English words amongst the Danish, it's like having part of the instruction manual. I get a sense of what is being said, but don't understand the whole story. Which of course is a lot like my work. In this case, I saw the title 'Mod Mad Momsen' - it conjured up images of a little crazy guy and so that is what I drew. Karen later told me that 'Mod Mad Momsen' means 'VAT on Food'. :)

Mounted Postcards