Lesley Chow

'Paintings from Windsor'
Paintings from Windsor Exhibition Catalogue, 12 April 2007.

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When an artist like Alan Jones announces his intention to depict his home town and family members, it’s a fairly radical proposition.  How will Jones’ vision of austere, often isolated figures lend itself to portraying a network of relationships?  However, when “Dad” is rendered as a fiery, bearded spirit in deep pink, while “Mum” consists of a grey profile whose surface is gently clouded, we see that the familial can co-exist with the fiercely abstract.

 In Painting 71 (Dad), Jones finds a distinctive way to express the charisma of his subject.  The artist often uses bright yellows and crimsons to depict heads – so that the colour itself burns, and even a stern expression seems recessive within the glowing exterior.  The suggestion is that, no matter how forceful an individual is, somehow they exist in a contrary relation to their appearance.  Here, “Dad” has a grim focus but also an improbably stylish outfit, which perfectly matches his pink skin.  The jacket is made from the stiff black and white lines Jones has previously used for skulls, except that the strokes have gained new flexibility – they’ve been softened and ironed to create the uptilt of the collar.

Jones’ self-portraits are the most arresting in their bluntness.  The figure in Painting 60 (Self-portrait) has a flat grey area above his brows – it might be a plate bolted to his forehead, but the colour looks so cool it could be liquid pooling into a dish.  Touches of yellow appear in the crevices of the face, allowing our gaze to flow smoothly around the picture.  Painting 59 (Self-portrait) confronts us on many levels: with its stark eyes and the regimented strokes “printed” on its forehead, as well as a pair of bright red, possibly painted, lips.

However, even more challenging is the appearance of effects which are “cute” and seemingly affectionate.  The subject of Painting 48 (Todd) has a little bird placed next to him; the face is done in thick, grey, rather woolly-looking strokes, so it appears as if the bird is an accessory made out of the same stuff, left over from creating the head.  Painting 53 (Self-portrait) has a full-size skull with a miniaturised version dangling next to it; in Painting 69 (Darren), the subject’s name is scrawled next to him in a way that seems deliberately redundant.  This kind of excessive “labelling”, in which a subject’s icon or identifier is painted floating beside him, reflects an unusual view of personality.  It’s as if even the most assertive presence requires some kind of motif or mascot to complete its self-image – thus these “sweet” details don’t undermine but complicate their subjects. 

That Jones dares to perform “cuteness” alongside his compelling vision of identity shows how this artist has progressed since his previous exhibition, The Human Show.  The dim landscapes of that series have unravelled, to reveal a dense and complex web of relations.

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