Hugo Dalton
Yesterday EWX talked art and influnce with contributing artist Hugo Dalton. Dalton will be creating a light drawing specifically for the exhibition, which will open to the public in January 2012. Watch this space for more artist interviews.
Q. Why did you want to be part of EastwingX?
Firstly because I was asked to! And also because the Courtauld is a venerable Institute. I was approached by the EWX committee at the Andipa Gallery and after I went to look at the space I though I would love to be involved.
Q. As you know, EWX is about the artist’s exploration of unusual materials and pioneering technique. Can you talk us through your process as an artist?
Most of the time I paint murals in some form or another. However the spatial logistics of painting a mural made me want to make the art form more accessible, you can look at my series of Lightdrawings as a mural that you can turn on and off. The Lightdrawings were first exhibited at The Fine Art Society and then became part of a stage set I made with the choreographer Chris Wheeldon at Sadler’s Wells. I started to look at how I could use light to break down the barriers between the stage and the audience by projecting between the two spaces. I wanted to create a much more involving environment.
Q. What is your favourite medium to work in?
Drawing, its likes my rubick’s cube; I turn my drawings around on themselves and they kind of make other things as a result but it always comes back that medium. Drawing from life is also important, it’s my key concern. I find anything that I do away from that doesn’t quite have the edge that I want.
Q. What has been a significant artwork or artistic experience that you have taken from your life so far?
I think probably a boat. I used to work on a fishing boat in Scotland that had been converted to take passengers. It was a really beautiful old oak boat, originally made in Norway. It looked a bit like a canoe in a weird way; both the stern and the bow were very high with a low central area designed to carry a fish. It sounds like a cliché, but the design was a total work of art. I liked that isolated but encompassing experience when it was just you and the boat, that’s the kind of encounter I want my art works to generate.
Q. And what would you pass on?
I think a Ferrari 355, but I can’t pick two vehicles can I? If I picked an artwork I think it would be the Madonna of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci.
Q. Finally, where do you see you working going in the future?
There is an experience when I am drawing something in real life that is very pure. After I have been drawing all day, although you remain very focused, there comes a point when your work becomes very genuine and umediated. I want to progress that feeling in my work on larger scale.
Hugo's Studio
Hugo explaining to Amanda the process of his Light Drawings (sorry for the terrible photo quality!)
