Alex Giles - Eye Hurters
Meet the artist
1. Can you summarise your work in three words? –
Colours, shapes, lines.
2. Where do you go and when to make your best work? –
Two places really, I do a lot of my design work in bed as soon as I wake up with about 20 cups of tea, then when it’s time to physically make the paintings, I’m lucky to have an amazing studio, which I share with my best pal, Tony.
3. Which art movement do you consider most influential on your practice? –
On my practice specifically, I suppose it’s probably a mix of Pop and Op!
4. How do you describe your ‘creative process’? –
I used to have so many ideas, and such an urgency to get them onto the page or the canvas that they were often terrible. The way that I’ve managed to actually start making work that I’m really happy with is by placing multiple processes in the way, so that the image is continuously refined.
5. Which artist, living or deceased, is your greatest inspiration? –
My number 1 since I took a serious interest in art has and always will be Paul McCarthy. The scale, insanity, repulsiveness, slickness, humour. He’s the whole theme park.
7. If you could hang or place your artwork in one non traditional art setting, where would that be? –
Maybe in the castle in the village that I grew up in, the contrast of the crumbling sandstone walls with the contemporary shapes and colours would be quite interesting.
8. If you weren’t an artist, can you imagine what you would be doing? –
Ha! I’m only just an artist! So I’d be back at my freelance job of Art directing in the film industry..
9. Do you have any unrealised projects? –
Yes, of course, I have sketchbooks full of doodles, and a laptop with tons of half written stories that I always planned to go back to and develop further. But life moves along quickly doesn’t it? It feels pretty amazing to be actually realising one now though.
10. What can viewers expect to feel when they visit ‘Eye Hurters’ at the White Elephant? –
I hope viewers of ‘Eye Hurters’ feel like they have walked into an amusement arcade of colour and shape. It should feel like pure escapism from the strange times we are living in. There is zero expectation on the viewer, let the paintings do the work for you.
