tom johnson : artwork

back in march last year me and will kendrick  went over to oxford to help out a friend of ours and fellow bath spa graduate  lewk wilmshurst  with the installation of his first solo show.. the show took place at Freud on walton street. a rather challenging install not only due to the dsetinct lack of manpower but Freud is beautiful and interesting but also structurally quite awkward to hang work in effectively. we rose to the challenge and learned a great deal in the process, lessons which have proved useful in subsequent installations. poster design by Garry Edison Cook the main piece (from which the show took its title) is a triptych of the three works, ‘Mutual’, ‘Coordinate’ and ‘Science’ and as a piece discuss’ our relationship with the natural world. ‘Mutual‘   Mutual is a light box with an image of an orang-utan routed into the Perspex. As you inspect the work, The Orang-utan reciprocates your inte...

..so as ive been trying to catch up with whats been going on in the real world ive inadvertently failed to post the linking work.. i.e. the main piece that was in the exhibition 'these words i seek are not my own' which was the subject of the last post i made before the interim.. so here it is in all its dubious glory: 'vs' capcom, google, wood, dulux, projector, oil, acrylic, reclaimed frame, hardware 2011 we (the artists and a few other folks from around the studio) had a crit and this is the general thread of conversation regarding the work... somewhat forceful presentation of a view of incestuous counter-intuitive/symbiotic relationship existing between contemporary and historical dipictive image making. obscuring the plurality or multiplicity from both painterly and pseudo painterly perspectives content rendered, aside from being a deliberate rendering of a simulated physical (albeit exaggerated) conflict, attempt to both loose ...

i started working on a new series of digital works before christmas, they evolved out of the methods i was using to produce test palettes for the cnc routed panels ( sempiternal view and indentured clarity ). the first 3 i made were created by condensing and manipulating images ripped from google into these little pixellated landscape format colour fields.. in spite of being produced on a computer, the production method is actually more akin to traditional painting than most of my actual painting, i keep the image strictly to one layer, negating the temptation to keep particular colour formations and move them towards/away from the surface. it is important that the surface evolves as a whole in a chronologically linear way.. that way 'mistakes' or inadequite or visual unappealing decisions have to be accounted for by re-rendering or incorperating those elements into the overall scheme of things. 'Ultrapainting 1' thomas coles, google, photoshop, digital prin...

for the fourth and final in our initial series of shows we unfortunately lost the space so generously lent to us by bristol city council.. but the thanks to the hospitality of a more established local art space/alumni project ( Bristol Diving School ) the show did go on.. Topographic Translation featured the work Lizzie Cannon , Nic Marshall , Poppy Pitt and myself and is far better described by Trevor Smith You have arrived at your destination Topographic Translation Bristol Diving School, Bristol. Oct 2011. In advance of my journey here, I entered the postcode of Bristol Diving School into Google and clicked maps. I was then able to preview my entire route, culminating in the approach along Cumberland Road and the turn-off into Hanover Place. I even picked out the best place to park my car. Forty eight minutes later, as my satnav correctly predicted, I arrived at my destination. Entering the gallery I found an exhibition floor-plan: every step...

the third MadeScapes show came in the resoundingly fascinating form of Fastnet and Dogger . bringing together the work of Matthew Denniss , Laurie Lax , Robert Prideaux and Eliot Sargeantson

next MadeScapes show came in the form of System History bringing together the various talents and outputs of Jack Addis , Alex Cotterell and Will Kendrick All is surface, but surface is not all.  A review by  Trevor Smith System History Redcliffe Street, Bristol.  Sept 2011. The urbanization of humanity is a story as old as civilisation itself.  Between 1801 and 2001 the portion of the world population living in built-up areas rose from 3% to 47%.  Now, for the first time in history, over half of all the human beings on the planet live in an urban landscape; in the UK that figure is projected to reach 92% by 2030. In these urban environments our experiences, expectations and aspirations are born, fostered, and, sometimes, realised. The need for year-on-year consistency of landscape and location, coupled with some of mankind’s more pressing non-biological dilemmas – strength in numbers, economy of travel and fortification – literally ...

one of the major happenings of that period of online vacancy that will be hereafter referred to as 'the interim' is the development of a a 3 time gallery venture turned pop up initiative called... MadeScapes the project was initially based around four exhibitions over a period of 8 weeks organised and installed by the 13 artists involved the first was- Travel. Agency. with Julie McCalden and Alex Hardy

so its really about time i got back on the blogging bit.. tumblr and various other distractions have prevailed in recent months. where best to begin.. . well probably with all the things that have been happening in the interim. i guess i should start with some of the newer... .. Sempiternal View cnc router, MDF, spraypaint, dulux, sapele, hardware 111 x 67cm 2011 Indentured Clarity cnc router, MDF, spraypaint, dulux, sapele, hardware 115.5 x 69cm 2011

http://www.fundamentalyield.co.uk/

just a sample of some new bits and things that have been going on in the studio lately... my current projector jig/bodge one of the sonic the hedgehog panels after the initial projected drawing a little casting for another videogame related project, a bit more neatness required next time i think. some progress on a series of pictureboxes which will contain collage and cast elements. 'in the middle of the filth of truth' detail