Interview with Adrian Flaherty
Your work extensively features the juxtaposition of chaos and order, particularly in your Thames and coastal path projects. How do you decide when to let chance dominate and when to assert control in your artistic process? What philosophical or aesthetic considerations guide these decisions?
Almost all my paintings have a subject – a bridge, a landscape or more recently a pose taken from a life drawing session. So, when beginning a painting there is a goal of what I want to achieve but as soon as I let `chaos’ take more of a role, so the painting develops bit of a life of its own. These first two stages are usually completed very quickly before the solutions of fluid oil and acrylic paint are left to find their equilibrium and left to dry. The more painstaking process of editing parts and adding aspects to the painting is when I try to draw different areas together and almost try to discover what the painting wants to be like. I also sometimes return to it years later seeing it with fresh eyes and how it can be improved. I feel this process of balancing marks made by chance and more controlled style of painting important conceptually for the urban Thames Bridges project, based in the often frantic city life with the river and its dangerous currents hidden under the surface, away from the large bridge structures overhead. For the Cliffs and Beaches project this juxtaposition was more of an environmental concern – with the areas along the West Coast of the UK needing coastal management schemes to counteract the forceful weather conditions coming across the Atlantic Ocean from the USA. A metaphor of living in the `Western World’ and the pressures and various forces of capitalism.
The "Home-Works" project started under the influence of Brexit debates, symbolizing personal and communal identities. As the project has evolved, how has your conceptualization of 'home' changed, especially in the context of current political and social landscapes?
The shift from the work based in the interior of my flat to the production of paintings of the bridges along the River Thames changed the scale of where I wanted to express as the place I lived. London is where I was born and where I grew up and where it now has a population of about 9 million people bringing a countless range of cultures. So, the project in my flat was more of an introverted need to address parts of the home, with paintings for the walls, or a piece of functional sculpture for example Coffee Table (2015), or an artistic intervention in a particular space. This scale of the home could be seen as working at a national government level. The bridge and later the project of walking the coastal path along the west coast of England shifted the area of the home to be more of an international metaphor where the intention to make connections via the bridges to other people’s homes raised the importance of trade and my ever-evolving place living in the `West’.
You have moved from interior, controlled environments in your early works to the unpredictability of natural landscapes in recent projects. How has changing your physical environment influenced your artistic expression and conceptual frameworks?
The landscapes in these two projects were obviously being affected by a range of factors whereas my more personal space in my home was mostly influenced by my own decision making. The history of `Chance’ in art over the last approximately 100 years was still influential in my work throughout my degree course and doing this initial Home-Works project. However, making the decision to go out into the wider world (after finishing my degree and after Brexit), with its various sights, smells and sounds, the movement into an exploration and expression of the structure and the freedom of the world around us seemed a natural progression. The interventions I made to the spaces in my home had the intention of trying to respond to a space for example The Smell and The Taste (both 2018) which were positioned near the kitchen and bathroom. The project had its roots coming from my previous studies in architecture, but now in my paintings it had changed to how do I respond to the spaces that chance had helped form on the canvas. The shift can also be seen as from a more contemporary art project, following on from artists like Grayson Perry who made his House for Essex as a total artwork, to a return to landscapes and figures that go back such a long way in the history of art. My interest in Chance and its influences in that period of history, which had led to Abstract Expressionism developed in me the shared enjoyment that I find in the textures, methods and effects possible using the properties of paint.
You've utilized a variety of materials, from everyday objects to traditional art supplies. Could you elaborate on how your choice of materials complements the thematic elements of your projects? How do you think materials can alter or amplify the narrative of a piece?
