Jack Lanagan Dunbar

COMA is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Jack Lanagan Dunbar – his second solo presentation with the gallery – titled Signal.

Signal presents two complementary suites of work produced in very different locations: a set of electrotypes formed on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands—a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northern Africa, during a residency enabled by an Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant and a series of paintings completed in Leipzig, Germany, where the artist lived during 2020.

Where one of these bodies of work speaks of the rush and swirl of powerful ocean waves, the other recalls the frenetic energy of a firework display. The other ponders timeless hours spent exploring the intertidal zone, the other whispers of the confines of dark, underground tunnels.

These two collections branch out in different directions, yet they remain connected by a shared element in their creation: copper. In their final forms both collections rely on this element. As with much of Jack Lanagan Dunbar’s work to date, it is the attention given to production and the relationship between the materials used that builds the weight of the pieces.

At its core Signal celebrates the stream of consciousness, our aptitude for producing mental associations, our ability to perpetually recycle networks of meaning, and the possibility of finding beauty within these constellations as they evolve, whether it be of a profound or everyday nature.

The electrotypes are produced in a lengthy process of moulding and impression making. First, a fine terracotta clay is rolled flat. Into this, using objects scavenged from the sea shore, the artist records a series of gestures and impressions. Partial forms of shells, pebbles, plastics, driftwood twigs, coloured glass ground to a milky translucence all make appearances. Over this delicate base is poured molten beeswax. Once cooled and hardened, the wax is removed and the clay washed from it with water and a fine brush, like an archaeological relic being unearthed. This wax negative is dusted down with graphite powder and submerged in an intensely blue solution of copper sulphate. The wax mould is electrified and the final pieces begin their lengthy birthing process, literally being grown as a slowly thickening skin of copper metal that conforms to the mould.

_{Jack Lanagan Dunbar, Electrotype VIII, 2019, electroformed copper panel, acrylic display box, 38 x 32 cm / 14 31/32 x 12 19/32 inches framed (work 24 x 18 cm / 9 15/32 x 7 3/32 inches)}

Conceptually I think they will fit in with the last pieces from Leipzig, the epoxied works on board. The ocean here is so present and has been super powerful every day. It, washing up against the black rock cliff-faces all around makes me want to continue on this aquatic mythological feeling vein. Perhaps I can collect some shells and electro form them directly onto an etched plate?

– Excerpt from the artist’s diary.

Standing atop the Fockeberg in Leipzig (a large hill composed of debris from WWII) at 12AM, Jan 01 2020 surrounded by explosions, fireworks in all directions, all around, I felt that we were attempting to send a signal into outer space. An expression of a deep, old hurt that we carried with us as a species. Acknowledgement of our anger…
– Excerpt from the artist’s notes.

A similar back-to-front, inside-out set of steps produces the paintings. Layers of colour are built up on the linen surface using raw ochres and pigments produced from copper. The dominant green is a basic copper carbonate known as malachite when found in nature, purchased in powdered form from a German fireworks manufacturer. The lesser greens are those of the phthalocyanines, a more modern set of pigments well known for their staining power.

This underpainting is overwritten with giant-sized artist-made crayons. The marks made are supercharged expressions, performed at speed and

reminiscent of fireworks, rhythmic explosions or the light trails captured in long-exposure photographs. These are ‘timepieces’, recordings of movements over the surface. The works are then coated in a layer of carbon black—a very fine and ultra-opaque powder scraped from the inside of industrial furnaces. This effectively redacts all the work done before. Once this layer is dry, the painting is washed, the crayon dissolving and revealing the coloured pigments buried beneath it, the line now inverted, light instead of dark, reminiscent of retinal after-images.

_{Jack Lanagan Dunbar, Malachite Painting VII, 2020, artist-formulated acrylic on linen, steel frame, 123.2 x 102.8 cm framed / 48 1/2 x 40 15/32 inches framed}

As the works develop, as they record more and more information, evidence physically building up, they are also imbued with the thoughts and sentiments of the artist, at times turbulent, at others serene, and all shades in between.

_{Jack Lanagan Dunbar, Signal–A Part of the Malachite Painting Process, 2020 video by Alex Perry & music by Ivor Perry}

Jack Lanagan Dunbar
Malachite Painting I, 2020
artist-formulated acrylic on linen, steel frame
123.2 x 102.8 cm framed 48 1/2 x 40 15/32 inches framed

Jack Lanagan Dunbar

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