Artist Research- Dexter Dalwood

As Dalwood’s work was a large part of the research I’d done for a project on foundation, where I explored the narratives and stories that rooms had, I was very aware of his pieces, and excited to potentially use him as inspiration. Its been interesting looking at the work from a whole other perspective and project idea behind it, as I have been seeing the pieces in a whole new exciting and unusual ways. For example the pieces ‘Kurt Cobaine’s Greenhouse’ and ‘Room 100’ ( first and third image) were works that before my fascination lay purely in the narrative and the relevance to pop culture and the story behind the subtleties in the paintings. However I’ve noticed the way Dalwood has fragmented his pieces here to give the illusion of collage and how strong, bold blocked colours and lines bring together and draw the eyes to the subtleties and story telling aspects of the works. I like the subtle yet complimentary combinations of the mediums and how I can take them into my own work. Using collage, painting and printmaking I’d like to create pieces that depict scenes in my work place that relate and are the main sources of the obsessive behaviour my project focusses on. Dalwoods work has shown me that objects and scenes that to some depict nothing, to those with the right information or eye can have vast amounts of meaning. I feel this is relevant to my work and could be a new and interesting way to show the obsessions and the origin of said obsessions and my interests.

‘Room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel’

Room 100 of the Chelsea hotel was the painting I spent the most of my foundation project looking into. It’s story is haunting, disturbing with a real life mystery that keeps the public intrigued even now. This room is infamous for being the scene which Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. The room is chaotic, devoid of salacious detail, dehumanised in its simplicity. Dalwood portrays ‘an unglamorous fantasy of seedy realism as sanitised through the media. Littered with representation of the couple, Dalwood has used pairs of lamps, cupboard doors, bedframes, suggesting an eternal togetherness. The broken bedframes is symbolic of a tragic breakdown. And the general destruction of the room shows struggle of a possible physical and also mental nature. The upturned TV is frozen on an image of two black clad figures, one large and one small, reflective of fragility and ego. On the floor Dalwood has painted a pool of melting candles, suggestive of drug culture but also the adage that those who shine the brightest burn quickest.