The project Painting at the End of the World, seeks to generate a critical discourse on the nature of the physical medium of paint, when in particular mimetic mode, in context of the pervading systems and realities of the dominant economic model of neoliberal capitalism.
Recent trends in painting, represent a new turn in painting that is focused on the representation of the common human experience, as lived partially, through the aesthetic of the digital interface and digital screen. Over the last five years, more and more painters have co-opted the aesthetics of the software interface, as a means of extending the currency of traditional mediums. Many artists are exploring complex mimetic application techniques and bureaucratic process, to appraise the digital interface, its soft fades, drop shadows, windows and glow. More significant, is that the mimesis involved in painting and replicating these representations of the screen, is to engage more theoretically with the notion of the digital and by default its mathematical source code, to further erode cliché in representational works of art.
The overall aim of the project is firstly, to select artists and works of art for discussion in interview format in order to explore the driving force behind individual practice and creative decision making. Secondly to embed those findings in textual analysis, in light of the key texts by Graw, Rancèire and Baudrillard, in order to establish a credible and significant discourse on the nature of emerging contemporary painting. The third stage involves the physical and virtual exhibition of findings.
Painting at the end of the World is a not for profit organisation.
Ian Goncharov, director.