Feature: THE BIG PICTURE - Exhibition - Ceri House: A Bigger Bang at The Millinery Works, Islington N1
Published: 16 September 2010
DESTRUCTION and creation are closely related in the paintings of Ceri House, now on display in the Millinery Works in Canonbury.
The artist has captured the moment of impact when a bullet propelled from a gun plunges into its target.
To create his “shot paintings” House aims the weapon at his canvas, pulls the trigger and fires through a balloon filled with oil paint.
His inspiration came from his fascination with the works of Andy Warhol, particularly the artist’s “Shot Marilyn” series.
“In 1964 Warhol painted a series of five works of Marilyn Monroe, four of which were stacked against the wall of his studio,” explains House.
“Dorothy Podber asked Warhol if she could shoot them. Presumably thinking she meant to photograph them, he agreed. She then took a small revolver from her handbag and shot a hole through the stack of paintings. She is said to have described the event as a piece of performance art. Warhol is said to have asked a mutual friend to ‘please ask Dorothy not to do that again’.”
With titles like “In The Beginning”, “Dark Matter” and “Supernova” (pictured), the series was also inspired by theories of the origin of the universe and the explosion of energy known as the Big Bang.
As artist Humphrey Ocean RA notes in the programme: “Years ago, at the time such things were current, I did a portrait of the very young Ceri House in the Destroy T-shirt the Sex Pistols performed in.
“It was painted on hardboard in two halves and the bottom half, with the word Destroy beginning to shatter, somehow got lost. No disaster, punk recoiled from posterity. Ceri became a painter and he often incorporates unusual materials into what he does.
“In the making of his new paintings there is an echo of the word that disappeared. Paint always destroys a beautiful fresh canvas, luckily. The moment it lands, something even better is happening, the sound of a human being at work, thinking.”
• Ceri House: A Bigger Bang is at The Millinery Works, 87 Southgate Road, Canonbury, Islington, N1, until October 10. Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 12-5pm. 0207 359 2019,