London born artist, Madeleine Fenwick, has "always been
obsessed with materials, drawing, rendering and layers," leading
what she calls a "visual life - it is how I recall everything,
through pictures and drawings." Her work is deeply influenced
by her environment and "how I perceive the city and society to be,
in particular the urban environment."
"I think there is a constant cycle of creation and
destruction, relationships blossoming and dying." The London riots
particularly resonated with Madeleine as "the huge uproar in London
with the terrifying things going on, the fires that burnt that
night and the motivation and feeling felt is is still there."
There is a "knife-edge balancing act of existence that hangs
between creation and destruction," and her work entitled '8th
August '11', one of the days of the London riots, highlights the
chaos that ensued that day, billowing plumes of smoke, the darkness
of the night and buildings aflame - engulfed by darkness, yet lit
by fire.
Hugely influenced by Joseph Mallord William Turner and the
"phenomenally kinetic works of Julian Mehratu," her work uses
Turner's more expressive and emotive use of space to paint a
picture of a city, one in which she has grown up, lives and from
her work, we sense is all consuming. The paint "marks can be viewed
as pure smears of paint", but are "also evocative of recognisable
shapes and structures", a city skyline emerges, "focussing on tiny
details without becoming too faithful to reality." The works
entitled 'Byzantine', with rich use of gold leaf is in stark
contrast to that found in 'Toxicity,' the bitumen and dark oil
shades, suggesting pollution and decay. They are an emotive comment
on urban life, good or bad, something we should not
ignore.
Saddened by the extreme divide and inequality in society, she
describes her work as either "looking down onto this dark wasteland
or looking up into the light," you are amongst the dark seething
masses in this city or "in this light space, very much
transitional, you never know where you will be." For society to
really progress, "we need to strive for less division and really
pool our energies together to build something better."
Interview by Nardip Singh
Images supplied by Rook and Raven
Copyright © Madeleine Fenwick
