Laurence Jones

My paintings incorporate elements of both fiction and reality, and are brought to fruition through a varied means of production. I draw from a pool of collected images that are then digitally edited, and serve as a starting point for a process-based practice.

The paintings lend themselves to a simulation of reality, presenting a hyperreal aesthetic that is heightened by the screen-like finish of the work. Perspectival planes are shifted, flattened or extended, warping the notion of depth within the image, presenting a simultaneous distancing and magnification that offers multiple readings of the work. Although the aesthetic of the work suggests a digitally mediated experience of the urban environment, broken and dripped paint ground the work in a more traditional notion of materiality.

The scenes deal with the nature of the postmodern gaze, and how this is affected by fabricated spaces.

The creation of models and sets, which serve as reference material add a further layer of meaning to the work. Some elements are scanned in and collaged directly from film sets, a part of my practice that serves to enforce the overall aesthetic of the fabricated image, in turn borrowing from the tropes of staged photographic history.

 - Laurence Jones