Vans by Shaun Morris & Paul Newman
Hey Freddos, take a seat, brew a tea or pop a bottle, whatever you fancy. Let's start with some words from Paul to ease us in...
Paul says "My dad used to drive a white Ford Escort van. Working away during the week, he would return home on a Friday evening. More often than not, it meant fish & chip night".
And this is exactly what this exhibition was, comparable to a chippy tea, pure deliciousness!
Vans featured a collection of artwork by Shaun and Paul, side note I just realised their names together are Shaun Paul, Alexa play Baby Boy, anyway. Shaun primarily focuses on under-appreciated areas of shared public spaces like car parks and bus stops. Painting has become a way for him to showcase the intersections between place, memory and the every day experience. Alongside, Paul displayed a series of paintings that blend ethereal romantic landscapes with modern industrial decay. Through out, his dream-like display of work explores themes of decay, personal memories and transformation.
Shaun met me on the day of my visit. We discussed how fascinating it is that something as mundane as a van can bring out divergent thought processes, branching out in completely different, unique directions based on personal histories. The van is an entirely recognisable literal subject, not much is left for interpretation when it's the main focal point. As an example, the thought of vans took me to a time where I partied a bit too hard in a few of them, once the club had closed and we couldn't find anywhere else to go. Great times, she's lived a life, MOVING ON. Depending on someones experience surrounding this subject, their visceral reaction differs, it could be either negative or positive. The van is present within our lives and that resonates within Shaun's themes. He explores close observations of the everyday world, our daily lives, shining a spotlight on the ordinary and overlooked spaces.
Shaun says "The van has become a recurring subject in my work because it has come to dominate the contemporary streetscape. Almost unnoticed, it has become an invasive presence in our everyday environment. More than a functional vehicle, the van operates as a symbol of the economic and social systems that structure daily life".
I found that both artists have a way of utilising bold shades of colour to achieve visual representation around their explored themes, in some ways their work ever so slightly overlaps and not just because they both feature vans. Their individual intent and techniques took me to a similar conclusion, that the work is either subtly or boldly detached from reality. For example, although Shaun is not a surrealist artist, both painters employ a unique approach where one uses light and the other, well, has a unusually large rack of ribs next to a rusty van.
Both bodies of work exude a level of fantasy. Paul's work is very obvious with it, where as Shaun's work makes our ordinary feel special, which just innately feels estranged to us. He uses unlikely shades of green and red to depict the light casted from street lamps. It makes me think of how cities at night are depicted in video games. For example, open-world games like GTA deliberately step away from strict realism at night. Instead, they intentionally transform ordinary city streets into vibrant, fantasy-like playgrounds. Paul uses colours that are just a few shades off from accuracy to depict the sky, an ethereal blue or an acid pink.
Paul says "Over the years my paintings have adopted the visual framework of the romantic landscape while introducing elements of the twentieth-century industry and popular culture. The Ford Escort van emerged as a recurring character, alongside figures such as Frankenstein's Monster, reflecting my fascination with horror cinema.
There are so many layers to Paul's paintings. I noticed that the vans featured in each of them are all at different stages of their decay and with various levels of rust. In one painting in-particular you can find a rack of ribs. Maybe that inner child waiting for chippy tea on a Friday is coming out somewhat during his process. These feverish dreamscapes and painterly, hybrid worlds capture his intention perfectly. It's this and his sharp contrasts between celestial blues and radioactive pinks where he shocks the viewer out of reality. His choices are theatrical and inquisitive, creating a balance that handles the beautiful, the melancholy, and the playfulness all at once.
Overall, I feel as though the exhibition was a massive success. It was thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking. You can keep up with them both by following them on Instagram or heading over to their websites.
