DIY Language: A Moment of Intimacy with XL Catlin Art Prize Finalist Rory Biddulph
"I always saw art as being something to be held in high regard" tells Rory Biddulph, 1 of 7 young XL Catlin Art Prize finalists. Each year, the nominees selected from the annual XL Catlin Art Guide are hailed and praised for their ability and potential to go beyond just contributing to the art world, but for making a lasting impact.
Educated at The Slade School of Fine Art, Rory Biddulph's ability to source inspiration from uncapped heights ensures each piece produced is credibly unique and attention-grabbing. Though Biddulph's career expands positively, his onset with art was not so progressive, "I was doing O.K in school, I got quite good grades in everything... except for art. My teacher told my parents 'Rory shouldn't do art.'
How did you hear about the XL Catlin Art Prize?
I’d known about it before, in arts schools I think it’s just a known thing. But I did my BA in Newcastle and I lived there for 3 years after, I had a studio and I was working but the plan was always to come to London. I started my masters about 3 years ago now at The Slade School of Fine Art, and Justin Hammond, the curator of the XL Catlin Prize came to my degree show and also did a studio visit. It was the day after David Bowie died, so we spent half the time chatting about him and the other half chatting about my art work and what I was doing in my degree. He had a really clear vision of what the XL Catlin Art Prize is - he really does want to get to know the artists and help them in any way he can.
It's amazing to know that that kind of support is out there, would you agree?
I do, it is really helpful but it’s hard to find. You have to balance everything: work, trying to find money, paying for a studio and at the same time trying to wrestle with your own work and keep the ideas going.
Tell me about your recent degree show.
It was a really different show for me as it was the first one I had shown paintings in. I had been making sculpture for about 10 years before that, but at the Slade I began working more in print. In the final year of my MA I started painting on the prints with old sculpture material like spray paint and bitumen, and it just worked. I really liked the energy of the paintings and how I could use imagery, tear it up and recompose it to make something new. In a way, it didn’t feel that far away from my sculpture as I was used to using paint and layering material, but working with imagery in a different sense was a real step forward. I felt I had to be brave in a way to show the paintings, but at the same time I knew that the paintings were the best pieces I was producing and the way that I wanted my work to go. In the end, my degree show was the culmination of a huge amount of work in a very short amount of time. I made my entire show in 2 weeks.
Was that due to feeling extensively inspired at that time, or?
HAHA! No, not at all. I had made a series of paintings I thought I would exhibit that were finished about 3 weeks in advance. It had taken me a while to get them completed and once I had made them they just weren’t working in the way that I wanted. So I scrapped them and made some new ones, but all the imagery in the new work came out of the failures. It is often like that. The main thing that I took from that process was that I really thrive off of producing work with intensity and energy. I really loved the physical act of making and how you can see this energy reflected in the final product. This isn't the case for every artist but, for me, allowing the imagery to come about intuitively, on the painting, helps me to deliver more complex ideas in a way.
The works in each of your previous exhibitions grow vastly different over the years, you have a very distinctive style, each piece is unique. When did you first realise you had an interest in art?
As a child I was always drawing, building and making stuff and it was really encouraged throughout my upbringing. My parents always made sure there were paper, pens and paints out, and toys to like Lego that we could build things with. My Mum is a tutor but she was drawing and painting herself. The house was full of reproduction prints and books of artists like Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham and Turner, so I suppose I always saw art as being something to be held in high regard. My Dad is also an engineer and his mysterious shed at the bottom of the garden, a place for tools and materials to make something out of, was always a place of importance. But if there was such a thing as a turning point it was probably when I was about 10/11. I was doing ok in school, I got quite good grades in everything, except for art. My teacher told my parents “Rory shouldn't do art”, but at that age, teachers were basically asking kids to draw a box, and I could never draw the neat little box. After that I began making art all the time.
Do your hobbies or external interests match with your art or aid it in any way?
