Approved: 20.05.2016

Edward Pile

Artist, Maker, Writer

Archived
Approved: 20.05.2016

My work explores types and possibilities of pictorial order, intelligibility and meaning. Even the most abstract forms have associations, and it is difficult to look at any painted form without seeking a horizon, a sense of weight, or direction of light. Indeed it is exactly these perceptual demands, coupled with the richness of the associative imagination that abstraction allows, that fascinates me. One of the most elusive and interesting struggles is to find the balancing point in which the work has both powerful allusions to the world of objective experience, a real emotional depth, and the self-sufficiency and richness in the abstract values of self relation across the picture plane to ensure that long viewing remains rewarding.

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  • Location: Wivenhoe, England

Artist Statement

My work explores types and possibilities of pictorial order, intelligibility and meaning. Even the most abstract forms have associations, and it is difficult to look at any painted form without seeking a horizon, a sense of weight, or direction of light. Indeed it is exactly these perceptual demands, coupled with the richness of the associative imagination that abstraction allows, that fascinates me. One of the most elusive and interesting struggles is to find the balancing point in which the work has both powerful allusions to the world of objective experience, a real emotional depth, and the self-sufficiency and richness in the abstract values of self relation across the picture plane to ensure that long viewing remains rewarding.

Painting allows a spontaneous working style. Each image is of  itself, and must stand by itself. Each painting is a journey that begins from a different place and ends in yet another, holding and releasing.

Each image is the record of a process of imaginative uncovering. Painting has a moral dimension of openness, care, and investigation, which it invites the viewer to share. It is a variety of meditational practice, and it demands from the viewer that all presuppositions are dropped and the image is regarded with an open mind and spirit. Art is the meeting point of infinite possibility with subjective necessity.

My main concern is with the intuition of possibility, in particular in connection to our changing relation to nature, our understanding of it and our place in it.

CV & Education

Born in 1965, after an arts foundation course, I began exploring the wider world, working on a croft in the Orkney Isles, as a security guard and then motorcycle courier in London, then teaching English in Edinburgh, London, Sicily, Thailand, Taiwan, and Bosnia. I also often worked on the family farm over harvest. During this period I developed interests in Buddhism, Tai Chi, film making, literature and the violin. I did a degree in fine art at Sheffield, producing film, video, drawings and sculpture.  I then came to The University of Essex to do an MA in philosophy. In 2005 acquiring a studio space in Wivenhoe allowed me to start painting. In 2009 I completed a Ph.D in Philosophy at The University of Essex. Since then I have become a full time artist.

Education
1996 BA Hons Combined Media Arts, Sheffield Hallam University.
2001 MA Continental Philosophy, University of Essex.
2008 PhD Modern European Philosophy, University of Essex.

Exhibitions
2005 Colchester Art Society Open.
2014 Colchester Art Society Open.
2015 Sentinel Gallery Wivenhoe Opening Show.
2015 Argentum Gallery at Wivenhoe House Hotel.
2015 Harwich Open.
2015 Solo show, ‘Terra’, at UCS Waterfront Gallery, Ipswich.