Boo Ritson

Since studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art, Ritson has had a desire to paint, though not necessarily to make paintings. This has manifested itself in painted objects, with the applied paint enclosing the object, like a skin, recasting it as an image of itself. Her new works take this progression further, enveloping a person's head in paint. Household paint is applied quickly and gesturally to the sitter's head, hair and clothes, covering them in a portrait of an imagined character. These are recorded as large colour photographic portraits, though they exist somewhere between painting, photography, sculpture and performance. These seemingly simple images are layered with complexities. Who is the portrait of, the sitter or the painted character?

The armature of the sitter's face gives the characters credibility beyond the painted surface. This work poses questions as to where art exists, and where the event unfolds. The physical event of a person having paint applied to their head and clothes and this being recorded by a camera is not the event we are looking at. The subject seems to exist in a different (fictional) time and space. We do not see the sitter but the character they have become. Their fictional personas extend beyond the thin layer of paint from which they are constructed; the characters exist outside of their image.



- Courtesy the Artist and David Risley Gallery





Künstlichkeit des Kunstwerkhaften

Die neuen Arbeiten der 1969 geborenen britischen Künstlerin Boo Ritson in der David Risley Gallery an der Vyner Street sind Fotografien, vor allem Porträts von Büsten, die einzelne Typen darstellen (…). Ihre Körper sind mit nassen, pastos aufgetragenen Farben bedeckt. Nur an den Lippen ist zu erkennen, dass diese, an die Manier von Duane Hanson erinnernden, überzeichneten Skulpturen reale Personen sind: Sie wurden vom Künstler unter Studiobeleuchtung in kurzer Zeit satt zugemalt und dann fotografiert. Das Spiel, das Boo Ritson den Betrachtern unterjubelt, betont die Künstlichkeit des Kunstwerkhaften: Aufgedonnert schmollmundet „Miss Five-Palms Nevada“, während der mörderische „Hitman“ - in Ganzfigur, anders als die anderen - unbekleidet und mit einem nackten Frauenrücken in der einen Hand, in der anderen eine Waffe, glamourös posiert (…).

Text: F.A.Z., 31.03.2007, Nr. 77 / Seite 48