CURRENT EXHIBITION

RAW ART – 10 YEARS
5th-26th October
Opening event Fri 4th October

Ten years of drawing and painting, which wouldn’t have happened without social media and the internet – which needed social media and the internet.

Process is what artists talk about it when they presume people are interested in what a process is and not the final product, although the word is overused and often meaningless, I realised the process of the Raw Art paintings was quite important. And I was always going on
about it.

FAST – like a Marinetti lemon peeler or maybe a drill. Too long a process and the brain will engage, and mostly art is better when the brain is not engaging.
ONLINE – so people can take a look at what you’re doing and how. In real time. And after. And before.
DEMYSTIFICATION – as above. Art is for all, and so it must be seen as accessible and human and flawed.

So far, we have spelt out FOD. I would have preferred to have spelt LIVEDRAW.

#livedraw Eurovision and sport is represented here, drawing in real time, while watching the telly, while on Twitter. Art can be instant; can be accessible. Multiples are important to Raw Art too. Daniella and “Self portrait” were painted a long time ago, but I realised there was a
theme…

The new series, in oils, is based on Photoshop AI. The "heal" brush in the program, especially on the app, will “correct” areas if you highlight them. The app will not just smooth things out, or add a glow to skin. After using it on a photo, I realised the AI (or is it just “I” at this stage?) wanted to add extra eyeballs, a nose on a cheek – maybe extend the pattern on a top – or the background. These randomly-generated features were a way of freeing up what my mind thought it could see. Eyes, noses and ears are patterns to the program, not
necessarily an important part of the human face. It’s also about fragmentation of the self. “Healing” is doing the opposite.

Siân Superman, October 2019
raw-art.co.uk