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Thames-Side Studios Viewing Room | Broughton & Birnie: Recent Paintings
Exhibition
Thames-Side Studios Viewing Room | Broughton & Birnie: Recent Paintings
20 Oct 2018 – 25 Nov 2018
Regular hours
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Sunday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Thursday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Friday
- 12:00 – 17:00
Address
- Thames-Side Studios
- Harrington Way, Warspite Road
- London
England - SE18 5NR
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- 161 / 177 / 180 / 472 Bus stops are located; east-bound and west-bound: Woolwich, Warspite Road (6 mins walk)
- North Greenwich (Take the Route Bus 472 towards Thamesmead Town Centre)
- Woolwich Dockyard (8 mins walk) and Charlton (12 mins walk)
Digital technology has transformed society creating a new world which co-exists and fragments our physical reality and due to the speed of communication no one is able to control the message.
About
The world has become a morphing jelly where reality and fantasy, fact and fiction dissolve and re-emerge as strange highbred forms transforming idea and meaning into a state of constant flux -this is the world’s new reality. Our paintings are produced in total collaboration, constantly swapping with each other and working on many canvases at one time. Our working method equates to a conversation – where each has their turn to 'speak' often working over the previous comment, thus the paintings develop through a state of constant reworking.
Our recent paintings often inspired by artists from the past still possess the beginning of our ‘conversation’ - The Oracle (2018) began with Goya’s Disasters of War transcribed through Harryhausen’s Golden Fleece (Jason & The Argonauts) and Greek myths to reflect the current lack of informative leadership. The Raft (2018) began life as a rendition of Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa and slowly transformed into a self-destructive scrapheap, where everyone fights to reach the top of the pile. I’m Glad to Hear You’re Doing Fine (2018) was inspired by Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch reflecting on Existence - in the film a man receives a banal call whilst holding a gun in a large empty office – it’s not clear if the man is preparing to kill himself or someone else, but at that moment of tension he has to stop and listen to the problems of a relative. In our version the man has been transported to the digital swamp (a metaphor for our information age) where he stands in the water, frustrated, as his head spouting the noise of contemporary life everything has to stop while he is rooted to the spot by the call.
We began collaborating in 2003 – first with lens-based work which developed into site specific immersive installations, concentrating on painting from 2014. We have exhibited widely over the past 15 years, with recent shows You Are Here, Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery and The Beep Painting Prize 2018, Swansea. - Broughton & Birnie, October 2018
