Steven Rendall
Figures in the grounds of other figures in the figures of other grounds 2022
oil on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Artist statement:
Figures in the grounds of other figures in the figures of other grounds collides several categories of images together into a skewed world. The puffer jackets are ordinary things. The shoes belong to the English composer of electronic music Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001). Derbyshire recorded the sounds of ordinary objects onto magnetic tape and physically stretched the tapes to warp the sounds into more abstracted forms. These were repeated, re-recorded and filtered through various pieces of electronic test equipment to create her compositions.
This painting parallels Derbyshire’s method by warping captured images, transferring them via semi mechanical means of a grid and repeating them so they move towards abstraction. The painting is a tribute to Delia Derbyshire in its imagery and its method, translating her audio methods into the visual.