Barry Camps
LandE scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW language , suspending the viewers between imagination and reality marks out a considerable part of your production . How would you define the relationship between abstraction and representation in your practice ? In particular , how does reality and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work ? And how do you view the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works ?
Philip K . Dick said “ that it is an astonishing power : that of creating whole universes , universes of the mind ”. I ought to know , I do the same thing in a way . The creating process becomes a painting . The painting is real as long as you are absolute honest during the whole process .. I filter all the images and feelings I see and get every day from inspiration sources like movies , television , social media , discussions with fellow artists , history , the news and put them on the canvas layer by layer . It tells something about the way I see the world . Or at least my world , my life and how I react on it through my paintings .
Inviting the viewer to discover interpretations and associations , your works allow an open reading , a great multiplicity of meanings : associative possibilities seems to play a crucial role in your pieces .
How important is this degree of openness ?
Very . A painting isn ’ t finished before someone has seen it . Without the viewer it doesn ’ t exist , it has no meaning . The viewer completes the painting through his our her thoughts . My world enters the viewers world and together it becomes a new one . It ’ s the viewer who makes the painting , not just me . There are as many paintings as there are viewers . After making a painting I try to look at it as a viewer and create world number one and I hope a lot of new worlds will follow .
Your works have on the surface a seductive beauty : at the same time they challenge the viewers ' perceptual parameters suggesting the unseen , establishing a channel of communication between the conscious level and the subconscious sphere : artists are always interested in probing to see what is beneath the surface : maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature , especially of our inner Nature ... what ' s your view about this ? In particular , do you think that your works could induce a process of self-reflection in the viewers ?
Like I said , the viewer completes the artwork . As an artist you try to make
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