About the Artist ~ Laurence Watchorn
Laurence Watchorn is a South London-based artist and DJ who holds a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art.
He is the co-founder of OOZ, an arts and music collective.
Watchorn paints on uniquely curved hand-cut canvases. Sound, frequency, colour, play, rhythm, symbol, and text are mapped out and echoed throughout the work in ecstatic and considered compositions.
Working solely on the floor, oil paint, pastel, charcoal, oil stick, and collage form what Watchorn describes as, “floor-bound wanderings”. They are works that confront the viewer, as well as invite them into mirrored images of his inner and outer realities which question the way we communicate, the limits of our language, and the potential for re-enchantment with the natural world.
Recent exhibitions include a two-person show at Sim Smith, Echoic Vision solo show at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation - Shoreditch, his solo show Cypher Vision, and As Above, So Below in Sydney, Australia.
Blue Nude: What first inspired you to become a painter?
Laurence Watchorn: I never said to myself ‘I want to be a painter one day’ or ever set my sights on it - I fell into it really. The beginning of what has become a very organic process in my life - not contrived or thought-out, just a happening.
BN: We discussed music and synesthesia a lot during our collaboration. How does music influence your work?
LW: It’s the most important part of my work. My relationship with, and love of sound is of absolute importance to the nature and making of my pictures. The visual materialisation of sound and the ineffable is at the crux of my work.
BN: What are a few of your favourite songs of the moment?
LW: It's changing all the time but at the moment what I’m playing a lot:
- Alhousseni Anivolla & Girum Mezmur - Asalam
- Balla et ses Balladins - Bambo / Soufogne / Paulette
- Cybotron (Juan Atkins) - Parallel Shift
- Chris & Cosey - Talk To Me
- Anja Ngozi - Sunnyside
- Shina Williams - Agboju Logun
- Fugue - Contrapoint [Likemind 02] (A techno record I always come back to)
BN: What artists are currently inspiring you?
LW: My friend Sarah who passed away last year is continually inspiring me. My good friend Mia, an incredible textile artist has inspired me a lot lately. My new studio neighbour, Barry has shared some inspiring thoughts with me recently. I’m finding life in general away from my studio very inspiring - living, working at a record shop, dance-floors, music, the trees, the sun. Nature’s organic order of things.
BN: What is your favourite colour, and why?
LW: I’ve thought more about this since you asked me in person.. I haven’t got a favourite colour, I love all colour. Colour is intuitive and I try not to overcomplicate or overanalyse it.
BN: What is something unexpected that inspires you?
LW: The mistakes and accidents.
BN: What did you absorb from the source inspiration of Hydra for our collaboration? What visual or thematic elements were the most inspiring?
LW: The hedonism and ecstatic feeling an island like Hydra has the potential to evoke. To lose oneself in such a place, to forget mundanity - the potential to forget ourselves.
BN: How have you found the process of working on a fashion collection?
LW: It’s been a wonderfully eye-opening experience opening myself and my practice up to a fashion collection and has taught me about the potential in my pictures beyond the white cube. I have learnt so much and it’s been a real pleasure working with the governor, Kat.
BN: If there were any medium of art you'd like to try, what would it be, and why?
LW: It was probably fashion until this project. I am working on a limited edition rug series at the moment which I am excited about. Who knows what’s next.
BN: What is next on your creative adventure?
LW: There’s a few things in the pipeline. I will be back in the studio painting again soon but also exciting stuff bubbling on the music side of things - I’m running a big collaborative party in May, releasing some exciting new music on my label and also helping to set up a new bar in Brixton. Let’s see what unfolds from then onwards.
