Contemporary Art – Page 6 – Christopher Madden

Environmental art – Earth in a Builder’s Skip II

Environmental art. The Earth in a builder’s skip

Video (1min 1sec). November 2023

A video camera moves towards a builder’s skip and travels through a hole in the tarpaulin that covers the skip to reveal the contents of the skip.

The contents are seen to be a view of outer space with planet Earth suspended or floating in it. The builder’s skip may be thought of as a portal to another dimension.

A meaning of the artwork is that the Earth has been reduced to the rubble and rubbish that is disposed of in builder’s skips or dumpsters, which are primarily designed to hold the debris and waste from construction projects and demolition projects. The work is a critique of our disposable consumer society and the environmental crisis that we are currently living through. In the area of London in which I live there are frequently builder’s skips positioned on the road in front of houses as the owners rip out perfectly good kitchens and replace them with new kitchens. It’s happening just a few doors away right now.

A video still from the Earth in a Builder’s Skip video.
Environmental art – Sinking Time

Sinking Time. Environmental art.

Digital sketch. October 2023.

A digital sketch or painting that reflects my concerns about environmental issues, showing a watch sinking in a stormy sea.

The watch or clock is a metaphor for time (as usual). The watch is being buffeted by a stormy sea and is in the process of sinking. The sea is a metaphor for climate change, global warming and other environmental concerns, both generally and specifically as they apply to the sea. The fact that the clock or watch is sinking is a sign that we are running out of time. The clock is not just a metaphor for time, it is also a metaphor for civilisation and the technology on which we rely ( A clock being an elaborate piece of highly sophisticated engineering). The fact that it is impossible for a watch to float in the first place may be a factor to consider too.

The theme of this sketch reflects my interest in creating environmental art because of my concerns about the state of the planet due to climate change, environmental degradation and other aspects of environmentalism (which has been a concern of mine since the 1960s).
Insect sketch from the imagination

Imaginary beetle sketch

Digital. 2012.

A digital sketch created for a print. It features a stylised insect drawn from my imagination.
The insect is drawn in a sketchy black and white style that is perhaps suggestive of images produced using traditional printmaking techniques such as woodcut, woodblock or linocut. It also reminds me of scraper board.
The black sky makes me think that it’s a nocturnal insect of some kind. It also looks a bit like a tortoise for some reason, with perhaps a bit of rhinoceros thrown in.
Abstract in acrylic and gouache

Stripes with smoke

Acrylic and gouache on paper, collage. 14x14cm. September 2020

An acrylic and gouache abstract painting composed of a square of brightly coloured stripes embedded within a smoke-like form in gouache. The coloured square is revealed through a hole in the paper on which the smoke is painted.
Geometric abstract painting on paper of coloured rectangles

Stacks. Geometric abstract painting.

Acrylic on paper 26x61cm. July 2020

A geometrical acrylic abstract painting composed of two separate rectangular areas each with a stack of smaller coloured rectangles embedded within it. The rectangles in the upper area form a ladder while those in the lower area are more brightly coloured.
The amount of white paper on which the shapes are placed is important, as the forms seem to float on the surface rather than the surface simply being the base onto which the image is painted.
Geometrical abstract acrylic painting on paper

Geometrical abstract acrylic painting – yellow square blue diagonal

Acrylic on paper 8.5×8.5cm on a 21x29cm sheet. July 2020

An acrylic minimalist geometric abstract of a yellow square on a black background, with a blue diagonal. The interior of the square is very dark grey, not black.
The paint is high viscosity acrylic, so it has a slight texture. The edges of the forms in the painting are generally sharp due to the use of masking film. A very small amount of bleed under the film was allowed in places (by not pressing the film too firmly onto the paper) so that a few imperfections could occur, thus preventing the forms being too clinically precise.
Ants on an art gallery wall. Proposal

Note: this work has coincidental similarities to House Taken by Rafael Gomezbarros.

My concept predates that of Gomezbarros, mine being originally conceived in the 1990s to accompany an article in the Guardian newspaper, while Gomezbarros’s work was created in the 2000’s (as far as I can tell).

