Love Chair

‘Love Chair’ was based directly on a dot book drawing. The Dot Book set of three books of ink drawings are a major part of my Research Fellowship for the University of Arts, London through which I am exploring the role of visual notation. The books have almost the appearance of a publication, except they are original. The book starts plain white with a dot on the front so I know which way up to open it. A dot is percussive, something like a clash of cymbals with the sound down, the physical starting point of every handmade masterpiece, akin to Lucio Fontana’s slashed canvas paintings that represent that particular moment perfectly. The ideas explored led to a series of works, ‘From This We Can Tell’ the first set of etchings working with Maurice Payne in New York. Working proofs were exhibited in Amagansett Arts, New York 17 July-1 September 2004. This was followed by a series of large aquatints of chairs and there are three variations on ‘Love Chair’. The plate for the aquatint proved arduous. After three attempts (each taking more than two days) to redraw this image in sugarlift onto another copper plate freehand, all of which failed, I worked eventually from a line tracing transferred onto the plate using ferric oxide rubbed onto the back of the tracing paper. I went on to further explore this subject through three paintings, similar in size to the print, in oil paint. The larger oil ‘Love Chair’ was shown at the Royal Academy, 2005. The drawing in the first Dot Book of this chair was made in 2001. in a waiting room in Scunthorpe General Hospital. The work was further disseminated through its use as cover illustration for Paul McCartney’s 2007 Album and various Royal Academy marketing productions.