David Hockney wants us to see differently
Some thoughts after seeing Bigger & Closer (not smaller and farther away) in London
Today, walking around London as I rode up the escalator at Kings Cross, I noticed a poster for a David Hockney installation I had forgotten about that was still up. I made a mental note and continued upwards.
I was on my way to Sotheby’s to see the Freddie Mercury estate collection that will be up for auction next month and, I kid you not, the line was almost making a 360 turn around the entire city block. I along with a couple people I met walking there turned on our heels in the other direction. I don’t think Freddie would have wanted me to spend my last day in London waiting in line. Instead I made my way back to Kings Cross and the Lightroom building to see about David Hockney.
(He was sadly not there in person.) His show, Bigger & Closer (not smaller and farther away), is a large light installation and movie about his art practice and his interest in the history of perspective and photographic techniques at Lightroom in London. The movie was broken up into sections like Perspective Lesson, Pools, and his various landscapes from LA, and Yorkshire. He narrates it, sharing snippets about what inspired him to make each body of work as well as some information about his process. Meanwhile is work is animated and projected at 10x the size around all the walls of a warehouse-sized interior.
My favorite, because it was new to me even though I’m a big Hockney-phile, was Wagner Drive. It was inspired by the winding roads near his home in LA on Nicholas Canyon. He created a multi-channel video piece by setting up a number of cameras on his convertible then drove through along the road while Wagner playing from the stereo. He says in the video that it took him multiple trips to determine the time and place to start the Wagner piece so that it crescendoed right as they got to the top of the mountain, which is an impressive commitment to the concept considering he could have tweaked it in post-production.
As I am currently working on a new solo show inspired by the landscape of LA, finding this exhibit was perfect timing. It reminded me why I loved the mountains in and around LA and how much mystery and texture they offer, and how much of a contrast that is to the flat, industrial parts of the city.
What I love about Hockney, aside from his great eye for moments and his stylish use of color and line, is that he is able to translate his concepts and style into so many different mediums. He’s always curious about learning new techniques and technologies, mixing old and new with mediums like Xerox machines, digital video, and his most recent iPad drawings.
In my own practice, I find it can be easy to get stuck in a rut and focus only on what I know, or on the thing that might be expected of me. If I’m not sure what to make I don’t really play around. I grab a small canvas and make a new oil painting. But what I am feeling after seeing this show is by cutting off other options of art making I am limiting myself. It’s not that Hockney isn’t a painter, it’s just that he approaches his ideas in a lot of ways before settling back into painting each time. I think that’s why I like doing things like the podcast or writing, but then it takes me out of that visual artist’s brain a bit more than doing something like a sculpture or a video might.
Below is an example of another multi-channel video from his Yorkshire series.
I found this Youtube video of the install from his show at the DeYoung in 2017.
I’m curious for my own art, what would happen if I challenged myself to work on something related to landscape paintings that is not 2-d, while at the same time making these paintings for my show. It is something that I am going to push myself to do once I get back to LA and I will keep you posted here.
Do you have any tricks to get yourself outside your comfort zone in the studio, while also working on a deadline? It can be hard to produce for a deadline or a set of expectations and be super creative at the same time. Let me know.