A curiously observational project examining our constant pursuit of desire.
When did ‘shopping’ become a social activity? I have often found myself drawn to the seemingly cheerless characters that appear to make up a significant proportion of the people who pass us on our high streets. In this early project I question our spending culture and wonder how healthy/fulfilling it really is. We are marketed to every minute of every day. It fascinates me that we allow it to happen.
This culture can often lead to us spending beyond our means perhaps in an attempt to buy the pleasure from which we are inevitably disconnected.
Green begins by sketching passers-by on the street – purposefully limiting the amount of time he has to capture his subjects to a matter of seconds. He then works inquisitively from these studies to form multiple representations of the original ‘sitter’; trying to capture the person and pose with reference to only a single line drawing, and memory alone. As a mixed-media painter with a somewhat welcomed lack of patience, Green paints with a hurriedness; resulting in a final outcome, enriched by unintentional marks, of which is impossible for he (or anyone) to replicate. “I don’t actually want my portraits to look like the sitter. It’s about painting anyone in everyone, and everyone in anyone – creating the everyday person (plural) through every portrait.”