I think that the use of materials is equally as important as the object produced. For example, in the scaled-up Baluster (2016) sculpture that I clad with receipts, newspaper cuttings and toilet paper to suggest the grain in a piece of carved wood. Those materials used can further impart a meaning of time and materialism that can obviously take the piece to a more complex interpretation. Many times, in my paintings I have used various combinations of 3 one-meter-long pieces of string, as part of the early stages of paintings. Initially laying out the subject in my paintings, giving an ironical nod to Marcel Duchamp’s Three Standard Stoppages artworks. This I usually combine with properties of fluid oil and acrylic paints. It continues the dialogue of control in the way the paint flows and how the mixtures of colours combine or stay separate from one another. This is similar to how some aspects of the cultures and peoples of the world stay separate from others whilst some merge and become influenced by each other. The materials that come into the home in the first project make the home what it is in terms of the personal or the functionality, whereas the move to the materials in the paintings are more universally used by artists and therefore are more worldly.
Your projects often reflect or respond to societal issues, such as Brexit or the nature of work and connectivity. What role do you believe your art plays in social or political discourse? How do you measure the impact or success of your work in this regard?
I enjoy expressing these issues in my artwork because the role of an artist nowadays can be seen in so many cases as the opportunity to communicate views and interact with the public. So, opportunities like this one to explain my work to a wider public, which I have been lucky enough to have had a few times, and through exhibitions of my work hopefully make others associate with and understand a bit more. The aim of the body of my work is to put across the importance of the ideas of the widening of boundaries and that we are all part of a wider world, however separate from some people or things we find ourselves. I am planning to contrast the project on the west coast of England with another project to the east of the United Kingdom. In this case by the `East’, metaphorically I mean the history of the Soviet Union and China and a more Socialist ideal. I feel that the state of the world at present, where there are several neighbouring countries at war, is obviously such a terrible thing to most of us in the West, so I am planning to produce some work that promotes the view that these separate states can work in better harmony together. Of course, it takes effort and a willingness to work for a greater good for everyone involved and I think that’s the message in the processes I use in my paintings. Politically the world is quite complicated now with far-right politicians gaining more popularity, conversely however in the UK we now have the Labour party in power which is traditionally Socialist (now pitched more centrally though) which I think shows the dream of a more socially responsible world still bubbles under the surface. The metaphor continues in my working method to try and show that as we saw with the Socialist Governments in the Soviet Union and Venezuela there is a warning of tyranny when too much control can easily become a big problem for the lives of the inhabitants.
In your figurative paintings, you explore what constitutes a person's identity. How do your personal experiences and the collective experiences of those around you influence the portrayal of identity in your art? Can you share a particular instance where personal or communal narratives significantly shaped a project?
The Home-Works project began when I moved into a new flat which had walls that were all white and it felt like living in an empty art gallery. This coincided with a collaboration project we had been assigned on my degree course, so I reached the decision to invite some family members to produce art in an event in the back garden responding to ideas of the home. Some brought items or art with them, and some responded to some of my work which I had produced prior to the event. I then tried to either incorporate or respond to their work, in turn filling up more spaces in my home. This process ties in with my later paintings where I am being influenced by things out of my direct control. As an artist, like anyone else, my senses are open to experiences from the world around me causing various feelings, events and indeed my identity. So, the spaces around the figures are often just as important and influential to the message of the painting as the boundaries of the body. For example, in The Dancer (2024), I used the grain in a sheet of wood to give the backdrop of a colourful life in the spotlight and tried to express this commonality of most people’s working life. As can be seen frequently all over the world the performer has three stages that they go through, like in anyone’s demanding working life: the vibrant exhibitionist, the exhausted body sitting (in the middle), and the crawling old, distorted figure (to the right of the painting).
There's a recurring theme of balancing life’s unpredictabilities with structured responses in your work. How do these themes reflect your views on the human condition, especially in your latest project focusing on the body and primary colors?
