Paintings, Rubbings and Exhibition, 2016
David Bowie
On 10 January 2016, the day David Bowie died, I spent the evening painting in response to the news. What started as five canvases became a longer chain of work: rubbings taken from the paint, one rubbing worked into a dress, and eventually an exhibition at Islington Gallery Space in Salford.
The Night
Fabric and paint were gathered and the night was spent making, throwing paint, working quickly and letting the process stay loose, emotional and instinctive rather than controlled. It was not planned as a body of work. It was a way of doing something with the evening rather than sitting with the news.
Five paintings came out of that night and the days around it, each built from the same repeated gesture, a wide circling motion returned to again and again across the surface.
The Paintings
The five canvases share a palette and a gesture rather than a single image, dense fields of blue, red, yellow and green built up in layers, with gold leaf catching the light in a few places on each one. None of them were painted with Bowie’s image or lyrics in mind. The connection is in the making, not the motif.
The Rubbings
From the painted surfaces, rubbings were taken onto paper and fabric, pressing a second sheet against the wet or textured paint to lift a mirrored, softer version of the same gesture. This act of transfer and repetition became central to the project, letting texture and residue carry across from one material to another rather than staying fixed in a single object.
The Dress
The exhibition was a joint show with the artist Sally Gilford, whose dress hung alongside the paintings. At the show it was displayed headless at the centre of the room, arms out, suspended above a low platform lit with candles arranged in a triangle, between the paintings on either side of it.
The Exhibition
The finished paintings and rubbings were shown as a joint exhibition with Sally Gilford at Islington Mill, a converted mill building in Salford, with the five paintings hung in a row and Sally’s dress suspended in the gap at their centre. Presented as a quiet tribute rather than a literal homage, the show worked as a moment of reflection, using process and material as a way of marking loss and influence through making.
Commission a Similar Project
If you are planning an exhibition, or work that needs to move between painting, print and object, get in touch. This kind of project works best when the process is allowed to lead, rather than being planned end to end in advance.
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Questions
What was the David Bowie project?
A body of paintings, paper and fabric rubbings and a dress, made in direct response to David Bowie’s death in January 2016 and later shown as an exhibition in Salford.
When and where was the work made?
The paintings were made on the night of 10 January 2016, the day Bowie died, in the studio.
Where was it exhibited?
At Islington Mill in Salford, in March 2016, as a joint show with the artist Sally Gilford.
What are the rubbings?
Paper and fabric pressed against the painted surfaces to lift a second, softer version of the same gesture, translating the original paintings into a secondary set of works.
What is the dress?
A piece by the artist Sally Gilford, shown alongside the paintings as part of the joint exhibition, displayed on a headless mannequin above a lit candle platform at the centre of the room.
Can the paintings or rubbings be seen or commissioned now?
Get in touch to ask about the original works or to discuss a similar project.
From the Journal
Six Months, from Paint to Exhibition
Dated entries from the studio, from the night the paintings were made to the joint show with Sally Gilford at Islington Mill.
Selected Work