States of being - Brian D Hodgson's work
A fascination with transformational processes runs through artist Brian D Hodgson's work. Whether speeding up the transmutation of materials through the use of chemicals in his acid actions, or very slowly creating minutely detailed drawings of the surface of the earth, the works are formed within time, refer to time, and embody the changes that are brought about to all things, given time.
Brian takes different, sometimes seemingly opposed approaches in making his work. He may carry out an 'action' in which he applies a corrosive chemical to metal or some other material with a rapid and dramatic physical effect; the act leaves behind an artefact that bears the history of its creation and also presents a new surface on which further processes can be applied. He may work on a large sheet of paper over the course of several months, slowly creating an image inspired by his walks in the mountainous places he has visited: he presents for the viewer an immersive scene in which to explore the surface by making mental journeys and by experiencing the visual stimulation of the drawn marks.
His 'organised accidents' can be said to contain an element of both types of approach already mentioned, as Hodgson sets up situations where a chemical solution collides with a material in such a way that the effects can be explosive, unpredictable, and unrepeatable. He may then work further into the resulting surface in response to what he finds, but in a very deliberate, methodical, and painstaking way, at times by scraping, at others by applying paint.
Brian draws attention to the surface as the site of significant events. He is obsessed with detail, and the moments and marks he creates on his surfaces, whether on metal, paper, rock, or in his representations, manifest a sense of a blurring of scale between the macroscopic and the microscopic: of parts containing the whole, and the whole being observable in a small area. This is an expression of what Brian observes in his different activities, of walking in the outdoors, or of interacting with his raw materials.
The individual works have different stages of being within time: the speed of their creation, and of subsequent states of alteration and their reception, are subject to change. The pieces created using a dynamic corrosive process may appear to have stabilised as fixed images; the extraordinarily detailed drawings which have come into being slowly over a long period may be experienced in different time frames, depending on the experience the viewer chooses to make for themselves in the act of looking. Additionally, in all works, the potential remains for these states to be changed again.
Through his visits to Margate, Brian has become aware of the significant place that Dreamlands holds in local history and the consciousness of the town's residents, and of the fact that it is currently being redeveloped as an amusement park of historical importance. His response was to let a chemical solution act on a sheet of metal, as a result of which an image of Dreamland materialises.
The works in this exhibition illustrate Brian's pervasive interest in the presence and effect of energy in everything, and the ways in which it produces a never-ending cycle of change.
Asako Yokoya
March 2012
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