My paintings of figures usually are made up with the three primary colours as the basis, and sometimes black and white. The imparted meaning of the colours are based on the optical effects achieved by blue colours seeming to recede in a painting and reds coming forward. So I assigned the colour red to mean positivity, blue to be negative, yellow expression itself (based on emojis), white good and black bad. I have been creating work in which I try to show situations typical to humans with the positions of the figure taken from life drawing classes, combining and contrasting states put forward by the different colours, again letting the paint have a say in the development of the character or a state of being. As I have mentioned the subject is often firstly marked out with varying combinations of three 1-meter-long strings in each of the primary colours to set up an initial narrative relating to the pose. How a person deals with these factors in various circumstances is very individual and has any number of influences that cause how the subject feels. So, when the paint is poured or sometimes thrown onto the often horizontal surface of the painting, the individual character is encouraged to happen in its own way through the flows of paint. My interventions in my later editing help express my perception of the subject and the situation they are in more clearly, as can be seen in The Prayer (2021) for example.
As you continue to explore new projects and media, what are some themes or techniques you are eager to experiment with in the future? Are there specific areas or unresolved ideas from past works that you plan to revisit?
In terms of new projects as I’ve mentioned I would like to do an `Eastern World’ series, and also finish the walk along the River Thames this time from its source to the edge of London, and there is still a very long way to go before I have completed the West Coast of England project (having not even reached the edge of Cornwall in the South yet). I dare say I will also be going back into the storage room and adjusting a few of my old paintings as well but I think I will predominantly continue to use the same working methods. Having said that I am experimenting a bit. Painting in watercolours is something I have explored using recently, and I like how it can also be used to create marks that are a bit out of my full control, contrasting with pencil to add more purpose to the work. In some of my recent paintings, I have also been doing a slight variation by using one brush loaded with alternating oil and acrylic paint working my way through the series of colours and I have found that to be another good way to start adding texture and to explore meaning in the early stages. However, I do feel if I start to do work that is too `reasoned’ the next painting is usually much more chaotic at the start, so I think there is some kind of balance I need to keep in my art practice. Although I am quite settled in my new flat – the walls occasionally get rearranged with new paintings and the occasional bit of sculpture but when the time comes to move house to a blank canvas there will be new solutions to find I am sure to help make the spaces my home.
Your use of Photo-shopped sketches and other digital processes indicates a blending of traditional and modern techniques. How has technology influenced your artistic process and output? Do you see technology as an integral part of your future works?
In terms of modern developments in art materials there are some excellent advances in ecological paints with natural acrylics now produced and I have started using them along with natural oil-based paint, which has to be mixed with walnut oil, as an alternative to the traditional types of paint which are quite toxic and harmful to the environment. I also have been using an eco-friendly brush cleaner solution and an oil paint thinner which I feel are important steps that more artists are taking today. In this way I am trying to continue the message of my landscapes, and it would be quite hypocritical to not try and control my impact on the environment.
Your artistic practice appears deeply philosophical, particularly in how you relate the physicality of landscapes and architecture to human emotions and conditions. Could you discuss the philosophical or literary influences that resonate with your approach to art? How do they manifest in your creative process and final artworks?
I do try and bring as many philosophical ideas as possible to my work, the ideas of reason and chance have been so central to the evolution of art and philosophy over the last few centuries. Stemming from Immanuel Kant in the Enlightenment and my architectural interest in the arts and craft movement of artists like William Morris for example, further research gathered over the years contrasted this interest in reason and the aesthetic with the work of Sigmond Freud and the art of the Dada and Surrealism movements. Via the beliefs of Buddhism, and by Duchamp who would also help inspire minimalism as well as his importance to Chance art. Of course, like anybody there are countless factors that evolve my present state and people’s nature. This is what I think my figure paintings try to impart – that this chaotic state that we sometime become aware of in the environment around us, and in ourselves, has so many forces acting on both. With this idea in mind, I am also writing a book (mostly for my own self-awareness) that’s intention is to go back through all my influences that have come into my artwork. So, I am going through my old textbooks from school subjects, acknowledging my hobbies growing up where much of spare time was spent swimming (explaining my interest in flowing paint), to researching further my studies in architecture and the environment. Obviously, art that has been influential is also being further investigated and key exhibitions I have been to along the way. There are also many things I have read and kept for reference, added to the various other important personal events in my life, they all seem to influence, in some way, the work I have produced. All these mixtures of experiences and influences laid out should help my search for the possibilities of future works and see where this takes me.
