metahang, 2008
Nottingham Castle & Art Gallery
Nottingham Based Artist Simon Withers intervenes in the Castle’s permanent display by turning carefully selected paintings to the wall, providing a rare opportunity for visitors to view art-works from an alternative perspective.
‘Looking backwards and reversing things…Simon Withers draws our attention not to the painted image, but to the way a painting was constructed and preserved. He casts the viewer’s eye toward the nuts and bolts and screws and workings that the majority of painters are at pains to hide.’ (Rex Barker)
For the ‘metahang’ installation I have selected 11 artworks for hanging. Five paintings have been chosen from the long gallery to be rehung and six further works have been deselected to make way for six further works that I have chosen to hang in their place (from the Castle’s storage room). The idea for metahang comes from my long standing relationship with painting and a belief that a painting is more than just a sum of its parts. For me, looking at a painting has seldom been just about the surface. I am interested in the unseen aspects of a work; not just the profound and sublime, but also the humdrum and the glamour-less. I am also interested in the way an object has been constructed and way it has been preserved.
