Painting

Where Are We

Paintings from the Château de Taurines exhibition with Agata Serafin — land, sea, and the question of presence.

Date: 1 juin 2017
Technique: Oil on canvas

Four Mixed media on canvas, 147 cm x 183 cm, 2017

Exhibition — Jeff Midghall & Agata Serafin, Château du Taurines, Centrès, France. Also shown as Hydro-Anger.

A collaboration of painting, photography, and installation. Both artists worked within the framework set by the exhibition title, though that framework reaches far beyond the simple question.

This series of paintings can all be read as responses to that title. Some answers are literal — physical presence in the world, what we see around us, whether on land or beneath the sea, a place well known to both artists, having done many thousands of dives between them all over the world. Other works respond through psychologically, socially, and environmentally diverse routes.

Galerie

Hydro Anger 2014

Wreck Operation I (Registered in Liverpool) Mixed media on canvas, 147 cm x 182 cm, 2017 This painting was the first in the recuperation of the seas series, a series which I wanted to be more hopeful and look more positively at the future. Especially, after having recently painted several works dedicated to the increasing mass of plastic accumulating in the oceans, and its negative effects on wildlife. I am a Artist, but also a diving instructor and as such I have dived the wrecks of many ships. Some which sank accidentally others which were deliberately sunk in order to create artificial reefs. I have seen with my own eyes how life develops and grows on the wrecks, how a barren structure, a blank canvas if you will, randomly amalgamates creatures. The molluscs, algae, and sponges to begin with, anemones, nudibranchs and corals, later the fish, crustaceans and larger sea creatures. It is that random build up of living materiel that I wanted to be reflected in the work. It shows a part of our planet seldom depicted in Art or seen by the man in the street, more accustomed to landscapes, street scenes or the occasional seascape, what can be viewed beneath the waves. The colour change at depth, where the red wavelength of light disappears followed by progressively until there are mainly greens, blues and purples and ultimately black. The painting alludes to the beginnings of the aforementioned re-growth, yet leaving the potential for further development. The build up and agglomeration of materiel is one that can be seen often recurring in my artistic practice over many years. In this series of work the letter fragments allude to the various wrecks origins, as this was the first in the series I wanted something autobiographical and so only a slice of the MID of MIDGHALL is visible. All ships and therefore wrecks show their place of registration in smaller font below the name. I was born (registered) in LIVERPOOL, this obviously allows the word LIVE to be incorporated into the work. Giving it a definitive and positive mantra that the sea will live given the chance, it can overcome the wreckage that has been done to it. Its recuperation may however be a long and difficult operation, which is what led to the play on words used in the title.

Wreck Operation II (EXXON) Mixed media on canvas, 147 cm x 182 cm, 2017 This second painting in the recuperation of the seas series, as in the first, is a representation of a fragment of a wreck, nature’s recuperation from a moment of environmental disaster which then leads to the creation of a new cleaner environment, where life can grow and flourish. In this painting the name fragment is a slice of the word EXXON. A name that still rekindles memories for me from my youth, when the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Alaska. Now almost 30yrs later many of the affected species have recovered some are recovering still and some have not. The oil’s level of pollution slowly reducing over time, as new life propagates is symbolised by the thick gloss black bottom of the painting. The fishing lure hanging off the surface, was found on the sea bed while diving. One of many I have recovered over years, a great number of which were found in “Marine reserves” where fishing is officially prohibited in order to allow fish stock and sea life to flourish in safety. It represents the battle we still face as the sea recuperates in these reserves, that many human beings do not care enough to stop their relentless destruction through continued fishing. A practice carried out on a daily basis in all the world’s oceans.

Untitled

Crude Mixed media on canvas, 80 cm x 80 cm, 2017 1st part of triptych (Crude Chemical Explosives)

Chemical Mixed media on canvas, 80 cm x 80 cm, 2017 2nd part of triptych (Crude Chemical Explosives)

Explosives Mixed media on canvas, 80 cm x 80 cm, 2017 3rd part of triptych (Crude Chemical Explosives)

Still Life: Whale Oil on canvas, 147 cm x 183 cm, 2017 This large work was a direct response to a news report that a whale had been found dead floating in a Norwegian fjord, the autopsy revealing it had died due to the presence of 30 plastic bags found in its stomach, forming a blockage. The bags depicted often take the form of other animals, many sea creatures finding it impossible to differentiate between the millions of plastic items floating around the oceans of our planet and their natural sources of food. With the application of paint for the images of the bags deliberately thin and grainy, almost as though the image is deteriorating in-front of the viewer, referring to the insidious formation of micro-plastics, which occurs as the larger objects are affected by UV and movement within the ocean currents. Creating yet another easily mistaken food source for even smaller forms of sea life, that would usually live off plankton.

Still Life: Whale detail 2017

The Face of Fear 2017

Ghost of the exploited child Oil on canvas, 20 cm x 30 cm, 2017