Project Contemporary Artspace

Undercurrents is an exhibition of work by two artists who, whilst the media they work in are different, share a common theme in using process, rather than a pre-determined design as the overriding impetus for creating a piece of work. Process, a method or event that results in the alteration of a physical object, substance or organism and unconscious transformation, is the theme that is represented in this exhibition.

© Peter Livingstone

For both artists the experiential development of generating the art work is the overriding influence and purpose of the art practice. It is a visual journey from the unconscious to the page; an unmarked channel with no determined direction. The work is a cathartic experience that draws on the autobiographical elements of the artists’ experiences both literal and vicarious. Ideas are inspired by memory, encounters and their personal environments. Its genesis, drawn from sources such as colour, line or forms are worked through until the significance of each piece begins to emerge. As the piece progresses memory, feeling and the images are drawn together to produce meaning.

Peter works using digital media and photography. He breaks down the literal forms to create abstract images and kaleidoscopes that are reminiscent of the 1970’s psychedelic era. The digital prints created from photomontages of images put together from a variety of sources. He literally and digitally, cuts and pastes pictures from magazines, the internet, and photographs taken of subjects from everyday life; he draws on a myriad of sources including the textile pattern of a favourite chair, or a manipulated photograph of a left over dinner plate. These are played with, recreated and processed in his Photoshop blender to create some surrealist and other self-expressionist prints.

© Andrea Hulmes

Andrea uses mixed media to extrapolate conceptual meaning using objects, or anything that comes to hand which is collected because it inspires or evokes a personal response. It can represent either a symbolic translation of a reference or a more guttural reaction at an unconscious level. The materials are experienced until a theme/concept evolves and develops out of the page. The art work may be drawn into or worked on with an eclectic array of material from cloth, wire, and sand, wood, stitching or anything that may be close by that works with the composition.

The title implies the hidden in the same way that a rip or tow on a coastline may not be seen to the naked or unobservant eye - it’s presence impacts profoundly on the unwitting swimmer; the images produced in the exhibition come seemingly from nowhere and yet are all the time present in mind’s eye to become the predominant influence in the composition.