University of Salford 2006/2007
Sean Caherty
My work is about playing games with paint – exploring and exploiting its properties by way of process-led strategies. The studio is my laboratory, and here I set up experiments in paint in order to have direct engagement with medium. The physicality of paint itself is fascinating and I believe it does not have to refer to something else in order to have currency. As a result, the outcomes of the procedures do not codify or encapsulate meaning like a traffic sign, but release it, conjugating with forms to create meaning.
Paint is delivered in many ways, but always without brushes. Confronting the perceived impracticalities has led to processes which upset and deconstruct accepted notions of painting; rather than the confines of surface and flatness, the potential of form is realised in paint – we encounter paint as sculpture. The procedures may vary, but the core methodology is to play with the paint in all its guises; liquid, skins, solid fragments, drips, pools; essentially 'painting' when others may have finished.
For example:- In one series of work several tins of paint are left opened, allowing skins to form on the surface of the paint. These circular shapes of 'cured' paint are removed and transferred to a surface. The surface is then tilted in order to encourage the 'cured' skins to travel under gravity. The following day, when the paint has dried, the surface is rotated and the procedure repeated, over a period of days, weeks or indeed months.
The 'cast' series sees a small amount of liquid paint poured into containers – enough to coat the inside – and then left to dry. Again the procedure is repeated until the desired structure is achieved, at which time the mould provided by the container is removed to reveal the 'cast' piece. The result may be a heavy substantial object. Alternatively, with limited applications, a thinness of less than 2 millimetres can be observed.
Along with taking paint out of the tins – the usual way – the tins can be removed from the paint. When the paint is nearly exhausted / solidified the metal is peeled back, as it is on tins of corned beef or sardines. The paint is thus liberated and the tins are left holding their contorted poses. Other work has included the collection and presentation of the detritus from other artists' studios. This can include all manner of material which has been discarded such as canvas off-cuts, lids, paint from nozzles/tubes/caps, etc; this is then installed onto walls, floors, ledges or other architectural devices.
