Perhaps, as the English painter and jazz musician Alan Davie explained, "... ego is the enemy of true art".- Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA
The surfaces of Stephen Brameld and Jay Staples' remarkable paintings are the record of a conversation. Some ideas they discuss remain unresolved, others are documented as they morph and change direction, and one or more rise to the surface and survive the critical onslaught of two independent hands working together on the same painting simultaneously.
Collaboration is a word invoked in respectful tones because it is now acknowledged that innovation in all fields is complex and requires an ever more diverse range of skills. As a result, any project that brings together individuals with specific expertise to work in tandem on a project is not only deemed sensible but is seen as essential in many instances. However, since the rise of Romanticism in the 18th century, the idea of the inspired genius working alone undermined any notion of collaboration in the visual arts. So, how can inspiration, unique hand skills, and individual creativity be fused?
Stephen and Jay directly tackle this cannon of received wisdom through their practice, and the works in this exhibition provide ample evidence that they have succeeded in orchestrating a shared visual language that materialises through their collaborative process. The intensity of these works is a chronicle of that process of becoming. Documented in each painting are joyous outbursts, direction changes, the nervous assertiveness of some shapes, the humble obscurity of others, and a restless energy throughout. Each painting materialises into a map of the interactions between two creative hands and minds that have played together with serious intent, and it makes for compelling viewing.
The evocative title of their exhibition RECESS is suggestive of time on the school grounds during that magic interlude when a ringing bell initiates the complex business of collaborative play. Understanding this motivation, our first reaction is to smile, and we are right to do so because these are performative paintings and we are thrust into the arena of their fabrication, looking on as two artists undertake their rigorous interrogation of painting. We may ponder why one form is lost in the miasma of paint, while others open up embedded stands of possibility that we are urged to follow and eventually we are reassured or sometimes left wondering about what might have been. This is a very sophisticated game and an extremely enjoyable one too. Underscored by an understanding of the history of art, their exploration of abstraction, and their interest in modernism, street art, and the visual imagery of children's drawings, these works are re-energising because of their serious intent.
Their separate and shared ideas and interests have coalesced through the process of painting in their recessed laneway studio. The studio is the birthing place of their works, and with its alcove recesses, it becomes the ideal gallery to present their paintings and sculptures as votive offerings. As we journey through these painted portals, they open up an ever-changing world of surprise and fascination, and we are encouraged to dive deeply into the recesses of our own minds and souls to respond fully. Gradually themes and echoes emerge and harmonise as we encounter every new work. We identify a series of indented forms, note recurring enclosed shapes - some with occasional breakouts, and encounter positive and negative forms that make us conscious of the spaces between. We tune into the rhythms within and across works, that act like musical counterpoints. As a body of works, they chorale the marks and forms, colours, and tonal contrasts creating a complicated score that plays throughout the gallery, echoing the musical environment from which they were created. Music is a constant in their studio while painting, and that visual/aural synthesis is recreated to generate an intoxicating gallery experience.
Throughout the exhibition, it is impossible to identify two separate hands and minds at work. Instead, a synergy exists that welds them together. This partnership clearly engenders a sense of liberation that provides the freedom to take risks, push at imposed boundaries, and find new pathways through the inherited barriers of assumptions, rules, and constraints. By challenging the orthodoxies of practice, they encourages us to challenge our assumptions when encountering new works of art. Whatever the alchemy that has achieved this imaginative act of collaboration; it gives their work an extraordinary vitality and provides their viewers with a range of new challenges, both to reorient their expectations about the experience of looking at art and also to expand their understanding of the creative process
Perhaps, as the English painter and jazz musician Alan Davie explained, "... ego is the enemy of true art".
Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA