(click image for more details)The Holy Land' Series 03, Mount of Temptation, 2007
29cm x 21.8cm
Woman Contemplating a Landscape (after Friedrich), 2006
30.3cm x 25cm
Edward Ashton's work is the result of his constant gathering of found imagery – from magazine cuttings, photographs and old postcards – and its subsequent cropping, editing and collage within each final piece. Through this process of careful selection and manipulation Ashton aims to create 'unique settings, situations and juxtapositions that reference a range of themes from Romanticism and Pop Art to current affairs'. There are hints of Martha Rosler in some of the works, where 'glamour girls' and luxury yachts populate both idyllic landscapes and cataclysmic war zones.
Predominantly focused on landscape and architecture, the images tend to be of a non-personal nature. Landscapes veer towards the dramatic, often inspired by Romantic painting. Similarly, the buildings depicted are usually on a monumental scale.
The self-acknowledged influence of German painters both art historical and contemporary, including Caspar David Friedrich, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer and, more recently, Martin Kippenberger, is evident throughout his work.
Most recently, Ashton's work has moved away from the depiction of one scene, with a more varied collision of image sources and subject matter within the one piece. The artist intends this newer work to be 'more open to viewer interpretation with a combination of satirical, contemporary and playful images'.
Paul Stone, 2008
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find out more about Paul Stone
