Keeping the Festival in the picture
Not only does MOYNA FLANNIGAN have imaginary friends, she paints them tOO. Words: Helen Monaghan
oyna Flannigan paints portraits but not the traditional sense. Like a writer embarking on a new novel, Flannigan builds up a picture of a character. a person that is completely convincing although fictional. She gives them a personality and a lifestyle and in doing so. blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy.
For doggerfisher's festival exhibition, I‘m a Stranger Here Myself. the Edinburgh-born artist will be showing new paintings made specifically for the show. All the portraits are male, and like the rest of her work. they are not created directly from sitters or photographs but from her imagination. She is a great people watcher, amassing infomiation from a variety of sources until the time comes to apply the paint onto the canvas.
‘I suppose it comes from when l was a child.’ says Flannigan. ‘I watched people all the time so I feel like I’ve stored up an awful lot of stuff that 1 can use. My studio floor though is littered with books about artists and magazines, so it’s not like they come just from my imagination. A lot of it is subconscious. things creep into the painting and then you realise, well maybe that came from that Goya painting I was looking at months ago.
Flannigan studied at Edinburgh College of Art and
. completed her studies at Yale University School of Art
A lot of it is subconscious, things creep into the painting
The First Time, 2002
in New York in 1987. During her student years. Flannigan always painted figuratively but for a period of about five years. she turned to abstract painting. Switching back to portraits. Flannigan found that she was more interested in images and focused on a fictional response to the portrait.
The process of Flannigan’s creations is time- consuming, or as Flannigan puts it ‘tortuous’. She starts all the portraits at the same time and works on them over a period of time. Once the paintings are near completion, she finishes all the works in one painting session. They almost become like a family of people. Colour is also integral part of the process. She builds it up slowly. layer by layer resulting in a rich surface.
‘Colour is a huge issue in the work and it’s almost a driving force behind them.’ she says. ‘If my paintings were painted in shades of beige, they wouldn’t be interested so the colour takes a long time to develop and that actually informs the character. Otto Dix thought that each person he painted had their own special colour and I thought that was an interesting thing to say because in a way. colour can have a metaphorical sense in the painting.‘
As Flannigan is in the final stages of paintings, is she ever surprised by the finished result? ‘Oh yes. Because they are completed in one last painting session, something quite dramatic happens. It doesn’t always, but sometimes that’s how you get the best paintings when you throw caution to the wind and just go with it.‘
Moyna Flannigan: I’m a Stranger Here Myself, doggerfisher, 558 7110, 8 Aug-28 Sep, free.
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The best exhibitions opening this week
a 0y Momby ‘It you want to see a great Cy Twombly exhibition, then this is it.’ says its curator Paul Nesbitt. And he may well be right. Paintings. photography, collage and sculpture by the American artists Cy Twomy feature in the first Scottish showing of his works. InSpired by Klee and the abstract expressionists. his graffiti-like works combine art and language with elements of the unconscious. See preview. Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, 552 7177, 9 Aug-27 Oct, free.
tit: Moyna Flannigan: I’m a Stranger Here Myself A selo show of new oils and watercolours of fictional characters made specifically for the exhibition by Moyna Flannigan. Without the direct use of sitters or photographs, the Edinburgh-born artist creates intriguing portraits made from memory. See preview. doggerfisher, 558 7110, 8 Aug-29 Sep, free.
as Dialog 2 From site-specific installation made from raw wood to sculpture and performance. the work of eight contemporary Polish artists is presented in this exchange exhibition with BWA Awangarde in Wroclaw. See preview. Edinburgh College of Art, 227 6000, 70 Aug-8 Sep, free.
is Howard Hodgkln: Large Pointlan 1984-2002 Around 20 large paintings made over the last two decades by the renowned painter, Howard Hodgkin. One of the most significant painters working today, he paints thoughts and memories of past events or places he’s seen which delve deep into his subconscious. Dean Gallery, 624 6200, until 6 Oct, £3.50 (£2.50).
m Hiroshl Sugimoto New- York based Hiroshi Sugimoto. known for his photographic series of empty movie theatres. museum dioramas and waxworks. turns his lens to icons of 20th century architecture, pine trees and oceans. The Fruitmarket Gallery. 225 2383 and Stills, 622 6200, unti/27 Sep, £3 (£7.50).
8—15 Aug 2002 WE LIST mmm. OUIDI 73