‘Partaking in the process of becoming while interacting with its changing environment’ (Deleuze, 1988) I implore my paintings to have a life of their own, I want them to absorb their surroundings. Each piece is dependent on a particular set of ever changing circumstances where contingency plays a role. My work is born from a kind of fidgety feeling, where the artwork has an adaptable personality, it fluidly shifts back and forth between dimensions…. never settling in one place for too long. When embarking on ‘The Forest Project’ I have been ruminating on the contrasts between rural and urban environments. The process is dynamic and depends upon constant change for the artwork to grow, my process is influenced by nature in this way. I aspire to operate in the fine line that separates one thing from another, that in between space. When in these changing environments I move the location of the easel every ten minutes, making gestural freehand line drawings as I go, this creates layers of change amalgamating upon one surface, a labyrinth of interconnection.
When the frame came into question, I began the cycle of deconstructing and reconstructing. A kind of two and forth dialogue, attempting to find that fine line separating painting and sculpture. Assembling offcuts, wood that was meant to be made into frames, but didn’t quite make the cut, into towering free-standing Jiggerdy Jaggerdy sculptures. They started to protrude off the wall out into the gallery space and this is when my vision had become reality. I had found my chance for my paintings to escape the wall, but not just escape the wall. Bounce off the wall. The wall felt more like a playground now and less of a trap. The possibilities had been opened again. I felt I had found the point at which painting and sculpture meets, that fine line where things exist in two states at once.
Clare Prouton | Fine Art
