Interview with Ralph Anderson

WHAT DOES YOUR SCREEN SMELL LIKE?

INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST RALPH ANDERSON

 

We spoke to Ralph Anderson at his studio in Wimbledon. He was standing on a chair, attending to the top of a large painting while we spoke to him.

Can you describe your practice in a few words please.

Painting. Kind of abstract realism.

Have you shown your work in a space like this before? What other unconventional spaces have you shown work in before?

A bit like this, yeah, I’ve shown my work in lots of rough and ready spaces. The most unconventional space was probably an old cricket-training-run-shed on top of a school, that was quite odd.

Wow, did your work relate to cricket in any way at the time?

No.

How do you think your work fits into the wider cultural scene of today, the 21^st century, 2012?

There’s a lot in my work about painting that’s been and gone and painting that’s around now.

What about the wider sort of cultural thing that involves everything from X Factor to Youtube…?

In a wider sense, there’s a lot of science that influences my work, and the advancement of knowledge. Like the discovery of outer space, the Hubble telescope… I think that’s where my work fits into the wider contemporary culture. That’s kind of an inspiration for my work.

Are you talking about those sort of ‘popular science’ books, you know, the sort of novel-size paperback, and TV programmes with that bloke out of that band?

Brian Cox.

Yeah him. And I notice you were reading Dawkins…

Yeah, a bit of Richard Dawkins, magazines, current affairs. Not really any in depth journals… I don’t have time for that.

Do you think your work looks better in photographs or real life?

Half and half, that’s what interests me about the show’s title. For example this painting here (he points at Future Space Plains, 2012) comes across better online I think. There’s no reason for me to make this painting that way, specifically for online viewing, but your attention span online is very short, so getting something very bold and snappy is quite important. But that wasn’t really my reasoning. Black and white seems to come across a lot better than my coloured work online, I don’t know why. But I’m quite happy with that.

Staying on the internet for the next question: how much of your time is taken up by checking emails, Facebook, Twitter etc. compared to actually making work?

Not much compared to making work. If I’m in the studio I do at least 8 or 9 hours painting in a day, while I’ll only go online for about an hour, tops.

You’re not on Facebook are you?

No.

Twitter?

No.

Do you even have a computer?

I have got a computer. Which I do writing on, and emails, but that’s about it. I’m not an online socialite.

What’s the future for art?

You want me to predict the future?

Well why not, predict the future for us. Go on, have a go.

Well England are going to lose tonight. [It was England vs. Ukraine, and actually England won 1-0.] And what’s the future for art? Don’t know. Same as. More painting, more sculpture, more of the same. (Chuckles.)

And finally, what does your screen smell like?

Liquorice.

Interview with Alice Eikelpoth

WHAT DOES YOUR SCREEN SMELL LIKE?

INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST ALICE EIKELPOTH

We interviewed Artist Alice Eikelpoth on a bench in a sunny spot outside her studio in Wimbledon.

Can you describe your practice in a few words please?

My work is mainly collage work on paper, sometimes on canvas. I paint as well, working with images that are collaged together, mostly large-scale

What are your expectations for this exhibition?

I like the space! And I think it’s always interesting to see your work and other people’s work in a different space than your studio.

Have you shown your work in a space like this before?

I have shown work in a sort of industrial space before, in Lewes in Sussex. It was a foundry, which is obviously much bigger, but it had the same sort of feel to it, very unfinished and quite rough. But never a garage.

How was that for your work?

It was really good, it worked really well because my work has that sort of raw, unfinished quality to it and I think it works really well in a space like that.

How do you think your work fits into the wider cultural scene today?  Like, not just art but also kind of culture as a whole – Western culture I suppose, if we can still call it that.

I think you can’t help but have all these influences from everything around you, so my work takes bits from all sorts of places. And maybe that’s something that describes our time quite well. Things from everywhere – not only imagery but a lot of information, a lot of different influences coming to you as a single person.

And we receive it kind of osmotically, it soaks in somehow?

Yeah, like so many things you see every day, so many things you hear, so many things you read, and sometimes I ask myself what of that information actually flows into my work. More than you consciously know I think.

Do you think your work looks better in photographs or real life?

(Laughs.) I have had that before, photographing work changes it completely. It becomes something more finished… I mean my work is generally quite rough, and when I crop it and see it on the computer it looks… cleaner, in a way.

How much of your time is taken up by checking emails, Facebook, Twitter etc. compared to actually making work?

I have started taking my computer into the studio, which I refused in the beginning, because I knew that if you start looking at something – which might actually be quite interesting – that leads you to look at other things, even to do with art, you know, you look at talks and all sorts of things and in the end you feel like you’re this tiny little worm in a huge world.

I suppose that’s why we call it the web. But what’s interesting is that it functions in a radically different way to how art has been. You know, you see a painting and everything you need to know is in that painting.

Exactly, yeah. Well I realised that the less time I spend on the computer, the happier I am.

What’s the future for art?

(Laughs loud.) God, that’s a question. I think there’s always a future, since people will never stop making art. Even when we have all this technology, people still want to do things with their hands… but I don’t know what that means. I think we’ll probably see more art online, on screens, than anywhere else, but hopefully you’ll still be able to go somewhere and look at it in the flesh!

And finally, what does your screen smell like?

Er…

Do you want to go and smell it and let me know?

It’s probably a bit dirty (laughs)… Have you smelled yours?

(Sniffs screen.) Yeah it’s kind of plasticky.

Sometimes there’s a kind of warm, electronic smell, sometimes I have my laptop on my knees in bed and I think, it can’t possibly be good for you.

That smell, you know that kind of clean air smell, that’s something to do with electricity reacting with the oxygen in the air and producing ozone. Sometimes you can smell it after thunderstorms as well.

Ah, how interesting!

The Idea behind the Exhibition

WHAT DOES YOUR SCREEN SMELL LIKE?

The idea behind this exhibition is to see art in reality. In this post digital era, everything can be seen on-line, it is all available to everyone all the time. We can see everything ranging from the large institutions of The National Gallery to individual artists setting up their own web-page. This of course can be seen as a wonderful thing, however the real experience of seeing, hearing, feeling and smelling art is a different experience. To stand where the artist has stood and see the marks they have made, to get up close is to experience a connection that is not possible through a screen.

Most artists’ dream of huge gallery spaces, polished concrete floors and white walls, we have not attempted to go for this option. Instead we are exhibiting our work in an untraditional gallery. There are no white walls here. It is a very raw space of concrete, steel and breeze block.

For us to be able to exhibit our work here means it has to speak for itself and hold its own ground. It hasn’t been tweeked for a computer screen, there is no digital enhancement, manipulation or special lighting. You will be able to walk around the sculptures and put your nose close to the paintings.

As artists we want our work to be seen in the flesh, warts and all. We will not be putting up images of the exhibition before the opening. You are invited to come and experience the work in the raw.

After all, ‘What does your screen smell like?’