I don’t think there is a direct connection. I like sport, reading, film, music, but art is not a hobby for me. It's important to try and find a balance, staying healthy, working and having the time to make the art that I want to. At the moment, I don’t have that quite sorted. It feels like I'm drilling myself into the ground most of the time, so I get a little twitchy if I have some spare time and I don't do anything with it - typical.
How would you say you art has developed since your onset? When did you find your nichè?
I’m still trying to find my niche but making the paintings has been a positive change. Sculpture has had a big impact on the way I make the paintings and what kind of physicality I want them to have. I would also say that writing and printing is important too. When I was doing my Bachelor's, about 6 years ago, I started to make fanzines - what I loved about it was that you could use whatever images and with whatever you wanted, put it under a copier, print it, and you've got something. That’s the kind of energy I'm looking for in the more recent work and largely why my paintings are made up from Xerox prints. I really think about the relationship between the materials I use, the imagery and how it relates to broader ideas or experiences. I am particularly drawn to things which are connected. To me, sometimes symbolism and fantasy are a better way for me to make sense of things in this realty.
Do you feel comfortable and confident in your paintings and your practices now?
I feel like I am able to deliver a closer relationship between myself and what I am looking at at the end of my creations. I can see a more direct relation and I feel much more confident in what the work is doing. Part of why the paintings are working for me is that I didn't come from a painting background. In the past I have given more thought to the history of sculpture than of painting, and somehow for me, painting felt like a release from what I already felt I knew, whether right or wrong. I don’t feel inhibited by the history of painting and I don’t really care about the oil paint or the weave of the canvas. The history of painting will always be there, but I feel removed from it somehow. I paint on thick wood and layer it with print so when I come to paint it feels like I am able to do it in my own way.
Which artists are a key reference or inspiration point for you?
That is a tough question as it is quite hard to really say directly. I am always engaging with art, whether that might be reading literature, watching film or going to see art exhibitions. Art definitely has a habit of feeding into the work, though it is not always that direct or explainable. It somehow merges with other influences like folk-lore, philosophy or pop iconography.
One artist I will mention is Bruce Lacey. 4 years ago, I saw a film by Jeremy Deller about him - at the time I was having a huge crisis about what I wanted from my art. Seeing a character like Bruce dress up as a spaceman, firing off rockets with dolls attached to them to commemorate the moving on of his grandchildren amazed me. He had this energy and seemed to be producing on his own terms. It struck me that I had been too focused on trying to find that ‘thing’ that I was interested in rather than just doing it. When I came to make prints and paintings it felt like that was more what I wanted to do, I felt more interested in it as a way to get things across. I think that making sculpture, paintings, prints or whatever comes as part of the process is important and I don’t see any reason to restrict myself.
Do you find it hard to stay motivated?
As far as motivation goes, when I had the studio in Newcastle, I was productive, making installations, having shows and having the motivation to do so, but when you're working in call centres it is hard to keep all of that going. Making paintings, and with a certain level of expediency, I find that I am more able to engage with art every day. I am in my studio most days after work and my days off. But having other jobs and finding that balance is a difficult process. I definitely have a bit of a hand to mouth life at the moment but having opportunities like the XL Catlin Prize is amazing. They have allowed me to have a bit more time and have pushed me to produce more ambitious work.
And if you won this years prize, what would you do with the money?
If I did, it would all get used on my artwork. I try and stay productive, - it would help in keeping me focused because I wouldn't have to worry so much I suppose. I have shows coming up after the winners’ announcement, but I want to keep pushing my work regardless if I win or not. It’s the most important thing for me, and the work has already developed a lot since finishing at the Slade in October. There are always things I want to try and there are always more doors opening up in terms of what I feel I want to produce. But right now, the XL Catlin Prize is my main priority.
Rory was speaking exlusively with Roshan Langely in a first of the interview series with this year's Catlin Art Prize finalists. A panel of judges will select one artist to receive an award of £5,000 at a private ceremony on Tuesday 17th May. An exhibition of all finalists work will be on display from Thursday 5th – Sunday 22nd May 2016 at the Londonnewcastle Project Space, Shoreditch.
For more information, please see www.xlcatlinart.com.
