Union Jack

Image_0277, Skegness, UK © Richard Ansett 2014

Detail from image_0277, Skegness, UK © Richard Ansett 2014

CCTV

Image_4774_from series 'The Other Room, 2014' © Richard Ansett

Detail from image_4774_from series 'The Other Room, 2014 © Richard Ansett

A New Aesthetic

The Status Quo

1. We have become accustomed to an inherited visual language that represents the world on our behalf that is considered natural.

2. The established rules of engagement in the creation and understanding of imagery are archaic.

3. Notions of beauty and identity are infected with commodification and nostalgia.

4. We are immersed in a mono-cultural interpretation of our complex world that is an anathema. 

5. The existing frameworks that contextualize events, subjugate any responsibility for content.

6. Film is not a relevant or representational medium of the era.

7. An attachment to previous notions of 'perfection' (defined by archaic forms of production) undermine the new aesthetic of the present.

The New Aesthetic

1. The conventional ideas of narrative and aesthetics are subservient to a pursuit of a genuine emotional engagement.

2. An ongoing exploration into the effect of congruence on the interpretation of space.

3. An enquiry into the frames of reference through which the world is interpreted.

4. A continual scrutiny of two dimensional perspectives, which should never be accepted as being a definitive representation of reality.

5. The pursuit of an unadulterated relationship with the present captured in the medium of the era.

6. Digital is the relevant and representational medium of the era.

7. To embrace the complexity and chaos of the modern world as beautiful.

Car Showroom, Cayman Islands, 2012 © Richard Ansett

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

Image_6011, Woman Cleaning Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey © Richard Ansett 2014

Detail from Image_6011, Woman Cleaning Tomb of the Unknown Warrior © Richard Ansett 2014

LIGHTS OUT

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, uttered these words on the eve of Britain officially entered the First World War on 4th August 1914. Exactly 100 years later the Royal British Legion is leading a 'Lights Out' event, inviting millions of individuals, households and companies to join together to turn off lights between 10pm and 11pm in a national moment of reflection.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million. There were over 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

Here's a link to some of the arts events leading up to the commemoration 14-18 NOW

Assistant Leon Foggitt extinguishing candle for retouch for Radio Times Magazine shoot 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Westminster Abbey'.

Image_6176 © Richard Ansett 2014

Image_6177 © Richard Ansett 2014

Image_6178 © Richard Ansett 2014

Image_6179 © Richard Ansett 2014

Image_6180 © Richard Ansett 2014

Image_6181 © Richard Ansett 2014

Serendipity

Emergency red cord in disabled toilet at petrol garage, Aberystwyth, Wales © Richard Ansett 2014 (iPad)

Customer Notice in disabled toilet at petrol garage, Aberystwyth, Wales © Richard Ansett 2014 (iPad)

Walking The Line

Richard Long’s use of photography appears to be a contradiction of the ephemeral processes in his land creations. The photographic records extend the life span of the works indefinitely, arguably undermining the power of their limited existence. It’s like seeing a Dragonfly in life as opposed to viewing a photograph of one; there is a tangible existential connection to being in the presence of something that will only survive for a day. Damian Hurst’s slowly rotting ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in Someone Living’ and ‘A Thousand Years’ are works that are less easily able to exist outside of their immediate reality and any photography of these artworks lack the fine art component; they are purely curatorial, like portraits of celebrities or holiday snaps of famous monuments. But Long’s images are more; they are an extension of his argument and especially ‘A Line Made by Walking, 1967’ elevates an otherwise potentially invisible and private action to a vital part of the artistic and intellectual debate. The fine art photograph is exactly that, the aggrandisement of something previously unconsidered or otherwise passed over; the ordinary made extra-ordinary and visa versa.

The straight line in Long’s work is a path of least resistance between two points; a dogmatic pursuit of a goal both physically and emotionally unwavering but further and more pertinently to my work, it is an interruption of the established or natural order. The camera records the “traces of the primal and ephemeral gestures in time and space” rendering them permanent; there is no past or future just record of present. It is the visibility of action that is important and not a two dimensional representation of reality. Yes!

The problem with photography as the primary instrument of artistic communication is this re-framing of the parameters through which it is viewed. Lee Friedlander is essential to any dialectic of the nature of aesthetics. The ‘line’ in his works transports us beyond the immediate two dimensions; it is a fracture in conventional understanding and an empathy with a facuitous state of mind (an awareness of that which is beyond awareness).

My primary interest across my whole practice is similarly dialectic, and this new work taken during the record of transformation of a subject, is a continuation and evolution of these ideas. It is an interruption of an original narrative and a further record of my unique personal and incongruent relationship to reality. It is a fracture in the ongoing struggle to define identity. An artistic practice is a personal argument with supporting material; it’s a thin line between success and failure.

Image_7077 © Richard Ansett 2014

Detail from Image_7070 © Richard Ansett

A Line Made by Walking, 1967. Richard Long

George Washington Bridge, New Jersey, 1973. Lee Friedlander