A second offering for this weeks Kick About relating to the art of Ruth Asawa. This set of images and the occupying videos also inspired a different set of videos that didn’t make the cut – transpiring from a filmic method used for this slew of static images documenting the chemical reaction of household ingredients.
This weeks Kick About on Red’s Kingdom is the artwork of Ruth Asawa. I was reminded very much of the fluid melting magic of lava lamps and, in certain elements of Asawa’s creations, I envisioned eyes that reminded me very much of Hitchcock and Dali’s dream sequence in the film, Spellbound. My images were created from photographing melted wax accumulated on a wine bottle over a period of time, with a couple of videos of my own eyes overlaid on top to pay homage to that surreal dream sequence.
This weeks Kick About on Red’s Kingdom is the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Lately I have been looking to a lot of German expressionism in my own work, the monochromatic shapely designs of the set dressings are unparalleled and always leave me wanting more. With that it mind I wanted to do some black and white eerie angular paintings inspired by German expressionism.
This weeks kick about prompt on Red’s Kingdom is the melancholic coo’s of Molly Drake’s I remember. The song brought a tear to my eye, how such a poet can write something so striking about the melancholic juxtaposition of both light and dark. It brought back memories of people that have come and gone out of my life, but also the places where those memories and faces come bubbling up when passing in a car or walking past a particular patch of land, like reveries of times I will never forget.”
This weeks kick about over on Red’s Kingdom is the drawings of Mervyn Peake. I decided to do some really rough 2 minute scribbles of some landscapes. I forgot how nice it is to feel a pencil in your hand and hear the scribbles as they form.
A third and final set of photographs from a journey into an abandoned and forgotten house deep in the countryside and shrouded in nature. I enjoy exploring places like this, although slightly melancholic to see the remnants of people left behind clouded in dust and mildew – the trophies and knitwear full of dust bunnies, the good china left to dip in rotten cabinets. I always how spaces would have looked when it was full of life.
More shots taken from the exploration to the house in Roosters Rest. I would imagine in its hay day this house was probably stylish. Warm woods are implanted throughout with midcentury credenzas and dressers dressing up the bedrooms now being seized by nature. Fireplaces and doors are painted bright colours and those thin patterned curtains providing an ominous ooze of colour from the blinding greens and yellows outside.
Some photography from a neighbouring dilapidated house in sleepy Roosters Rest where the crumbling structure was full of mildew and spiders. The curtains, yellow tinged glass and bright wallpaper oozing colour throughout the walls and halls of this silent place. Like stepping into a time machine.
Some Birch Trees pictured from Roosters Rest Woods this past March. I always love the black and white flakey markings of birch trees, like a textured charcoal drawing smudged and etched into the scenery.
Before you embark and get lost among Roosters Rest Woods, where a lot of photography has been taken such as here, here and here, you first have to climb the picturesque trail that wraps its way up a steep hill. The hill overlooking the neighbouring fields and farms like patchwork not visible in these photos. On the decline, before the tunnel of trees you are greeted with the curious bleating of sheep as they watch in amusement as I jump over fences and gates to disappear amongst the sitka spruces. It was a typical rainy day in Ireland when these photos were taken, not the fun kind of rain that it is a joy to watch where it bounces off everything but the misty kind where it clings to your clothes and saturates everything, and on this day – my camera lens. Although I do like this kind of mist as it adds to the effect of diffusing the scenery, blurring the boundaries of distance and softening the silhouettes of those pesky sheep.
Gentle Giant 