Georgie Hall
Painting
My practice centers around large scale oil paintings that, in combination with performance pieces and photographs, cumulate towards a body of work that plays with ideas of perception and control. I am interested in the set up of ‘scenes’ in which hints of a narrative can bleed through. Paintings by Bo Bartlett have been influences on this element of my practice, and the still, posed nature of his work is something I would want to emulate in my own, while adding an embodied, live element through the performances.
My method of working begins with an idea of an atmosphere or feeling I like, aesthetics I want to explore within the work. I use photography as a means of visualising a scene and solidifying a narrative. From this I also gain reference images to begin painting. My paintings are staged and the controlled brushstrokes are mirrored in the themes I explore. I am interested in modesty, and much of my work centres around this; the idea of propriety, written and unwritten rules, the ways in which we choose to present ourselves. An office aesthetic, for example, or clothing seen in the Victorian era are made to emphasise as well as hide: accentuate the waist, and cover the ankles, stilettos alongside a knee-length skirt. As well as this I have considered David Hockney and his figurative paintings that have an awkward sort of static atmosphere he seems to gravitate towards, whilst adding my own elements of glamour and style. Also looking at work by Allan Jones such as Table, Chair and Hat Stand (1969), and the critical response it has received. While my art does not function as an immediate criticism, my hope is that in playing with these images and themes, I can gain a deeper understanding of society and self, and that an audience may gain this also.
After I have finished a painting, I recreate the depicted scene in front of it as a performance piece. In my first performance of this year, I ate a tangerine in front of my self portrait: 10:35. I was thinking about self image, but also about an awareness of outward presentation from others. However, I wanted there to be a relationship between painting and performer, the audience and performer, and between painting and audience; but I do not consider my paintings to be props in their later performances, rather, the performances an extension of the painting, something I do not think translated as I had intended. Seeing an image through these different perspectives (photograph, painting, performance) allows me to consider a scene in the many different forms I give it: through the static, digital lens of a camera, the two dimensional realm of a canvas, and an embodied, dynamic performance at the precipice. In an attempt to emphasise this, in my performance Balance, extended I forwent the watching element, turning my back both in and to the painting and allowing for a relationship to form through shared struggle and staticism; this, I felt, was more successful.
In my final performance of The Game I wanted to expand from this. When composing the painting I did not include myself. In considering power, play, hierarchy, winning, losing, participation in these things, I impressed dynamics onto my subjects (and therefore performers), while giving myself a separate role of croupier. Separate, in control of the game, but with no opportunity to win it. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)was also something on my mind, and although I do not situate the audience as a croupier in the painting, I wanted this highlighted difference between painted and embodied elements of the overall piece to connote ideas about who is really playing the game.