Chris Nurse: ffffffffffffffffffff... @ Oriel Mwldan
Chris Nurse uses a variety of media including painting, printmaking, drawing and object making. He studied at the Central School of Art, the RCA and the British School at Rome and is Senior Lecturer in Painting and Printmaking at the University of Glamorgan. He paints from assemblages of found objects reminiscent of models made by non-artists, children and amateurs. The title of the exhibition, ffffffffffffff… is the sound of white noise from tuned out analogue technology; a no mans land between channels.
“I am interested in portraying the space between fantasy and mundane reality, between an imagined ideal and what is actually realized through contingent materials or deficiencies of skill. You could think of it as the difference between self-image and how others might see us. My work connects to the vanitas tradition within art where pride in learning and wealth are shown as futile in the face of the inevitability of death. I have been pulling apart a book entitled Celebrities of the British Army from 1900 and painting from structures created from the pages. The book has enormous pathos because these whiskered faces and scarlet tunics will be no match for events 14 years later."
