Belfast-born creative, Steven Quinn, has many strings to
his bow, from collage to paint, motion graphic design and
photography, that create a thought provoking body of work, youthful
in outlook and questioning of our place in society and the
universe. His recent collages "explore 1950s imagery, space and
apocalyptic explosions." Now living and working in London, we met
the young artist at his studio in Hackney Downs, with desks strewn
with intricately cut out imagery from vintage magazines, books and
posters. There are boxes of cut-out images for space, people, eyes
and landscapes in a studio resembling almost a cocoon of paper.
Photography books are a good source of material, "they usually have
big images to work with. I was in Paris a while ago and got a load
of fashion magazines, old paper has a great feel and have just
bought some NASA stuff," showing me the box of space cut outs,
which he uses to "layer up towards a background." An avid recycler,
"I never throw anything away really, all the cut outs I have of
eyes for example I keep, same with faces and other bits and pieces.
You never know where inspiration may come from and how they may be
reused. I do have a hard time cutting up books, kind of grew up to
not do that, but sometimes the science books are really out of date
or the theory is not relevant any more." In a way, re-purposing the
imagery gives it new life.
Paper quality is important, finding
himself drawn to the texture of vintage magazines and print. "Some
of the new stuff just doesn't feel as good in your hands. Someone
wrote a review hinting at a nuclear family and I hadn't clicked
about that when I was creating the series, there is a fascination
with 1950s imagery, space travel, explosions but nothing that I had
defined as such." The imagery is identifiable but reconstituted
into imaginary environments that have an underlying cheekiness and
sense of fun. We see couples point excitedly into the distance as
the landscape explodes in front of them, giant beautiful dames
basking amongst a bed of skyscrapers and buildings, old record
players streaming colourful confetti shaped as spermatozoa, dream
like space scenes of people populating the moon, chimpanzees riding
motorcycles. In others, the sun looms big and bright engulfing the
horizon, clowns drive tanks and giant skulls, made from collages of
equilateral triangles, merge images of space with landscapes on
Earth.
"War, women and people pointing are very
common themes", he laughs and the images used in the collages, once
cut out, become permanently combined, "you are committed to it, you
cannot undo once it is glued. Especially the Paris stuff, which is
very old from the 40s and 50s, some of it." Using spray mount, PVA
or Pritt Stick, "the paper is so delicate, it's like dust on your
hands when rubbed. Even as you glue it, it sometimes tears." Much
of the work is the result of spontaneous experiments, as with an
explosion, it is transient, impermanent but it can leave a lasting
effect.
The love of art was evident from a young age, "I always knew
I would do this, my dad traced our family tree back to Italy and
everyone has a creative background, furniture makers, woodworkers.
My great uncle, who my dad used to work for, used to paint old
cinema posters, there's an architect, my younger brother similarly
does motion graphics, my older brother is an art director. His
sister however doesn't draw at all, "I guess the male gene is very
creative in my family." Growing up in 80s, he was "addicted to
child craft books, one called 'Make and Do,' a whole series of
them," and his craft is still very much hands on, with other
influences such as "Transformers, robots, sci-fi, Star Wars," both
directly and indirectly influencing his work, which we see in the
Star Wars family portraits and the interest in lunar or
otherworldly environments. Recalling his time in school, "loads of
people used to come to our art rooms to do GCSE art," once he had
got a percolator machine, "it became a room everyone used to come
to for lunch", it was the social hub, as often art rooms are. "I
used to get called OCD by my tutors because of the repetitiveness,
using the medical scalpel for hours on end." He picks up the
scalpel and deftly strikes it into the cutting board with the aim
of an archer. How many times has he practised that I wonder? mental
note to self, entitle piece 'Scalpel Assassin.'
His dad was an Art teacher in Ireland, who now teaches
technology, "I always grew up drawing and kind of knew I was going
to Art College from a young age." Steven did an MFA at
University of Ulster in Belfast, "they have a great arts course
with a couple of famous alumni, such as performance artist Alistair
Mclennan, who is now the Research Professor in Fine Art at the
School of Art and Design. He always wears black, sort of like a
life performance in itself and is a cult figure in performance art
scene. There is also Willie Doherty, the University's Professor of
Video Art who has twice been a Turner Prize nominee, so there is a
good mix of people." Being an artist needs dedication and passion,
evident in the laboriousness of it all, but there are great rewards
to be had.
In between motion graphic jobs, the skull
pieces we learn took three months to complete. Revelling in being
able to dedicate so much time to a single project, he "ordered
three bits of 8 by 4 wood, got them cut into several pieces and
worked on the project flat out. At the time, I was really attracted
to Cubist art, deciding to make the work using triangle cut outs. I
used a computer program called Triangulate to help formulate the
skull, with the resulting 3D model used to plan the complicated
collage." The use of space imagery allowed Steven to "cover a
large background with emptiness, I always knew it would be light
and dark. Futurism, Dadaism. I don't see this as dissimilar to the
skulls, just simple geometric forms." The triangle shape holds
special significance, he has a triangle tattoo on his right forearm
and a circle tattoo on his left forearm, "I think it is such a
fascinating simple shape," which we see also employed in some of
his latest animation videos and other artwork, "I've always said
any tattoo's I get will be simple geometric shapes."
The triangle motifs have also been used on
remodelled vintage furniture for ReFound, "it was great because I
kind of collect furniture myself, I make sure I have a really nice
chair, a 60's Ercol table, addicted to that kind of thing. Jill
from ReFound, who started the project approached me and I happily
contributed. The first one I did was a bureau chest, was
quite interesting to make it all spacey and surfaced with
triangles, it was intensive also, with all the prep work, varnish
and layering required. Even needing to fix furniture, replace
dowels!"
Some of the American imagery was gathered
from his time in New York, in Brooklyn. "I used to go every summer
for eight years, when you could legally go for 90 days. One year I
paid for a visa for seven months or so. A lot of people from
Belfast and Dublin visit New York, some of whom work in a bar and
use that as trip money to explore America. I love America, I always
really wanted to go as a kid. This summer I'm looking forward to
doing East to West trip in October."
Having exhibited in London, Belfast and
New York, more recently, he has participated in The Other Art Fair,
represented by Jester Jacques gallery and FADpresents in a group
show entitled Electric Moon Candy. There are some exciting
exhibitions ahead, in addition to his work with the BBC in
animation, such as the James May series 'Things You Need To Know’
and his staple music video/ motion graphic work . Does he ever get
homesick? "Northern Ireland is very traditional, people still like
their Irish Watercolours. We've got a new Modern Art Museum, called
The Mac, which just did a Warhol exhibition. Belfast is getting
better, there are a few people doing street art and right now, I'm
quite content in London." We however sense there is a traveller at
heart, "I love Berlin and it's arts scene, it used to be loads of
Germans who would drink wine and stuff. It used to be so cheap, has
changed now nearly everyone is from New York or London. I'm kinda
newish to Paris, there are loads of little streets you find that
you are drawn to. I may even live in Paris for a while... become a
Parisian." There is an antique Visible Man toy on his desk, "got
that last summer in New York. Similar to objects I have in my flat
in Leytonstone, got it for $12 in a flea market. I love all this
kind of stuff." There also maybe several red wine bottles, we learn
he has a penchant for. Whilst topping up on the tannins, one thing
is for sure, there is nothing invisible about his
work.
Interview and portraits/studio
detail
Nardip Singh
Artwork images provided by
artist
Copyright © Steven Quinn
http://stevenquinn.wordpress.com/
Interview as featured in Unfolded
Magazine Issue 14