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Phill Hopkins in Crossing Lines
06/01/2014
Phill Hopkins will show a selection of new drawings alongside the exhibition Crossing Lines at & Model Gallery
19 East Parade Leeds LS1 2BH, England
You are cordially invited to attend the Private View on
23 January 2014 from 17.30 – 20:30
The exhibition runs from 23:01:14 until 22:02:14
Work from the his ‘Maidan Variations’, using images from recent news stories of the protests in Kiev, Ukraine, will be shown alongside other new work.
Derek Horton,& Model co-director, writes,
“Extending the metaphor of “crossed lines”, & Model will present additional works alongside and amongst the Crossing Lines exhibition, acting as a counter-balance and a re-framing device that extends its context. In works that refer to the crossed lines of political borders and demonstrators' barricades, Phill Hopkins re-inserts figurative, narrative or linguistic reference into formal compositions of line and colour, polluting the ?purity? of abstraction with ?content?, to paraphrase Clement Greenberg.”
Phill Hopkins writes about his recent work,
“I've been watching the demolition of my local sports centre; taking photographs of the progress each time I passed. Watched workmen dismantle the roof, remove the steel structure, take down brick walls. It reminded me of news images of a war zone, somewhere else in the world – using my hands as a frame, I could pretend that the site was in another place, Syria or Iraq.
As the process moved on, the site became increasingly dangerous. I noticed a growing number of areas being cordoned off with barriers. Most of the time there was really nothing happening, except groups of workmen in hard hats, standing in groups, looking at holes, pointing, measuring.
But still the barriers kept arriving. I began to concentrate my looking and photography on the clusters of barriers arranged around what I imagined to be dangerous areas. Against the rough dull ground, the silver-grey barriers seemed to move as if in a ballet.
When the recent protests in Kiev in the Ukraine, were brought to my attention, I immediately made a connection with the barriers used by the authorities there and the barriers I’d seen locally.
I started to collect news images of the protests to add to those of the demolition.
I was making drawings from the photographs that I had taken at the demolition site; lots of drawings. Drawing the barriers was thrilling and reminded me why I love to draw.
I came across a large Tate Gallery Poster for ‘Painting Now’; I asked the man at Bethnal Green Tube Station, who was changing the display, if I could have it. It caught my attention. It had a really interesting surface; plastic shiny paper.
I immediately thought it would be good to draw on.
I made the first ‘Maidan Variations’ drawing on the poster.
I had wanted to make bigger work for some time, but didn’t know how to start; the poster offered me the opportunity. It was huge, about 7 or 8 times bigger than I was used too. I made more large drawings, using cardboard that I had saved from some Ikea furniture and from the packaging of a new fridge.
There is now a large series of work, from the big drawings on cardboard to very small ones using the circular pieces of card that I collected from Cornetto ice-creams.”
more information here
19 East Parade Leeds LS1 2BH, England
You are cordially invited to attend the Private View on
23 January 2014 from 17.30 – 20:30
The exhibition runs from 23:01:14 until 22:02:14
Work from the his ‘Maidan Variations’, using images from recent news stories of the protests in Kiev, Ukraine, will be shown alongside other new work.
Derek Horton,& Model co-director, writes,
“Extending the metaphor of “crossed lines”, & Model will present additional works alongside and amongst the Crossing Lines exhibition, acting as a counter-balance and a re-framing device that extends its context. In works that refer to the crossed lines of political borders and demonstrators' barricades, Phill Hopkins re-inserts figurative, narrative or linguistic reference into formal compositions of line and colour, polluting the ?purity? of abstraction with ?content?, to paraphrase Clement Greenberg.”
Phill Hopkins writes about his recent work,
“I've been watching the demolition of my local sports centre; taking photographs of the progress each time I passed. Watched workmen dismantle the roof, remove the steel structure, take down brick walls. It reminded me of news images of a war zone, somewhere else in the world – using my hands as a frame, I could pretend that the site was in another place, Syria or Iraq.
As the process moved on, the site became increasingly dangerous. I noticed a growing number of areas being cordoned off with barriers. Most of the time there was really nothing happening, except groups of workmen in hard hats, standing in groups, looking at holes, pointing, measuring.
But still the barriers kept arriving. I began to concentrate my looking and photography on the clusters of barriers arranged around what I imagined to be dangerous areas. Against the rough dull ground, the silver-grey barriers seemed to move as if in a ballet.
When the recent protests in Kiev in the Ukraine, were brought to my attention, I immediately made a connection with the barriers used by the authorities there and the barriers I’d seen locally.
I started to collect news images of the protests to add to those of the demolition.
I was making drawings from the photographs that I had taken at the demolition site; lots of drawings. Drawing the barriers was thrilling and reminded me why I love to draw.
I came across a large Tate Gallery Poster for ‘Painting Now’; I asked the man at Bethnal Green Tube Station, who was changing the display, if I could have it. It caught my attention. It had a really interesting surface; plastic shiny paper.
I immediately thought it would be good to draw on.
I made the first ‘Maidan Variations’ drawing on the poster.
I had wanted to make bigger work for some time, but didn’t know how to start; the poster offered me the opportunity. It was huge, about 7 or 8 times bigger than I was used too. I made more large drawings, using cardboard that I had saved from some Ikea furniture and from the packaging of a new fridge.
There is now a large series of work, from the big drawings on cardboard to very small ones using the circular pieces of card that I collected from Cornetto ice-creams.”
more information here