I have admired the work of George Shaw ever since I saw his nomination at the Turner Prize in 2011. His work immediately sprang to mind when thinking about what I would like to produce from this body of work.
George Shaw - The Fall - 1999
Taken from:Â http://www.scenesfromthepassion.co.uk/styled/index.html
Bernadette McNulty from the Telegraph talks about how he captures “An unloved and unpainted corner of Britain.” I am drawn in by this and this takes me back to the origins of my work with my short videos based on the humour of different tourist destinations. Â At the time, I read a book called ‘Dark Tourism’ by the comedian, Dom Joly. In the book he visits places like Iran to go Skiing as well as Chernobyl to see the reactor and the abandoned town of Pripyat that’s close by. I am not wanting to go to the extreme of these kinds of locations but it has set me thinking about some of the ‘bleak’ destinations that Britain has to offer.
Spurn Point – The Humber Estuary
The landscape here was alien, it contained bits washed up from the sea, bits of boat, wires, rubbish and unexplained pipeline that seemed endless.
A snowy and icy Yorkshire Sculpture Park
To the scene at the top of Mount Teide in Tenerife; a volcanic island and baron landscape.
So, a theme is starting to develop, a theme that is very much based around the beauty of unusual landscapes; the beauty and the bleak. Much as George Shaw does in his paintings, there is a skill to capturing that beauty