A proposal for an artwork about ants as a super organism

Artist’s impression for a gallery installation. January 2020. Based on a work from 1990

A proposal or concept for an artwork showing ants crawling across an art gallery wall, with the ants grouping together and coalescing into the form of a single gigantic ant.
The artwork depicts the concept of the superorganism, in which multiple individual organisms of the same species (in this case ants) interact by a process of synergy to give rise to a collective body that can operate in ways that the individuals can’t. The individual organisms within the superorganism usually display a degree of division of labour or specialisatoin of function, meaning that the individual organisms can’t survive for long on their own. Human civilisation is often defined as a form of superorganism, although this isn’t strictly accurate, as humans can survive alone.

The ants in the work may be two dimensional, such as in a mural, or three dimensional such as in a sculptural work.
Contemporary body part art

Finger
Cardboard cereal carton, acrylic gouache, finger. June 2020

A cardboard cereal carton of the type with an oval window in it to reveal the contents, painted with black acrylic gouache. A hand is placed inside the carton, with one finger protruding through the window.
The photograph here has a strange unsettling quality partly due to the disconcerting suggestive appearance of the finger, which looks like a penis. If it had been a penis the image would have definitely been a piece of fetish art. The fact that it’s actually only a finger gives the image an uneasy air of dissonance. It’s meant to be quite humorous.
Another unsettling element to the image is that the physical context of the components are quite hard to read. The black box is not on a surface, as it is on the end of the arm that the finger belongs to (mine). The background includes an open door The door handle is visible upper right, with the door frame to the immediate left of the box) and there is the edge of a chest of drawers at the extreme left.
Environmental art – smoking globe

Global warming art – Smoking Globe

Digital print. November 2023.

A smoking globe. Planet Earth suffering the consequences of climate change or global warming.

The globe in the image is resting on the ground rather than floating in space. It may be a giant sculpture of the earth smouldering as a result of climate change. It also has the appearance of being some sort of crashed or abandoned man-made structure, as though the earth is an artificial artefact, which in many ways it is, and that this is the reason for its stricken state.

The globe is resting on the ground in a very large field. In the background is a row of trees. These trees give a hint towards the existence of nature and the natural world, however on a second look it may be noticed that the trees themselves are in a perfectly straight line and are all the same age and species – they are in fact part of a completely man-made landscape.

This is one of my many works dealing with environmental issues such as climate change and global warming.
Expanding and radiating forms

Expansion I

Digital animation August 2019

A video still from the work.

A work from my series of abstract animations depicting radiating forms expanding outwards from a central point of emergence. The work is linked to my interest in the process of creation on a cosmic scale, such as the creation of the universe at the Big Bang or the expansion of a star or other celestial object.

A video still from the work

The work is ideally viewed on a large screen.

This work was exhibited in the London Group gallery, Waterloo, London in December 2019 and the Penwith Gallery, St Ives Cornwall in February 2020.
3D wall mounted artwork

Wall mounted assemblage and abstract painting

Gouache, plastic drain cover, paper. 15x15cm. 2020

A hybrid painting/assemblage artwork composed of an abstract gouache painting behind a contemporary plastic gulley grid (outdoor drain cover). The painting and the grid are both symmetrical, resulting in a square symmetrical artwork.

The brightness of the colours of the gouache painting are visually heightened by the matt black lines of the grid, creating an effect that has some allusions to stained glass windows. The contrast between the elevating qualities of a stained glass window and the more utilitarian qualities of a drain cover are noteworthy.

The work viewed from an angle.
Using household paint on a stage backcloth

Lavender fields – stage backcloth.

Household paint on canvas. 10x12ft January 2019

At work on a stylised, semi-abstract landscape painting of lavender fields and sunflower fields as a stage backdrop, Zennor, Cornwall, UK.
Angels and birds – flight and freedom

Angels and birds – flight and freedom

Video. 2min 56sec. November 2018

A video about freedom and its opposite: limitation or confinement.
Freedom is expressed by the unconfined wheeling and soaring flight of the crows. Limitation is symbolised by the inert, motionless statue of an angel around which the crows are flying.
Pathos is a major ingredient of the work, because both the birds and the statue have wings, but only the birds can fly.
The unconstrained flight of the birds only serves to emphasise the fact that the statue of the angel is rooted to the spot.
The work is a comment on the desire of the creators of the statue (us) to have the power of natural flight, and their obvious inability to have it.

The statue is on Alexandra Palace in north London.

An earth-bound angel and flying birds – a photomontage based on the video above.
Plastic milk bottle heads as a large wall mounted installation (visualisation).

