Colin Ainsworth

About The Artist

Colin Ainsworth exhibited at The Cut in the 2013 IMPERFECT PRESENT FUTURE PERFECT group show.

IMPERFECT PRESENT FUTURE PERFECT

Recent art is humorously self-mocking, concerned with being an artist, ageing, sensory loss, and palimpsest. The notion of palimpsest explores rewriting, remaking and reinterpretation over time – re-fabrication in other words, not always truthfully or seriously.

The triptych in this exhibition focuses on living near the sea, a theme I return to from time to time. Each of the Sea Panels was built up and worn away using water and sand as tools, combined with chalk, burnt wood and pigment. The beginning was sea-related words, overlaid by sprayed, rolled and dragged materials. These were then partially peeled or scraped off in a metaphor of the action of tides meeting the land.

The ‘figure’ images relate in part to a text I wrote in Penarth in 1972, called ‘A room near the sea’, reflecting on the sight of a washed up calf’s corpse and memories of seeing my father moments after his sudden death.

I am also engaged in taking a quizzical second look at my early performance art work, through book-based art, mixed media works and blogs. It interests me because it is now a major art trend, and I have a poor memory for my motives and details of actions from my early career. As a culmination of some ambitious group performance works for Cardiff College of Art, in 1975 I was commissioned to make nine audience interaction events for John Gingell at the Tate Gallery (Tate Games). John and I were members of Cardiff based Zoo Group, and our Zoo magazines of original performance art texts are now in the David Mayor collection in the Tate archives, and the Tate Games work is in the Tate education department’s archives.

I have exhibited my work widely in private and public galleries, museums and art centres in the UK. It is also represented in public and private collections in England and Wales. I am a member of Outpost in Norwich, and Axis.

Sea Panels triptych 2013, mixed media

The ‘figure’ images relate in part to a text I wrote in Penarth in 1972, called ‘A room near the sea’, reflecting on the sight of a washed up calf’s corpse and memories of seeing my father moments after his sudden death.

I am also engaged in taking a quizzical second look at my early performance art work, through book-based art, mixed media works and blogs. It interests me because it is now a major art trend, and I have a poor memory for my motives and details of actions from my early career. As a culmination of some ambitious group performance works for Cardiff College of Art, in 1975 I was commissioned to make nine audience interaction events for John Gingell at the Tate Gallery (Tate Games). John and I were members of Cardiff based Zoo Group, and our Zoo magazines of original performance art texts are now in the David Mayor collection in the Tate archives, and the Tate Games work is in the Tate education department’s archives.

I have exhibited my work widely in private and public galleries, museums and art centres in the UK. It is also represented in public and private collections in England and Wales. I am a member of Outpost in Norwich, and Axis.

Exhibitions Featuring Colin Ainsworth