Drawing on the past, presenting the future

One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition. Photos...
One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition. Photos supplied.
One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition.
One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition.
One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition.
One of Morris-Clarke’s artworks from his ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues’’ exhibition.

Dunedin artist Flynn Morris-Clarke does not take his art too seriously but is still nervous about his first solo exhibition at Gallery De Novo, he tells Rebecca Fox.

There are probably not too many artists who will admit a picture taken in a pub's urinal is the inspiration for one of their works but Flynn Morris-Clarke takes the ideas where they hit.

That photograph of the wallpaper in the men's toilets has been transformed into an artwork being presented as part of his ‘‘Preference for Specific Virtues'' exhibition.

The title, he believes, says it all about his latest work which also features Hollywood stars of yesteryear - Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

While most of his work involves transforming photographs of ‘‘stars'', this time he has also captured his grandmother and a friend.

‘‘There is a lot of my own past, my personal history that I'm re-creating.''

The work featuring his grandmother is a collaboration with his photographer father, Scotty Clarke, who set the photograph up to portray an elderly ballerina.

Morris-Clarke, who has an undergraduate degree in art history and a masters degree in visual arts from Otago Polytechnic, investigated how people projected themselves through media, ‘‘how they are less like portraits, more like masks''.

‘‘It's not a physical thing; a psychological mask they can hide behind,'' he said.

Most of his works featured brooding, uncomfortable faces.

The process started with the photograph, whether it was taken by himself, by a friend or was a popular image, as in the Hollywood images.

‘‘These are often common images which can be found anywhere ... but they end up as quite unique, one-off hand paintings.''

Those images also harked back to a more romantic time people liked to recall, he said.

Unlike his previous work, which used

a photograph as a starting point, this time he used the photograph as the base for his work, adding to it, reimagining it and re-creating it.

Inspiration came from the days of the handpainted photograph.

He hoped the mix of the two works would make people think about what they were actually seeing, ‘‘whether the audience finds it impressive or disappointing ...''

At the end of the day, he was drawn to aesthetics and the use of portraiture as a form of iconism.

‘‘It is indicative of the generation I come from, the self-indulgence I think all art is.''

His works based on wallpapers were a metaphor of how he saw his work, he said.

‘‘It's just information on a piece of paper. I like the idea of art as wallpaper, the decorative element to it.

‘‘I want the work in many respects to feel old, to feel somewhat dated, vintage.''

He dismissed the idea that any artist's work could be original as a ‘‘redundant goal''.

‘‘There are a gazillion artists out there who borrow from other artists. It is much more interesting to pick and choose particular ideas.''

While he had shown his works at his father's gallery in Dunedin before, it was his first exhibition at Gallery De Novo.

He was also for the first time going to add a soundtrack to one of his works which visitors to the gallery could listen to on earphones.

It was a way of combining one of his other jobs - DJing - with his art, in a similar way.

‘‘DJing is taking someone's music and making a compilation of sorts. We all do it in society in what we choose to wear or listen to.''

 


To see

Flynn Morris-Clarke, ‘‘A Preference for Specific Virtues'', Gallery De Novo, opens April 15

 


 

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