SoulStars
The SoulStars series develops themes that started with the Who's The Man series in 2010, where words that formed a complex psychogeography of masculinity when presented together became more like slogans of icons when shown individually or in pairs. Adding imagery to the words creates objects that feel more like contemporary icons. A combination of the impact of the words and phrases and the emotional resonance of the chosen images & colours creates some kind of inspiration or affirmation.
Painted in brilliant, durable, signwriter’s enamel on sheet aluminium, the original paintings combine likenesses of 20th century jazz & soul pioneers with phrases inspired by the lyrics of the songs they sang, to create part tribute, part inspiration, part affirmation. They are then photographed and turned into limited edition giclee prints.
There is also a super-limited edition of images where the SoulStars' hair is hand finished with black diamond dust.
Who's The Man?
Who’s the Man began as an epic installation of a thousand individual hand-painted panels with words used to describe and define ‘man’. It plays with the ever-changing identity and categorisation of the modern man by creating definitions of masculinity packaged as products, as each word becomes a logo in glossy seductive enamel colours: Hero, God, King, Scoundrel, Rogue, Brute, Bad Boy, Love God, Fancy Dan, Mama Man, Sonofabitch, Sonofagun, Bloke, Joe Schmoe, Golden Boy, Nancy Boy…and on and on…
Who's the Man is an encyclopaedic and decorative texture with seductive visual appeal and humour. However, the playful placement of each panel also allows you to read left to right, top to bottom as a witty poem or narrative to build a humorous network of word-play. Man: so many ways to describe, so difficult to define!
Various subsets of the original 1000 panels are available either as limited edition sets of hand painted wooden panels, or as limited edition prints. Also limited edition embossed boxed sets of hand painted panels.
Love Troopers mkII
The LoveTroopers image was originally created in 2010 for the Love In The Sky charity auction at the ICA Gallery. The design was so highly sought after that an edition was created. Only very limited numbers remain