Discreet Eye Spy

There is a joke on the Barbican Estate that flats come equipped with telescopic lenses. In fact, I think this is better characterised as a case of "discreet and polite eye spy". Living and working as an artist on the Estate, my work reflects the experience of being immersed in an urban landscape. It is the first thing that confronts me when I wake up and as in "Frobisher Crescent View from My Bed", the brutal forms are the last things I see at night. The urban landscape takes on a life of its own in the early evening. Being short-sighted (and without a telescope!), I see dark, strange amorphous forms and Hopper-like interiors. Despite the anonymity and alienation of living in the centre of a large city, there is a sense of comfort in our Crescent. We may not know everyone personally, but there is a conversation to be had between strangers in the visual spectacle in these small paintings of interiors. I feel an intimate connection with "The Flat with the Two Lamps" across the way and there is a strong sense of "home life" in the Crescent which these works attempt to capture. I feel much like "an artist-anthropologist" watching, observing and depicting life around me. There is an element of imagination that lends itself to my documentation here and a bit of guesswork. I include myself in the eye spy game; capturing my image in the glass of my studio as I work as well as the reflections of the Estate and the interior of our flat.