“McGill does not repudiate his blackness as a burden to his representation, he embraces its contradictions and complexities.” – H-Z Journal - Notes on Critical Black U.S. Performance Art and Artists By Clifford Owens. Featured artists – Wayne Hodge, Charles McGill and William Pope L.
* * * * * * * * *
SKINNED – New pieces literally wrestled into shape. Stubborn objects. There is so much resistance. Each step is a physical challenge. These bags were made well and not manufactured to come apart, especially not to be pulled apart. I have recently begun the pieces with the feeling of performing an autopsy – cutting the bag with a blade from ‘throat to pelvis’ and pulling apart the chest cavity – at least that’s how it feels…. The piece is always laying on its back as though on a slab and the process continues as though some form of autopsy or examination is being performed. The work has broken away from the early decorative state. It is establishing a very different tone.
Previous work:
This golf-and-race-inspired-work seeks to re-examine pre-and-post-civil-rights-era-generational priorities. I also wish to address the tensions and expectations that can exist between personal, cultural, and ethnic aspects of the identity. The golf bag shape is symbolic of the human torso.
The process I use to create these pieces, specifically the Bags, is called Decoupage (or découpage). It is the art of decorating an object (a found object vintage-style Golf bag) by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it (I use an archival, non-yellowing gel medium as the adhesive). These cutout are the result of numerous internet searches that are then arranged and composed in photoshop so as to create a visual dialogue and common contextual ‘DNA’ between the various images. Each layer is sealed with multiple coats of an acrylic varnish until the “stuck on” appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as The Art of Japanning after its presumed origins. In my work there is no sanding.
The varnished layers number into 20-40 and over the course of making the bag the varnish takes on a ‘Patina’ made from the slow ‘borrowing’ of pigment from each new and prior layer of imagery. These numerous layers act as a glaze on the surface and react to the light by warming the over-all appearance of the final layer. There is no sanding involved.
That said, as a traditionally trained painter I consider what I do, the process I use to make these objects, to be painting without paint. Using “found” digital pigments and recycled and re-appropriated jpeg imagery from very specific and sometimes random internet searches, I build my surfaces in much the same as built the surface of my early paintings. After giving substantial consideration to the structure of the object, as a painter, it is impossible for me to not act as a painter in the creation of the surfaces. As a result, the bags have the ‘feel’ of a painting.
Video of Arthur Negro I as he is installed at The Bridge Country Club – Noyack, NY
Recent Work
“McGill does not repudiate his blackness as a burden to his representation, he embraces its contradictions and complexities.” – H-Z Journal - Notes on Critical Black U.S. Performance Art and Artists By Clifford Owens. Featured artists – Wayne Hodge, Charles McGill and William Pope L.
* * * * * * * * *
SKINNED – New pieces literally wrestled into shape. Stubborn objects. There is so much resistance. Each step is a physical challenge. These bags were made well and not manufactured to come apart, especially not to be pulled apart. I have recently begun the pieces with the feeling of performing an autopsy – cutting the bag with a blade from ‘throat to pelvis’ and pulling apart the chest cavity – at least that’s how it feels…. The piece is always laying on its back as though on a slab and the process continues as though some form of autopsy or examination is being performed. The work has broken away from the early decorative state. It is establishing a very different tone.
Previous work:
This golf-and-race-inspired-work seeks to re-examine pre-and-post-civil-rights-era-generational priorities. I also wish to address the tensions and expectations that can exist between personal, cultural, and ethnic aspects of the identity. The golf bag shape is symbolic of the human torso.
The process I use to create these pieces, specifically the Bags, is called Decoupage (or découpage). It is the art of decorating an object (a found object vintage-style Golf bag) by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it (I use an archival, non-yellowing gel medium as the adhesive). These cutout are the result of numerous internet searches that are then arranged and composed in photoshop so as to create a visual dialogue and common contextual ‘DNA’ between the various images. Each layer is sealed with multiple coats of an acrylic varnish until the “stuck on” appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as The Art of Japanning after its presumed origins. In my work there is no sanding.
The varnished layers number into 20-40 and over the course of making the bag the varnish takes on a ‘Patina’ made from the slow ‘borrowing’ of pigment from each new and prior layer of imagery. These numerous layers act as a glaze on the surface and react to the light by warming the over-all appearance of the final layer. There is no sanding involved.
That said, as a traditionally trained painter I consider what I do, the process I use to make these objects, to be painting without paint. Using “found” digital pigments and recycled and re-appropriated jpeg imagery from very specific and sometimes random internet searches, I build my surfaces in much the same as built the surface of my early paintings. After giving substantial consideration to the structure of the object, as a painter, it is impossible for me to not act as a painter in the creation of the surfaces. As a result, the bags have the ‘feel’ of a painting.
Video of Arthur Negro I as he is installed at The Bridge Country Club – Noyack, NY
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