Graham Swift
The Gallery at Rise Hall presented Sarah and I with an opportunity to not only create a space that would bring Rise up to date but also gave me another excuse to hang my work. The real problem was the time constraint, with the building project, travel from London to Hull and back and my family taking up almost every waking hour, I hardly had any chance to get into my studio last year. That said I was longing to do something relevant to the project and my experiences of the last year.
With that in mind I did manage to pretty speedily draw nine portraits of people who were working on the site, which are placed in a line along the south wall.
I also managed to draw 9 sort of life drawings, suspended in the middle of the page they reflect the state of my mind as these were mostly created on the numerous long train journeys between London and Hull, perhaps there is also a visual link between my fantasy of star trek style teleportation.
It was also on the train as I was passing a rather gorgeous misty humber bridge that I read in a paper that Hull had been voted Britain's crappest town for what seemed like the hundredth time. It rather narked me so I decided to try to recreate the image I had just seen, as it was hauntingly beautiful.
The other pair of portraits were done previously and are I think some of my most engaging work. Although my father in law said they were rather depressing for a wedding venue!
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