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Alexander Heaton

Date of birth 18.Jul.83
Place of birth North Yorkshire
Country of residence United Kingdom
Contact alex.heaton@yahoo.co.uk

Mountains by their very nature are battle grounds of snow and ice constantly in motion. Oil paintings themselves are therefore most suited to depicting landscape as they originate from minerals found within great mountains. This gives my work a geological honesty and the absurdity of this drawn-out process is vital to it as it brings a greater understanding of "naturalism" in the romantic sense. Crushed rock labours on my behalf, servicing the depiction of itself and its own qualities. In this context the work is ironic and portrays the fragility my own and man's personal labours compared to millennia of catastrophe and compaction.
Whilst mountaineering in the Alps, Mongolian Altai Range and all over Great Britain I have taken many slides and digital images which I frequently use in my paintings.
However, my work employs modelling and not simply depiction of specific places. The paintings act like doppelgangers of the natural forces at work and at once become more real than the places they evoke.
The paintings are set in the world of HO scale model Swiss rail landscapes, which I construct dioramas of utopian alpine landscapes to a very high level of detail. Once these scenes are documented on the camera I manipulate the images and they are then merged with background montages which I have composed. In this sense the work is referencing the post war culture within Germany of constructing model towns and important lost landmarks within ‘Hobby cellars’. This has for many years been seen as a seedy somewhat shameful pastime for grown adults living in post war Europe. However for many people it became a kind therapy and a way to rebuild (in part on a small scale) what was destroyed in the horror of Allied bombing campaigns. This sensibility of striving to maintain control when the world is falling apart at the seams becomes inherent within my work. Seemingly flawed pictorial space within my work such as wonky perspectives or strange lighting suggests an honest acceptance of the impossibility to console the inconsolable of a fractured and wanton unnatural world. I am interested in the desire to preserve what once was prior to the devastation and mechanized contamination of landscapes in the twentieth century, even if this struggle is futile and destined to failure. This for many holds sinister overtones, like desires akin to collecting dark artifacts from the deep trenches of history. My stand point is that it is essential to draw awareness to what once was and would become, so one is never destined to repeat the past traumas of time. Such belief systems are held firm within my work and staunchly defend their right to exist as much as be questioned and disproved. This comes from a strongly held conviction of mine for never forgetting ones past and recognizing its influence upon the future.
The paintings operate in the traditions of such painters as Casper David Friedrich, James Phillip de Loutherburg and more recently Ian Skoyles.

Exhibitions 00' Nature Part 2, 15.May - 14.Jun.08, Contemporary Art Projects, 34% PORK, 23.Feb - 11.Mar.07, Bartlett's Gallery, Curious new terrain, 21.Jul - 02.Aug.06, Nolias Gallery SE1


www.flickr.com/photos/alexheaton

 

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