Man Sat on Chairs 2011

Curator: Right, let's discuss Billy Childish's 2011 oil-on-canvas painting, "Man Sat on Chairs." It strikes me as a fascinating example of his expressive approach to figuration, blending street graffiti and Fauvist sensibilities. Editor: Well, my first impression? Utter chaos. Beautiful, swirling, pastel chaos! It feels like looking at a half-remembered dream, maybe after too much coffee. The colours vibrate and clash; I am kind of getting lost in this interiority that it radiates... Curator: Exactly! This controlled frenzy aligns perfectly with Childish's wider artistic project. He frequently employs a deliberately raw, almost anti-art, approach to critique established norms within the art world and broader societal structures of production. It's deliberately lowbrow. Editor: Anti-art, perhaps. Yet I find an almost childlike joy in it. See how the figures are built with broad, simplified shapes and those daring colours, not just Fauvist, but with nods to German Expressionism! There's a story here struggling to be told – is the sitter an observer or maybe the one being observed in turn? It's very existential, isn't it? Curator: Indeed, Childish is very self-aware as an artist, reflecting in this oil-paint the materiality of his choices and the labor invested into disrupting traditional craft conventions. It's almost performance turned material object—a documentation of action. The speed and freedom apparent speaks to the artist's unique performance of making this work. Editor: Ah, "performance"! Now, that rings true. I was sensing it as gesture, a release. And maybe this reflects why his subjects always have a rawness that evokes his love for unschooled art. It is, finally, quite moving in its sincerity, even when I cannot place a narrative I am compelled to wonder "What story is he not able to tell here, and why am I included?" Curator: Absolutely. Childish constantly rejects elitism and reconsiders artistic value—both what defines an "artist" and the purpose of their practice. To come to terms with this man placed precariously on painted chairs requires a rethinking of how to value the production of images. Editor: A messy business all round, valuing an image. One I, paradoxically, value precisely for the sense it makes me lost at sea... thanks. Curator: And thank you for bringing us into this sea with you.