Christopher Hancock: Polarity
Perth-born artist and known Paint Manipulator Christopher Hancock recalls many of his fondest memories, creating drawings. “One of the earliest drawings I can remember making many times over, is a piece of a graveyard in a platform view, like the view of a video game. It was a landscape and the whole thing was like a graveyard with all these cobwebbed tombs that went down to these stick figure skeletons. Each was called ‘Rip’s graveyard’. Rip was a stick figure skeleton character with a top hat, I had no idea what R.I.P. meant. It’s funny to look at it now.”
From these dark beginnings, Hancock has explored different variations of visual art from then to now. School days initially involved graffiti, which became illustration that stemmed from his involvement in a metal band. “I was good at artwork, so I did artwork for different metal bands and did band logos and got into graphic design and digital illustration which I enjoyed a lot. Painting walls was something I also got heavily into, but was never too involved in the scene, and after a lot of police raids on friends of mine, I was finding it less appealing.”
After high school, a career in graphic design ensued but Hancock knew it was not the creative outlet he was looking for. “Working in advertising, this mind manipulation to make people buy what they don’t need, wasn’t resonating well with me. I like the idea of communication through visual media, but I don’t like the idea of tricking someone into behaving in a way that is not healthy. So many hours a week being asked to be creative but not too creative, because advertising often looks for the lowest common denominator as prey. This isn’t good for the soul.”
A move to Melbourne in 2011 reinvigorated Hancock’s interest in painting walls; “I found that it was different here. People could paint out in the sunshine, drinking bears and listening to music. It was this relaxed friendly attitude that got me back into painting.”
Hancock attributes his discovery of fine art to artist and friend Conrad Bizjak, who he admits, “introduced me to more traditional painting. I had always just been into it for cultural reasons like music and graffiti. Conrad showed me art in the broader spectrum which I had very little idea about. From this introduction I found there is almost an infinite library of art to discover and to make your way on this incredible journey, and find different influences and to figure out what has been done and what has not been done.”
Polarity, Hancock’s recent body of work could be considered a look at the conflict between rational thought and instinctive behaviour. “I’d say a lot of paintings I start don’t work. I think this comes down to reacting on impulse then reviewing with thought. This impulsive way of painting allows me to find what’s standing out to me the most, and the way that I figure that out is by simply going and painting. I know how to paint, so I go and paint a bunch of pictures, I paint like ten pictures and then start to discover themes. This process helps me discover what is affecting me and how I can channel it out. It’s like mental digestion. I have this idea that its always better to act than to react when faced with a problem. It’s something I’ve picked up from many philosophical texts. I try to apply that within my life, but to have an outlet where you simply just react helps too I find.”
On first impressions, particularly looking at the colour palette and aesthetics used in Polarity many would refer to Hancock’s current style as dark. He admitted that this is what a lot of people say, however in his eyes “The paintings aren’t so much a negative dark, as to me they are a transition from negative to positive. The act of painting makes me feel as though I am able to scream to the world through a paintbrush and convey what gets to me about this modern day lifestyle. I’m taking this negative energy and turning it into something good.”
Hancock is quite philosophical, and the more we spoke, the deeper the got.
“I understand that whatever I do, will eventually be insignificant and lost. Every one that I ever knew or anyone that ever engages with my work, will be dead sooner or later; and as time goes on, much like every other art-form that ever has been and gone the artists name will disappear, so is there any point concerning yourself about what you’re known for?”
“If you look at any relic in any museum; nobody knows the artist’s name. Nobody knows who the made it! It’s just an object that was significant to a specific time. At what point in time do you want to be significant?” “As much I as I want to be able to say; I don’t care what anyone else thinks – nobody doesn’t care what anybody else thinks. We are so influenced by our peers and gauge ourselves by comparing to others, it’s in our human nature. We’re so influenced by different perceptions of success in modern times and that is a combination of your own perceptions; your immediate peer’s perceptions; those like your family, friends; those who you hold close and also then another section.”
“Sometimes, the most significant comment or response to your artwork could come from somebody who you’ve never met before, who’s never looked at a painting before and just simply says ‘You’ve made a painting that changed my life!’ Today I don’t want to be known as a person who made art just for the sake of making it a trendy, commercially-viable painting. I don’t care what you remember me, for as long as it’s an honest memory, as long as it inspires you. I’d rather be forgotten than misunderstood.”
Polarity explores various mediums and will include charcoal drawings produced by Hancock for the first time. It will also include one piece that has been documented over the life of the work. “I start one painting with a pencil, one painting with charcoal, one painting with spray-paint, one painting with acrylic, one painting with oil. Every painting in this exhibition, is started in a different way and finished in a different way. I’m quite moody and different moods will dictate what I use; sometimes it’s like; ‘Yeah I’m going to make this thing perfect’ and sometimes it’s like; ‘I don’t want this to even look even remotely realistic. I want it to be just a mess.’ It’s so haphazard that finding a balance or consistency can be tricky. You know that it’s respecting your audience but at the same time respecting yourself. Coming back to the idea of painter, medium, viewer, it’s like a golden triangle of respect and understanding. I know that the audience will always change, and the medium will always change and my mood will always change and that triangle will always encompass different, slightly different things but overall, you can break it down to that – it’s always me, it’s always a visual format and there’s always a viewer.”
“Lately I’m looking to have more emphasis on making marks that are expressive. I’m discovering marks can have great persuasiveness towards what the viewer perceives and what it is they are reading. If you make a whole bunch of marks that are really violent then the viewer will get the violence. If you make some that are really considered and thought out, it will appear more still.”
“I’ve done a bunch of charcoal sketches, I’ve done shit loads of them actually, but I’ve chosen 3 that I’ll show alongside my paintings. These drawings are sort of where I’d like to be heading in terms of expressive mark making. I’ve also made 1 painting where I have tried to capture the process of creation. There are a lot of people who work out of the studio I’m at and I’ve found that my process is quite curious to them. Maybe because there’s no rational process? So for this show I’ve documented the process of an entire painting to have played in video format at the show. Although it has worked well I found that in trying to capture the process, it’s lost some of its essence because everything is much more calculated than an organic painting due to the limitations with the time-lapse set up, studio lighting and what not. The video does show how the painting happens, so hopefully will give people a little bit more insight into how rather than just what or why.”
Having spent several hours with Hancock, watching him create, he opened up further on Polarity. “If people enjoy painting in its most sacred sense – an honest form of communication, dialogue and development between human beings, then maybe you’ll enjoy Polarity. I always hope I’m making the most honest expression of communication.”
Looks like we will be speaking again.
Polarity opens at BSIDE Gallery on Monday 14 November 2016 from 6pm (AEST).
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