Cut and Paste – Clay Smith, Luke Tarpey and Mark Watkins
exhibition statement
Tarpey Gallery is pleased to present 'Cut and Paste' a group show with work by three Midlands based artists; Clay Smith, Luke Tarpey and Mark Watkins, who each bring an individual take on the art of collage. The exhibition will feature an eclectic collection of artworks with subject matters as varied as ‘the effects of media on society’ to the ‘science of pataphysics’.
From traditional collage techniques through to photomontage and digital collage all three artists may have a very different process and aesthetic but the core principles of this traditional technique stay the same - that of cutting and pasting whether by computer program or by hand, scissors and glue.
Clay Smith’s Photomontage prints feature Upside-down planes, empty townscapes, imposing structures that threaten our space, disfigured Hollywood icons, deconstructed insects: flies, bees, moths and butterflies all make up images that please and make unease the conditions of our own relatively secure environments.
Luke Tarpey's Digital Collages are concerned with media and it’s effects on society; from the phonetic alphabet to the computer, the change that is brought about by the shift in our sensory ratios after the introduction of any new media dictates the pattern of involvement in that new environment. His work attempts to deconstruct our relationship as a society to our media, through abstraction of basic shapes, patterns and found images within a formal structure.
Mark Watkin’s will be displaying two separate bodies of work. The first titled 'Black and White' is inspired by song titles that originate from the album Black and White released by The Stranglers in 1978, these collages explore themes which continually dominate the headlines in today’s society. With an air of menace the images tell tales of mistrust, conflict, threat, abuse and fear which surface in the surreal subconscious of dreams and nightmares.
The second titled 'Guns'is a series created as a reaction to the news stories that perpetually emerge from the United States of a gun shooting having taking place in public places such as a high school, cinema or shopping mall.