Giant milk bottle heads

Visualisation of wall mounted sculpture or installation. September 2018

This visualisation is a development of my work in creating human heads from plastic milk bottles.
The sculptural heads are vastly over-sized compared to the original plastic milk bottles.
The size of the heads gives them an impressive air, similar to that created by, for example, Easter Island statues. The primitive markings that create the faces are reminiscent of ancient ritualistic statuary. These factors, the ancient and the impressive, give the work a tension due to the mundanity of the objects that are actually represented – discarded plastic milk bottles with fibre tip pen faces drawn on them.
These heads are partly a comment on our throw-away consumer culture and the environmental hazard that it represents. The size of the milk bottles can be taken to represent the size of the problem of consumer waste, especially of one-use consumer waste (such as plastic milk bottles). The faces drawn on the bottles are partly a reference to the fact that it’s normal people who are generating the waste.

The work reflects my interest in art and the environment (I created my first environmental art in the early 1970s).
Milk bottle heads – sculpture from recycled rubbish

Milk bottle heads
Plastic milk bottles, ink. September 2018

Plastic milk bottles with human heads drawn onto them.
These heads are an example of art created from rubbish. Their recycled nature is partly an observation on our throw-away consumer culture.
The bottles are surprisingly head-shaped, reminding me somewhat of various non-Western forms of sculpture. I particularly like the way that the milk bottle handles make very interesting and bizarre noses.
I’m in the process of making several dozen of them, as their impact is increased as their numbers increase.
Environmental art – a leaf changes colour in autumn

A Leaf Changes Colour in Autumn

Leaf, acrylic paint. September 2018

A maple leaf painted blue with red polka dots.
The leaf had fallen from the tree in autumn.
The inspiration for this work came partly from the fact that the leaves on the trees were changing colour in the autumn, prompting me to think of changing their colours in other ways.
In previous years I’ve painted acorns and suchlike in unusual colours.
Like a lot of my work, this work involved interacting with and responding to the natural environment.
Unlike a lot of environmental art, my own environmenntal art often involves interventions of a deliberately unnatural nature, such as here where I’ve painted a perfectly nice autumn leaf in unnatural paint (acrylic) and in a design generated from human esthetics. This is partly to convey the way that we impose our tastes and our values on the natural world.

A detail of the painted leaf.
Abstract digital art – Random Squares and Concentric Rings

Random Squares and Concentric Rings

Abstract digital art. October 2018

Abstract art based on circles, squares and rectangles.
A major compositional feature of the image is the relatively random distribution of squares on one side contrasted with the very enclosed and restrained concentric distribution of the rings on the other side. This is a deliberate contrast between randomness and constraint. The fact that the squares all have their sides horizontal and vertical is a deliberate feature of compositional restraint imposed on the relatively randomly positioned squares.
The rings are not perfect circles. This is partly to disrupt any preconception that they should be perfect circles, especially in an image that’s composed of basic geometric shapes.
The use of squares and long thin rectangles is probably influenced in part by Mondrian and the de Stijl group.
Travelling Glomeris Marginata

Travelling Glomeris Marginata

Video. Zennor, Cornwall. October 2018

The creature in this video isn’t a woodlouse, it’s a pill millipede, of the species glomeris marginata.
It’s climbing up the outside of a door frame.
I was struck by the way that the millipede seemed to be gliding along its course up the door frame as though hovering slightly above it, as its multitude of legs are concealed. I also like the armour plating, which, along with the hovering, makes the creature look like either a high tech machine or an alien. Or a hybrid of both. The feelers help too.
Gallery wall mural visualisation

Wall mural on an art gallery wall – visualisation

A visualisation of an image applied directly to the wall of an art gallery. July 2018

A photomontage showing what an image from my series of smoking squares would look like if applied directly to an art gallery wall as a mural.
Minimalist abstract – black square with circle removed

Black Square with Circle Removed

Gouache on paper. 30x30cm. June 2018

Part of a series of abstract minimalist paintings of black squares with a circle missing from a corner, in this case along with the part of the square that is separated from the main body of the square by the circle.
This painting is a study of presence and absence. The black square has the quality of a solid, impactful entity while the white circle and top left corner give the impression of absence or negative space.
In other images the black square itself conveys a quality of negative space, suggesting a black void in the centre of the image.