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Major Project: artist lecture series


Hurvin Anderson


Born In Birmingham – did Foundation at Bournville

Wimbledon School of Art



Hurvin Anderson, No idling, acrylic on canvas, 2022


Interested in painting – what it is to make a picture – how ti goes from a subject or original idea into a final painting

How to keep evolving – not wanting to make the same painting over and over – sense of restlessness


Titles – can be specific and have meanings – or just a way to tag paintings.

No Idling – about challenging his own perception of the Caribbean




Hurvin Anderson, Coming from the country, acrylic on paper, 2022


Series of drawings on paper. Starting with drawing – working with photographs to work through compositions – being truthful to original place – use colour as way to codify and mark out where the pictures were

William Coldstream – artist who uses colour markers to mark out pictures – identify where things were to draw things up – more colours in a landscape than just green


Interest in painting with the contradictions


Paintings on flat surface – trying to make an illusion – draw someone in

Enjoy the absurdity of that irony

Acknowledging the flatness of painting – creating another dimension in the panting through building up through layers – push things backwards and forwards.


This idea of illusions connect to my own practice - I enjoy how the work plays with the viewers understanding of flat or textured surfaces


Hurvin Anderson, Peter's series: back, oil on canvas, 2008


Interiors of barber shops – look at the architecture

Found way of working through drawings on paper


Process of remaking paintings – interested in the surface of the painting – painting objects the actual size of the existing objects – creates a real surface – become quite technical paintings – background and foreground din constant battle – moving things in front and behind

Making paintings about the fence – the barrier – discussing the barrier


Using a camcorder to film locations and stuff – taking stills from videos – taken an image of someone’s security gates – layering of distance – capture the movement within painting

Lattice work – layering – viewing from a camcorder denotes one distance and then the fencing as another – strangely oppressive – painting yourself in – metal grills felt like you were cutting the painting – this painting was a way to soften that distancing or oppression



Hurvin Anderson, Ocean View, acrylic, 2021


Experimental and observational process


More experimental and playful – this includes a whole body of work

Looking at derelict hotels – a site for ideas that can live within this arena

Around the Caribbean community – its history – how they see themselves



Hurvin Anderson, Jungle Garden, acrylic and oil on linen, 2020


Jungle Garden – around derelict hotel site – on stretch of beach – one part where new hotels were built – then other parts which were run down – observations on the community

Within this there were these Oasis’ – streams running through cracks – felt that there were paradise within failure – possibility of regeneration

Reuses smaller sections of paintings

Living – whether you have come from the country or the city – tussle around what it means to come from either place – interested in that question of identity and how these two things live together.



References:


Tate (2023) Turner Prize 2017: Hurvin Anderson, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/hurvin-anderson-12583/turner-prize-2017-biography (Accessed: 30 June 2023).

Hurvin Anderson - works (2023) Thomas Dane Gallery. Available at: https://www.thomasdanegallery.com/artists/28-hurvin-anderson/works/ (Accessed: 30 June 2023).






Gavin Wade:


Senior research fellow at School of Art

Producer and curator and writer


Practice involves setting up exhibitions.

Practice: Based on shared writing cultures based in Japan and informed by Chinese poetry

Creates songs for albums – looking at haikus

Performative lecture – combining poetry


Image from artist talk, 2023



  • The painting is greater than the artist – forms that are unimaginable


  • State schools losing their creativity

  • Mend and change – interfere with the structures that exist

  • Music is an organisation of time-based recurrent events

  • Art and design are both expression and intervention – life driven by curiosity than fear

  • There is nothing you can be asked to do which isn’t interesting

  • I do not practice art, art practices me

  • Interest in town planning


Image from artist talk, 2023



Gavin is an artist-curator, Director of Eastside Projects, and Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham City University. His (co)curated exhibitions include ‘Sonia Boyce: In the Castle of My Skin’ (2020), ‘This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things X’ (2018), and ‘Display Show’ (2015–16), Temple Bar Gallery/Eastside Projects/Stroom den Haag.
Gavin makes/has made art on twitter, in public squares, shopping malls, naval frigates, cathedrals, Commons, Parks, The London Underground, Dudley Zoo, and the future Smithfield Market in the centre of Birmingham (2025). His books include ‘Upcycle This Book’ (2017) and ‘Has Man A Function In Universe’ (2008), both published by Book Works. He is a Company Director and one of Eastside Projects’ founders.


  • Interest in structures – social political climates – places in Birmingham – history of city and politics

  • Innovate does not mean make more profit


  • Summary:

  • Poetry are verses that have been written since 2020 using Haiku format. Made use of everyday notetaking – e.g. having a conversation, news, artists – pick out these phrases – collecting phrases

  • Haiku are not meant to be read straightforwardly.

  • Images shared on phone – also included images of existing verses of renga (Japanese poetry)

  • 3 lines of a Haiku – within this you can say everything that you need to

  • Moon verses and blossom verses – key signifying forms to represent change, transformation

  • Connects similarities between Haiku and rap (Hip Hop) music which have conversational rap style

  • More improvised – has gaps and spaces – which could work to a beat

  • This became 66 versus which became a song – adding poems to rhythm


  • Non linear verses

  • Poetry is written from different perspectives – allow to teach himself, figure out things. Be from different peoples experiences – inviting others to work and collaborate

  • Break outside of cultural upbringing – be open to other suggestions and ideas





References:


Gavin Wade (2023) Eastside Projects. Available at: https://eastsideprojects.org/people/gavin-wade/ (Accessed: 05 July 2023).


Haiku (2022) Poets.org. Available at: https://poets.org/glossary/haiku (Accessed: 05 July 2023).






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