Artist in conversation: VIN WARRICAN
Vin Warrican, a UK-based visual artist, has striven to uniquely evolve his creative photography. Employing smartphone technology and digital techniques, he pursues a painterly aesthetic.
Follow Vin Warrican here.
- Welcome to The Holy Art. Could you tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin creating art?
As a child I was always drawing & telling myself stories as I went along. I taught myself how to draw from copying the characters & panels from American comic books, particularly those of the two pantheons of DC & Marvel. By the age of 10, I had developed what was described by my tutors as a ’mature’ style. My own perspective & aesthetics, at the time, however, was not as mature & very much gravitated towards the juvenalia of ‘Star Wars’ & superheroes. It would not be for quite a few years afterwards, during my Fine Art degree course that I would allow my own perspective to widen and my practice to mutate from an illustrative painterly style to embracing video & performance, and finally now, photography.
- What art do you most identify with?
In the last five or six years, I’ve come to appreciate Abstract Art & to pursue greater abstraction within my own photographic practice. Previously, I produced figurative or representational compositions, but the inevitable outcome (realised from their very beginning) of such images no longer satisfied me. With Abstraction, regardless of the medium employed, I feel there is far greater exploration within the formation of a composition before its potential, its narrative is fully realised on its own terms. And that is exciting to me: the discovery of that moment of realisation.
- Can you describe one artwork or series from your oeuvre that you feel was pivotal in your career?
By 2015 the inevitable realisation of figurative compositions no longer satisfied. The unplanned abstract details in their background, however, the result of my palimpsest use of smartphone filters & manipulation, began to fascinate. I set out to explore greater abstraction within my work. This marked a significant move away from the cathartic exercise punctuating my duties to a far more considered and painterly aesthetic. The continued employment of a smartphone, heralded the production of far more colourful and process-heavy compositions such as ‘The Proverbial Explosion’ (2015): itself inspired by both Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Explosion’ (1965-6) & the heavy, nimbus fluidity of Kim Keever’s aquarium photography. As an image, candy coloured, it was the proverbial ‘explosion in a paint factory’.
- Which other great artists inspire you and why?
I adore the paintings of the American-Taiwanese artist, James Jean for the sumptuous, lyrical fluidity of his technique & the subtle narrative obfuscation of his subject matter. Sandy Skoglund’s extraordinary photographic installations open a portal to surreal & hyper-real environments captured with abundant vividity. Erin O’Keefe’s citrus coloured, painterly geometries deceive and delight in equal measure in their tug-of-war between painting & photography.
- Can you talk about the process of creating your work?
Upfront, I feel as though I should ‘confess’ that the principle tool in making my art still remains an andoid smartphone. It is a device I embraced during (& due to) my decade as a carer for its accessibility, immediacy & versatility. Previous to this period I had used the classic Pentax K1000. I draw from a self-sustaining catalogue of past works that I subject to a palimpsest of filter apps such as ‘Vinci’, ‘SuperPhoto’ & further manipulate via a default editing apps & photoshop. This deconstructive approach coaxes new compositional potential to the fore. More recently I have engaged in photo transfer printmaking as another deconstructive process that is far less digital orientated.
- What advice would you give to emerging artists entering the art world?
Do not shut yourself away exclusively in your studio. Seek opportunities to meet, converse with other artists & see their work. Join a local collective or appropriate workshop in order to foster mutual support, the learning of techniques & collaboration. Engage in social media to further connections with a potential audience.
- What do you hope that the public takes away from your art?
I hope they will want to take away my art and put it on their walls. That is not meant to be merely a droll response, but an indication of my hope that viewers of my art may find new truths within the compositions upon each viewing that irresistibly draws them back again & again.
- What is your dream project?
My dream project is always ‘The Next Project’: to continue on; to avoid complacency; to retain consistency, coherence & passion; to evolve my art practice.
- Finally, are there any projects you are currently working on and able to speak about?
Towards the end of 2019, I engaged in a photo transfer printmaking workshop at Red Hot Press, a local printmakers collective in Southampton. The intention was to move away from what had been, for the last ten years, a predominantly digitally manipulated photographic practice to a far more ‘craft-worthy’ medium in which to further mutate my self-sustaining catalogue of past works into new compositions with greater cohesion. As a consequence, though, I am in fact now introducing photographic & digital interventions into this process by documenting the gradual deterioration of paper printing plates & other minutiae. The resulting images are later enhanced through Photoshop to bring about compositions that are not actually the default result of printmaking: my ‘Inkling Series’ was born.
