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conventions, he also uses the painting process and the physical attributes of the final works to unsettle the viewer’s perception of the paintings.
In the new commissioned works the images are blurry and unclear. Cove references their origins as low quality found images taken from the internet, as well as deliberately distorting what the viewer sees. In many of his paintings the figures and images are frequently not complete, falling off the edge of the painted space. Again, we are unsettled, we are prevented from seeing the whole picture, raising the question of what else is going on.
Presentation
In terms of physical presentation paintings are often arranged in groupings, like a storyboard, eg Long Play (2002), where a narrative linking the work is implied or suggested. Once again Cove’s work does not easily give all the answers; a relationship between the images might exist, but what is it?
In Tilted the way that the paintings are hung calls into question the height that paintings are conventionally placed. Whose eye level are they hung for? Another convention is queried by the casual, almost precarious way that the paintings on wheels are leant against the wall. They have a mobile, flexible quality. They are less concrete, they have an ambiguity, which once again disrupts or distorts the traditional way that painting is viewed.
Biography
Ben Cove lives and works in Manchester. After completing a degree in Architecture at Nottingham University, he shifted direction and undertook a Foundation Art course. He completed a degree in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University in 2001. Since graduating Cove has exhibited nationally in several group shows, including Northern Graduates (2001), London and ‘Flatland’ (2002) at The Pumphouse Gallery, London. He has been selected to feature in a Channel 4 series of short films focussing on disabled artists’ work. This will be broadcast in July 2002.
Sarah Spanton
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