Modart » David Shillinglaw

Analogue Boy in a Digital World

Maxi — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:00:42 +0000

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. It is too easy to forget, or overlook the fact that those windows are also built-in lenses, 3D camera and extensive hard-drive that stores and catalogues almost every image we experience.

This month I was reminded of my growing dependence on digital technology as I lost my Cannon G11 camera. The G11 is a wonderful piece of equipment, and I have used it every day for over a year. The best/worst/most poetic point of this digital departure was that the camera had more than 200 photographs on its memory card.

I am now traveling back in time. I have dusted off my old Yashica minitec 35 mm camera, and if I am honest, I am very happy about it.

I love all things digital, however, the photograph is a special thing, an phpaide.com art form, the camera is a fixer of moments in time. Special moments, posed, and caught in a flash of blinding personal nostalgia. These days, however, that ‘special moment’ is overruled by an immediate recognition of what looks ‘good’, and “oh no, I hate that photo, take it again”, a luxury we have quickly grown accustomed to. Added to by immediate uploads, cropping, colour adjustment, artsy filters and social network tagging. The result: a small, low-resolution, prescribed and designed version of events.

Until I can afford a new camera, I am forcing myself to celebrate shooting from the hip, closing the viewfinder and winding on a real-life piece of celluloid film. Forgetting about the image until I can develop the roll and rediscover those forgotten moments, complete with imperfections, red eyes, and accidental blurry snap shots.

by DAVID SHILLINGLAW

To read the full article and view all of David”s analogue images visit No New Enemies.

The City is a Monster

Maxi — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:00:13 +0000

The city of London is almost eight million different things to eight million different people. London can be both a fruitful land of opportunity, and a monster with big sharp teeth. I travel as much as possible, but find rich adventures can be had in your own backyard. I don’t have a backyard, as I live on the top floor, I do however have London.

I wasn’t born in London, but it is all I have ever known as home. It smells bad, it is expensive, and just a few weeks ago I went to sleep watching news unfold of riots just five miles from where I live. However, even with all its toils and troubles, London is a marvelous city. A handsome Devil, full to bursting with whatever detail you can imagine.

I have spent the best part of August setting up my solo exhibition with Cement gallery on Brick Lane. Brick lane is very much the heart, or at least a main ventricle of the East end. Brick lane, and its supporting neighborhoods, are an ever changing gallery of street art.

Home to a colourful spectrum of people, a crossroads for all walks of life, it is the perfect place to reach as many passing eyes as possible. The beautiful and the strange muster, accompanied by twenty-four hour bagels, curry houses, dim sum and then some, flea markets, gypsies, rude boys, transvestites; where the creatures of the night and day collide in an area that never seems to sleep.

Music, food and fashions dance with star gazing gutters from around the world. The East end is ripe, and ready at any given moment to strike sparks and burst into delicious action.

As I painted a wall on bacon Street next to my paint-splattered comrade Ben Slow, we both acknowledged the changing tides of this restless ocean of colours, textures, and people. If there is one constant, it is people. People in all shapes, sizes and disguises. It is a street painter’s paradise. With permission to paint you have a captive audience, epitomised by ‘street art tours’ of flash happy, graffiti loving fans of all things ‘urban’. Just short of a shop selling ‘I heart Banksy’ t-shirts, Brick lane is both a heaven and a hell for the London street art scene.

Read the full article on No New Enemies.

by DAVID SHILLINGLAW

Business or Pleasure?

Maxi — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:00:40 +0000

Choose your own adventure….

I enjoy flying. But I’m not very good at it.

First starters, I’m no good at sitting still for too long. Then there’s the whole thing about just sitting in a chair watching a movie… traveling at crazy speeds…at 35,000 feet!

But I always go with it. The excitement and free alcohol overrules. I associate getting on a plane with a sense that a real adventure is about to happen. Once you’re up, you’re up. You can’t just get off. You can’t turn around. In the words of the great Hunter S. Thompson: “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

We were on our way to New York from London. My manager and I, while taking full advantage of the complimentary Bloody Marys and discussing World Domination, were handed slips of paper to fill in at our convenience before landing. All the usual details plus a multiple choice survey to check the reason of our visit (and to check if we had ever been arrested, involved with espionage, sabotage or terrorist activities).

The purpose for this mid-July trip to New York was to paint. I was taking part in a few group exhibitions and also had plans to paint walls, canvases, and any other objects I could find along the way. The question was, which box should I tick?

Business, tourism, or other.

The truth was, I didn’t know. The fact is, I never know. As a full time artist, I am ‘never not working’.

Read the full article on No New Enemies.

by DAVID SHILLINGLAW