Exhibition
Amikam Toren. Blue Beard (Self-Portrait in Time)
21 May 2016 – 19 Jun 2016
Address
- 1st Floor, Ravensbourne Wharf
- Norman Road
- London
- SE10 9QZ
- United Kingdom
Amikam Toren shows unseen works from an ongoing series of self portraits.
About
For the series Blue Beard, the artist has been making a painting following a set procedure every quarter of a year since 1996. Over several months he collects the facial hair from his clipper shavings. This fine powder-like waste is mixed with glue and applied evenly onto canvas. On the reverse each work carries the date of completion and a description of any concurrent noteworthy, personal event. Hung in landscape format and chronological order, these paintings provide a timeline recording day to day life. Their subdued shades and even surfaces are modest records, resisting the expression of character or narrative. Alongside this work two additional paintings will be shown from a comparatively short period in the artist’s activities. Two paintings from 1992 record an impression of Toren, rendered in a pulp made from a section of red fabric. The remainder of this fabric hangs off the canvas, suggesting a theatrical reveal, as if it had slipped down to disclose the image behind.
Across Toren’s work objects of the artist's everyday are broken down, turned to powder or thread, and applied as a kind of pigment to canvas. Other materials employed as medium have included newspaper, gloves, and second-hand paintings.