Friday 10 December 2010

Paul Burgess



I am primarily an illustrator and art educator. Recently my work has been going through a transitional stage towards more freedom of form and function. I work with collage and use often nostalgic imagery to create portraiture with a contemporary edge. This new work contains more of a dark parody and effacement of the subject. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Paul
    These images are great.

    The black spots over the faces remind me of Rodchenko's 'The Commissar Vanishes' - is this something that influence your work?

    Also I watched the (truly awful) Dorian Gray film recently, and both Rodchenko and DG makes me think of the portrait as more like a talisman or fetish where the marks are aggressive attacks.

    P.S. Where did you get the photos of the toddlers, they are hilarious.

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  2. Thanks for your comments Jaye, the photo's are from a book called 'The Champion Pig' by Barbara P. Norfleet. It contains very strange photos from deepest, darkest America.

    Your comments about Rodchenko are a very good observation. I had seen the book before but had forgotten about it to be honest, it must be there somewhere deep in the back of my head. It has now spurred me on to look at erasure and the defacing of imagery/portraits in more depth.

    Nice one

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