Swarm #2 Painting

Expressionist SURFACE ART Depictions of dream like imagery and manifestations of the imagination that create art that goes beyond the ordinary - that sometimes provokes understanding and sometimes bewilderment. A story telling that can be as puzzling as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey - or as sympathetic as David Bowie's A space Oddity - the art and themes takes us to alternative possibilities. Bingham is constantly searching for new mediums to innovate his ideas of visual expression - whilst developing themes he enjoys. In doing so, he moves as far away as possible from previous conventions of art-making - yet retains the basic principal of art being hung on a wall. The need for newness and his unwillingness to reprise the techniques of the past pushes him to constantly question and reinvent the process by which he works. We know the art has been made out of plaster, yet, the plaster has not been sculptured, cast, rolled or applied by knife - and so you look closer and wonder more deeply about the technique. The tools used are simply a pipette, finger and thumb and palette knife - acrylic ink, either pure or diluted, provide the colour that the plaster absorbs. Apply the pigment sprinkle the plaster - allow for drying - then scrape, seal and repeat the process over and over until the desired effect is reached. Swarm No.1 & 2 offers the viewer a deeper insight into the process of making the art. Both were undertaken as prototypes for a series that, to-date, have not materialized - yet, provides a firm grounding in the technique. The end result could be described as a large mass of lively colour buzzing around like insects - which in turn stimulate each other to an even more heightened state of excitement. Your eyes are forever pushed to move - never allowing you much time to rest and consider more carefully what you might feel or think. The colours sing, shout, mumble and scream - unifying to form a highly textured expressionist surface. The concept has a quality that deserves further development, and completion of a complete series as originally intended. In contrast, Moonchild - Dreaming in the shadow of Darkness, propels the viewer into a totally unrelated theme of fantasy, space fiction and drama. A small celestial planetary object can only be explained as on the verge of being destroyed or captured by an unknown sinister dark matter - the unnerving tentacles reaching out like some scary creature from an early Hammer Horror film. When you view the art for the first time, and attempt to interpret what you see, you cannot help but reflect that this concept has emerged out of some childhood nightmare (the theme is also used in Tormented World). Moonchild is an exceptional piece of work that unquestionably demonstrates perfectly the expressive qualities that can be achieved with the techniques developed with the medium. Whilst the techniques are similar, Obscured by Clouds (edge of hell) and (edge of heaven) push a more fertile imagination and a surreal theme of spiritual fantasy. Where do our souls reside when our time on earth has ended! Well, we all have our own private thoughts and ideas. However, interpreting these works, it seems we float inside white fluffy clouds and await our judgement. - once our final fate has been decided, our souls are then flung into a ring of rotating space dust rotating around either heaven or hell. The themes explanation is of course very flimsy, and perhaps requires a more devout mind. That said, the art showcases once again the artistic possibilities of the medium. Ideas and so inspiration for the making of art can come from anywhere and everywhere; from other artists work, from looking and listening, from an internal energy of calmness or aggression. I hope you take inspiration from the art and that you also find that inner feeling to create something that is your creative voice. But remember, art can seem ugly, but all overwhelmingly original art looks ugly at first. An observation by Jackson Read, July 2015