The confusing history of an unfinished, un-titled, unimportant painting

In the early days of Wallywoods.com, I thought it a fabulous idea to exhibit the website (i.e. my computer) as if it were a lump of art in a little Prenzlauerberg gallery called, roughly translated: THE WORLD'S END EXPERIMENT LABORATORY. The computer I set on an altar within an amphitheatre of chairs, but the walls seemed a little too bare, so I decided to hang the above painting, as it was already featured on this page on the site. It went up nicely on a pink wall behind the piano next to the kitchen. The other walls then seemed very dull and were soon covered with old BIG CHAIR sketches, including one I had fleshed out, mosaic-style, with colourful Hitler-head postage stamps (I wonder what became of it? If you know it, and know what happened to it, please let me know!). When the guests arrived the LABORATORY's atmosphere was one of mild curiosity tipping into utter bewilderment. The exhibition was called PORTRAIT OF A WEBSITE. The following text was designed to accompany and enlighten. Only in English, it was distributed among a small but desirable German public desperate to get served at the tiny little bar...


end of summer, 2001

Ceased painting again in further endeavours to broaden horizons and earn a few bucks. Task this time - to replace the maze like and problematic paintings website (paul-woods.com) with an up-to-date, easy to access projects website. Courted by convenient, non-sensual but somehow sexy allure of modern household computer imaging. Bought a computer. Ultimately arrested by pretty new secretary-mistress, this time of my own construction: 'wallywoods.com'.
- Her loyal, sanitary categorisation of so many unsorted piles of past enterprises.
- Her hints at financial improvement (!)
So, no new works to show off at "World's End" exhibition, November 2001.
Decided instead to hang one painting for cross-examination (acrylic on canvas, 1.2 x 2.4m):

bedroom

Opening up some of the history of this seemingly never-to-be-completed work is to track the course of the artist's intentions, developments and frustrations over the two and a half years since its grand beginnings in a bedroom in Paul Robeson Street...

setting out

Aim: to construct the image of a three-dimensional room in a believable world using geometrical perspective and to marry it with the style(s) of that time,
i.e., flat, abstract, comic.

The setting: A child's room-come-bunker in the former Yugoslavia.

the serb

The attempt to create an environment, both in painting technique and in reality, in which to introduce and integrate portrait painting to the developing style (see intentions).
(The subject, a Serbian acquaintance, has proven too illusive ever to have been imprisoned within the awaiting background. He may be captured yet.)

discovery

The texturising of surfaces and differing treatments of individual objects as a means of enhancing depth and perspective of the scene as a whole.
The exhibition at Dresdner Bank (2000) included re-worked pictures from the series "Learning Games for Babies". These were painted-over as test pieces for continuing work on "Isidore the Serb".

embassy

The painting, with yet another new title, was included in my application for the doomed open-air art project "Art Embassy at the Reichstag" (2001). By the time the application was turned down, the scene now depicted in "The Child's Room" had absorbed references to the Embassy project as well as to the works of other artists involved. Many of the additions were pasted on in collage fashion (the image above pre-dates this period).

The landscape beyond the bunker had always symbolised the aftermath of battle, or the still before the apocalypse (the spinning-top mushroom-cloud etc.). The addition of a Don Quixote puppet resting forlornly in the gateway summed up pretty well the organiser's feelings at the end of another industrious, hopeful, stressful, disappointing, stoned and penniless summer.

    

As a foot-note to the above invitation images:
FUN WITH THE GIRLS
- a little web exhibition:




Update, November 2002
Talking of which, finding myself between homes this year, trusted friend Corinne volunteered to store the painting on top of the filing cabinet at her band-booking office in Friedrichshain. She sent an e-mail:
"I'm a bit brain damaged today. No news. I just about rescued your painting from the office. Tom had given it to his roommate, she was going to paint over it. They also threw all the Kultuhr paperwork and important tax forms into the bins so we had to get them out again. Bastards..."

Update, September 2006
The picture decorated Corinne's bedroom for some years before I collected it (removing the frame to roll it up - the swasticas visible in the carpet aquiring curious looks as I fumbled with the thing on the Berlin subway) for the opening of Berlin Big Chairs (BBC), which opened at Gallery Wallywoods in Kreuzberg on July 1 2006. The picture was then sold in August to newly-weds Cord and Birgit for 500 euros. On 9 September, newly stretched on a sturdy frame (locally constructed for 70 euros), it starred in the Finissage/close of exhibition of BBC, was slightly altered again in front of an audience enjoying the band 'Red' at the time (annoying white brushmarks removed), and a large American appeared to wish to buy it for 4000 euros (see Wallys Log). This would have broken all records and paid a few debts - however, the 500 euros recieved with thanks from Cord and Birgit did in fact break all records in my history of selling art (my own or anyone else's), and I am happy.

Even though it is still not finished.

"A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man."  ARTHUR MILLER