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
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