Darren Neave
Lincolnshire/London
Sculptor, collector and hoarder. I find it hard to separate life and art, I live in my studio, art and my practice are omni-present.
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My practice acknowledges a repatriation into the rural landscape, dealing with compulsive hoarding and collecting. Recognising horror vacui forms the basis for my work, where art and the quotidian collide, creativity arises.
My work acknowledges elements of ‘Peacocking’ and Display or more accurately - Visual Merchandising (VM) - the notion of ‘enhancement’, ‘animating’ and ‘transforming’ objects or (branded) products including the discarded and the unloved. Arrangements, displays and the positioning of objects, products and artworks are informed by a knowledge of visual merchandising and product placement. Alluring effects, embellishment and careful adjacency are paramount.
VM is a tool of commercialism, employed by artists such as Johns and Rauschenberg in their early lives, then revisited within their artistic practice.
I explore the methodologies – both formal and psychological – of display and presentation, borrowing from the languages of the museum, advertising, interior design and retail.
Consumerism excites and disgusts me - both fuelling my work - questioning and critiquing, but more importantly - it let’s me create mischief and mayhem…
Crepuscular works test visual and sensory perception. There is misinterpretation, little or no clarity, which can inspire mishap and mischief. Other senses need to be bought into play, I have been introducing olfactory elements to enhance and titillate, to add extra layering and meaning. I have been using ways to make olfactory sculptural pieces, ways that ‘enhance’ and add flavour by remixing and representing existing pieces.
I want to look into approaching galleries to pursue this further, linking other concerns with appropriating existing objects and collections and questioning the necessity of creating "New" objects. There must be be respectful repurposing and thought. Acknowledge artists like Cornelia Parker and Leo Fitzmaurice, with respect to the concepts laid down by Steven Claydon and Simon Starling.
I would also continue with my intrigue into heraldry and notions of branding, as an artist who uses a small but vibrant colour palette, I want to explore the meanings within this recognition and balance outside of my work, and in places out of my control.
I want to make more complicated pieces, combine the enhanced readymade, the acquired or the purchased. I want to look at the spaces within these processes and develop further with my passion for art manufacture and for generating ideas and questioning the reasons why we produce, and do the things we do. I have been looking into PhD proposals, this accolade and award would greatly inspire me.
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