aim

IM

aim

aim

18.2″x13.4″

aim

21.2″x13.5″

aim

Is aim a ‘Stuckist’?

     aim shows his unique afflatus to full effect in this recent paining Proicession which seems to be subtitled as “Saimfety in Numbers; a shoulder to cry on.” Eugene Delacroix, in his fascinating journal, states “ One must learn to be grateful for what one discovers for oneself; a handful of naïve inspiration is preferable to everything else.”  I don’t think Delacroix would have given aim much time but he might have acknowledged a certain originality.

 But then Delacroix didn’t give much time to Turner either!: ”the only time he came to see me……..I was not particularly impressed.; he looked like an English farmer with his rough black coat and heavy boots, and his cold, hard expression.” He later talks about Turner’s exaggerated effects. He acknowledges the magnificence of the paintings but suggests they suffer from over-emphasis. aim certainly employs a certain emphasis!

Again Delacroix states “ the beautiful is everywhere, and each artist not only sees it in his own way but is absolutely bound to render it in his own style.” This comment seems particularly relevant to aim’s work.

Perhaps there is a sliver of the zen Buddhist painter Sesshu in this painting  with the use of shumpu combining bold lines with more delicate lines to create a feeling of the three dimensional. Though there is more of the bold than the delicate!

 Orchestrating a novel encounter with materials and space, the procession unfolds through a rhythmed pattern of human scale figures, somehow attached to each other. Comprising various moments of transformation and un rigid geometry, the effect is stretched and stiffened into dilated shapes that extend across the painting, almost having a scaffolded  effect. The planes are flat, yet textured. Rather than creating representations or metaphors, aim’s methodology operates in such a way that referential experiences are generated out of the almost alien figures. This induces an exercise in expanded cosmic vision.

 The most influential contemporary painters, such as Gerhard Richter, David Hockney, Anselm Kiefer, Luc Tuymans, Peter Doig, Sigmar Polke, Yayoi Kusama, Marlene Dumas, Agnes Martin, Georg Baselitz, Frank Stella, Sean Scully, Banksy, Cy Twombly, Jenny Saville, and Damien Hirst share something with aim-they all have elements of influence from a wide spectrum of  art movements in contemporary painting such as Minimal Art, Contemporary Realism, Graffiti Art or Street Art, Neo-Expressionism, New European Painting, New Figurative Painting, Stuckism, Capitalist Realism, Op Art, Pop Art, and Photorealism. Graffiti Art and Street Art used to be seen as inferior artistic activities. But ,although there is some claim that aim did indeed paint an iceblock on a wall outside an Iceland store in Boscombe, Bournemouth-there is no evidential information for it actually being executed by aim. It also had much graffiti added it which was not his own. So it beame a truly public work of art.

Stuckism is an art movement that originated at the turn of the new millennium with Billy Childish and Charles Thomson. They wrote several manifestos as ‘the stuckists’ in which they reacted against Conceptual Art and returned to figurative painting as criticism of postmodernity in search of authenticity. You might say aim is ‘stuck’ on his concept of Blocks!

Revisiting the manifesto, please may I quote selectively from it? Stuckism is the quest for authenticity, the holistic, self-discovery. It encompasses a desire to explore neurosis and innocence. Leaps of human endeavour are made by the intrepid individual, because he/she does not have to protect their status.

Success to the Stuckist is to get out of bed in the morning and paint. Painting is mysterious. It creates worlds within worlds, giving access to the unseen psychological realities that we inhabit. The Stuckist calls for an art that is alive with all aspects of human experience; dares to communicate ideas in primeval pigment; and possibly experience itself as not at all clever!

The ego-artist’s constant striving for public recognition results in a constant fear of failure. The Stuckist risks failure wilfully and mindfully by daring to transmute his/her ideas through the realms of loathing. The failures that the Stuckist encounters engage him/her in a deepening process which leads to the understanding of the futility of all striving. The Stuckist doesn’t strive — which is to avoid who and where you are — the Stuckist engages with the moment.

The Stuckist gives up the laborious task of playing games of novelty, shock and gimmick. The Stuckist neither looks backwards nor forwards but is engaged with the study of the human condition.

Looking at these selections, I have to conclude that ,In my considered opinion, aim indeed is a Stuckist without knowing it or being recogised as such.

Kafe Smictiric [art critic]

IM
Blocks+ Icemen shaimre a moment before diceaimppeaimraimnce

aim

aim

19.5″x13.6″