The Chancy Element / In conversation with Matthew Collings
MC I can see the images are computer generated. I respond to the intricacy, rhythms, playfulness, but I’ve no idea what technical processes are involved. I see very beautiful visual relationships, and I imagine from their intensity that creating them involves a high degree of labour, as with any artistic process, and in fact, it’s basically drawing...?
CE Yes, every part of the image is hand drawn. But you could argue about whether what I do is really drawing or not. Both my brothers are artists. And we have a lively debate all the time. One of them tells me that drawing is always “pencil on paper.”
Chuck Elliott and Matthew Collings in conversation at Close House.
Coda at Close
Coda at Close, a solo show curated by Freeny Yianni, throughout her sensational Georgian house and contemporary art gallery in Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset.
Autumn Art Lectures / Bristol University
Bristol University has been running it’s Autumn Art lectures annually since 1905. In 2010 the series featured six lectures around the theme of colour, and so it was a pleasure to be asked to provide the artwork for the series’ poster and associated publicity material.
Fluid Dynamic
Fluid Dynamic is a PDF workbook, pulling together images of projects from 2005 to 2009, associated artwork and in situ images.
Art of England / The Transistor Project
In August 2009 Art of England magazine published an article about my work, entitled Fluid Dynamic, Chuck Elliott and the Transistor project, featuring Arpeggi / REZ / silvered on the front cover. The piece also features an interview with Bristol based curator Louise Copping.
Fluid Dynamic / In conversation with Louise Copping
LC You use terms such as ‘liquid geometry’, ‘captured light’ and ‘brilliant incandescence’ to describe your practice. Can you expand on these phrases?
CE I guess they’re a kind of linguistic shorthand, to sum up the core of what I’m going for at the moment. Digital drawing systems allow you to create dense sculptural forms that haven’t previously been possible. Geometries can be far more complex than they could even ten years ago. Zaha Hadid’s practice, for instance, is a textbook example of how technology is changing the way we can explore form. Studying glass making, I became aware that Dale Chihuly, for example, creates a colour and kinetic interaction with light in his work, that I’m definitely keen to evoke. So trying to capture some of that effervescence and brilliance, by exploring light and colour densities, and embedding that drama in the work, is a key part of the process.
Chuck Elliott in conversation with Louise Copping. An interview originally published by Art of England magazine.
Crack magazine / In conversation with Jake Applebee and Tom Frost
Chuck’s fascination with the machine as an object for generating an artistic product is not just confined to the world of physical art, as he explains:
“With the digitisation of music there are great examples, if you listen to Aphex Twin, Orbital or Underworld, of how you could push things forward. I mean look at Tomato Studios and Underworld in the early 1990s. You had people there doing the graphics and artwork, as well as the music. Through these various parts, they were putting together these totally beautiful, immersive environments. The world of fine art should be very organic, as much as I would imagine Underworld’s studio to be, with the whole artistic package working as one.”
“When Underworld plays live I’m really interested to see them push the music through the computers at the same time as the images are mixed and produced, as if they are playing them as a piece of music.”
Chuck Elliott in conversation with Jake Applebee and Tom Frost of Crack magazine, ahead of the now influential magazine's first issue.
Crack / Transistor Feature / Launch Issue
Jake Applebee and Thomas Frost started publishing the independent music and art magazine Crack in 2009, from their studio here in Bristol. Still going strong today, with nearly 100 editions in print, it was a real thrill to be included in the first issue.
Bristol Contemporary Open
I co-organised the inaugural Bristol Contemporary Open with Deborah Harrison, and a core group of highly committed Bristol artists, at the Paintworks here in Bristol.
Bristol Contemporary Open 2008 / Catalogue
Bristol Contemporary Open 2008 was a juried show held at Paintworks here in Bristol, featuring work by 24 mid career artists including Anna Gillespie, Barry Cawston, Beth Carter and Cathy Lewis. The catalogue features work by all 24 of the selected artists, alongside an introductory text and notes about the exhibition and jury.
Bristol Contemporary Open 2008 / Flyer
Bristol Contemporary Open 2008 was a juried show held at Paintworks here in Bristol, featuring work by 24 mid career artists including Anna Gillespie, Barry Cawston, Beth Carter and Cathy Lewis. The catalogue features work by all 24 of the selected artists, alongside an introductory text and notes about the exhibition and jury.
The Art of Revelation / Bristol Post Review
Susie Weldon visits the current exhibition at Paintworks, in Bristol, and finds some exciting work, in lots of genres, from 16 artists.
Chuck Elliott has fielded some strange questions in his time but no one has ever asked him whether one of his artworks could stand beer thrown at it before. Yet that was the question posed by a nightclub owner who saw his stunning giant computer generated prints at the Revelation exhibition which is currently showing at Paintworks in Bristol.
Coda on Cork Street
Coda on Cork Street presented a beautiful opportunity to curate a two person show with my good friend Anna Gillespie, the much admired British sculptor.
Coda on Cork St / Flyer
Coda on Cork Street was a 2008 exhibition featuring sculptures by Anna Gillespie alongside my own work, at the Gallery on Cork Street. It was a real thrill to exhibit with Anna, and we continue to work together occasionally.
Revelation at Paintworks
Curated by Deborah Harrison, Revelation was the first large group show I was involved with at Paintworks, a fabulous ex industrial space, here in Bristol.
Transistor at the Southbank
A four person show at London's Southbank Centre, featuring work by Transistor project artists Frank Elliott, Lady Lucy and Stanley Donwood.
Kinetic at City Inn
Kinetic was my first solo show, sponsored by Bristol’s City Inn, and curated by The Steps Gallery, in October 2006.