ILLUSIONS, KIMONOS AND GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOUR –
''SCREEN: PIP DICKENS''
29 June - 31 August 2013 | Rugby Art Gallery & Museum
Private View:Friday 28 June 2013, 6.30pm – 8pm
SCREEN is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council
England and is Part of the Rugby Festival of Culture.
A further dedicated web page about this new series of works can also be found at:
https://www.pip-dickens.com/screen-series
'Superimposition–Opalesque'¸ 68 cm x 62.3 cm, oil on canvas, 2013. Copyright Pip Dickens
SCREEN: Pip Dickens is a solo exhibition of
new paintings opening at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum from 29 June 2013 that
explores intriguing connections between Japanese kimono textile design
techniques and ‘Glorious’ Technicolour cinema. Dickens employs masking,
cutting, wrapping, intense colour staining and double exposure through tint,
grisaille and varnishing techniques.
Vignette/DreamScene,56 cm x 56 cm, oil on canvas, 2013. Copyright Pip Dickens
Still from dream/ballet sequence in 'Oklahoma!' (not the artist's image)
Titles such as ‘Flash-back’
and 'Méliès: Kingdom of the Fairies’ offer clues to her source material whilst other
paintings such as
'Vignette/Dream Sequence’ are more cryptic but, she says, allude to
a bygone age of cinema using photochemical technologies which resulted in a
distinctly unique and identifiable colour palette experience. Films such as
‘Oklahoma!’ and ‘South Pacific’ are examples of films produced using Todd-AO
technology for example. These works herald the beginning of further in-depth research, and responses - through painting - of this specific colour experience - what she terms as 'The Lost Colour Palette of Technicolour'.
Still from Meilies' 1903 film 'Kingdom of the Fairies'. Melies achieved the sub-aquatic atmosphere by placing a tank of fish between the camera and action. (not the artist's image)
These references build on recent
research published in her book
‘Shibusa
– Extracting Beauty’
co-authored with Professor Monty Adkins through a Leverhulme Trust Award
(2011-2012) which explored synergy between music, painting and Japanese
aesthetics – the results of which were showcased at her solo exhibition at
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation London last year. In SCREEN she
re-introduces cinematic themes from previous series of works (ie, Film Forensic; Dr Zhivago
and Femme Fatale series) which employed the use of colour translucency and cinematic’
‘letterbox’ formats characteristic of the cinematic experience. She says:
“Both of these references
represent highly skilled technologies within their own genre – both, however,
are dwindling. In terms of Japanese kimonos, the market is mired in a
slump and few young artisans can dedicate the time (often 10 years) to
apprentice themselves to a master craftsman. Similarly, the film industry
is poised at a threshold of transference from photochemical to digital technology.
A 2011 report on the Hollywood film industry (The
Telegraph) announced that, by the end of 2013, celluloid film would cease
to be used, unless championed by those directors who can afford, and insist
upon, using it for its innate qualities. Whilst new technology offers
plenty for us to be happy about, we are standing at a threshold where some
highly flexible, inventive skills and technologies could be lost forever.
"These paintings hold
a mirror up to these qualities but, also, attempt to highlight the inherent
magic and illusionistic capabilities that reside in painting – an example,
itself, of an ancient technology that is still evolving and pushing its own
boundaries.”
Still from Speilberg's 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. David meets the Blue Fairy. (not the artist's image)
'Artificial Intelligence', 115.5 cm x 120.2 cm, oil on canvas,
2013.
Senior Exhibition Officer, Jess Morgan said: "We are very excited to be
hosting this beautiful series of new works by Pip Dickens. The pieces
contain an inner luminosity that is not easy to judge in a printed or digital
reproduction- these are paintings that as a viewer you need to stand in front
of and immerse yourself in, just like a visit to the cinema."
An exhibition of celebration and loss,
similarity and difference, light and shadow, Pip Dickens’ SCREEN runs
until 31 August 2013.
 |
| Still from dream/ballet sequence in 'Oklahoma!' (not the artist's image) |
Titles such as ‘Flash-back’ and 'Méliès: Kingdom of the Fairies’ offer clues to her source material whilst other paintings such as 'Vignette/Dream Sequence’ are more cryptic but, she says, allude to a bygone age of cinema using photochemical technologies which resulted in a distinctly unique and identifiable colour palette experience. Films such as ‘Oklahoma!’ and ‘South Pacific’ are examples of films produced using Todd-AO technology for example. These works herald the beginning of further in-depth research, and responses - through painting - of this specific colour experience - what she terms as 'The Lost Colour Palette of Technicolour'.
 |
| Still from Meilies' 1903 film 'Kingdom of the Fairies'. Melies achieved the sub-aquatic atmosphere by placing a tank of fish between the camera and action. (not the artist's image) |
“Both of these references represent highly skilled technologies within their own genre – both, however, are dwindling. In terms of Japanese kimonos, the market is mired in a slump and few young artisans can dedicate the time (often 10 years) to apprentice themselves to a master craftsman. Similarly, the film industry is poised at a threshold of transference from photochemical to digital technology. A 2011 report on the Hollywood film industry (The Telegraph) announced that, by the end of 2013, celluloid film would cease to be used, unless championed by those directors who can afford, and insist upon, using it for its innate qualities. Whilst new technology offers plenty for us to be happy about, we are standing at a threshold where some highly flexible, inventive skills and technologies could be lost forever.
"These paintings hold a mirror up to these qualities but, also, attempt to highlight the inherent magic and illusionistic capabilities that reside in painting – an example, itself, of an ancient technology that is still evolving and pushing its own boundaries.”
|
| Still from Speilberg's 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. David meets the Blue Fairy. (not the artist's image) |
| |
|
'SCREEN: Pip Dickens'
catalogue is available from the Gallery, or the artist's website as a downloadable PDF, and includes a
commissioned essay by arts writer and critic, David Sweet. ISBN
978-0-9550829-6-2.
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum is FREE to
visit and is open Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm and Saturday, 10am – 4pm.
Closed Sundays and Mondays except Bank Holiday Mondays, 12 – 4pm.
For further information, contact Rugby Art Gallery & Museum on (01788) 533
201 or ragm@rugby.gov.uk.
Alternatively, visit www.ragm.org.uk
For further information, contact Rugby Art Gallery & Museum on (01788) 533 201 or ragm@rugby.gov.uk. Alternatively, visit www.ragm.org.uk
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My website: www.pip-dickens.com
