Wednesday 28 December 2016

Creation - Exasperation - Jubilation

The quest continues for the elusive image

It's official, my Pecha Kulcha rant is now live: Pipe, Slippers and TS Eliot


Naturally the process of breaking everything down into 20 images X 20 seconds was incredibly challenging, condensing what I wanted to show and wanted to say into what proved to be a very small segment of time was very enlightening; it forces you to adopt a discipline in approach, curtailing any chance of over waffling ( something I am prone to) because once the 20 slides have past by, it's over. One minute you are talking, the next minute, you're not!

I am still in pursuit of the elusive image. In the studio there are moments of genuine lucidity in the act of creation, the process of making imagery that comes out of a symbiotic triangular relationship between the material, image and myself. Knowing that it exists makes me want to find it again, there is a real moment of transcendence, clarity, where everything is 100% intuitive, an unknown force guiding the act of making work. Of course, the greatest test is maintaining this magic and invariably once you become aware of this mercurial essence of creation, it disappears! 


The process of reflection brings with it uncomfortable revelations; these revelations whilst making for uncomfortable reading are also informative and force me to confront my creative shortcomings. Inevitably this introspection brings about  internal dilemmas that need working through. Thoughts are governed by multiple spikes of consciousness, popping in and out. It is these multi-layered thoughts that create doubt. Why do I allow myself to be affected? Why do I take it all too seriously? I want to understand. The world is a fucking mess, governments and extremists alike indiscriminately killing scores of innocent people as they vie for power and control, not giving a shit about what stands in their way. People still continue to die from illnesses that rely on charity donations to find a cure. Try not to tell me that's not fucked up. Governments and Multi-Nationals need people to die, it's part of the quid pro quo of the capitalist system, after all, shareholders need their dividends. Perhaps it's because we are heading towards Old Year's Night, that the sense of "what is it seriously all about" is, heightened. 



Melancholia @54
Melancholia @54 about sums it up! Realisation that there is this veil that enwraps me and begins the process of suffocation, removing all ability to combat the curtain that descends. Aware, yet unable to avoid its calling. I wear it like a shroud, I can sense its putrid ambition to contain me.There are many times when I am unable to shake off this cloud that hovers over me.


A Sense of Loss


A Sense of Hope

There are a variety of underlying references in the images, not known at the outset but realised as the works reach their conclusion.
The three images all stated out like this laid  out together on the studio floor.





I was pleased to have taken part in the SSA exhibition this year at the RSA in Edinburgh 



and even more delighted when the exhibition was reviewed in The Scotsman where Duncan Macmillan said: " Niall Campbell also uses screen print, combining it with other media in From the Inside, a beautiful, abstract composition exploiting contrasts of warm and cold in black, grey, blue and white." It felt great to see that someone had connected with the work and chose to mention it in a national newspaper. Forgive my jubilation, it's always a boost and gives me ( rightly or wrongly) validation to keep ploughing my own furrow. I have spent so long questioning and being visually confused by things around me. Amazing how such a small thing can keep you going!

The Majorcan series, work inspired by multi tiered mashed memories has so far produced these responses:



Majorca Nō 3

Majorca Nō 4

Majorca Nō 5

Majorca Nō 6






Blood Eagle

Spawning


Absolution

The importance of play cannot be under-estimated. Allowing for things to go awry, to materialise and to lead you off on a different journey is so informative.
Picture making is the visual equivalent of elevator music; it is pleasant, it is irrelevant, it is about nothing, it is vacuous, it is without an opinion, it is devoid of a voice. Its aim is to be nice, to be decorative. It offers nothing.  Surely it is better to make imagery that attempts to voice an opinion and spectacularly fail than turn out trite shite, or, is it?  


             The only problem with the studio extension is, I want it to be bigger!