Civics

Abstract

This research exhibition considers how experiences of Britain’s post-war New Towns, and the work made by artists through residential placements have had an impact on the development of recent painting practice.

Through a performative and practice-led response to the site-specific work of Victor Pasmore in Peterlee, William Mitchell in Cwmbran, Mike Cumiskey in Skelmersdale and the experience of art embedded in Harlow New Town I identify the importance of the contribution made by artists to the New Town environment.

I use this context to investigate how an experimental approach to painting as a subjective interface between material and memory whereby a transformation of engagement with the New Town environment has occurred. This research shows that through an integration of abstraction, gestural application, hard edge construction, transitional layering and transparency, embodied experiences of the New Towns under discussion can be revealed via the act of painting with the resulting work of art as document of the experience under discussion.