For the second of my Encounters, I was delighted to be paired up with Paul Baines, since I had enjoyed seeing his exhibition of paintings and artist books at Shrewsbury’s Gateway Gallery 3 a year or so ago, and I had been looking for an opportunity to make contact to discuss his work further.
Paul’s early work was inspired by Pop Art and work from the 1950s/60s, but in recent years he has turned to a fully abstract painting style. He has developed a form of visual communication that is founded on ten Projects that express his own ideology and political beliefs. His books combine poems with graphic designs, sketches and drawings.
“Empathy with society’s disadvantaged” is a primary driver behind his work. I was intrigued by how such passionately held beliefs could be expressed using pure abstract forms. Paul quickly explained how he has developed a visual language that is inspired by whichever of the ten projects he is focusing on, and after some closer looking at the work, I began to be able to read some of the “vocabulary”.
I reflected on how abstract concepts are defined, often with very precise definitions that society takes on as a consensus. So for example, the dictionary defines “empathy” as:
“the power of imaginatively entering into and understanding another person’s feelings”
Everyone has their own experience, memories and thoughts about what this means to them. We also have an understanding of what terms are by what they are not. These references are in constant flux as experiences change and things redefine themselves, which I guess is a post-structuralist way of looking at things. So I saw Paul’s paintings as a way of taking definitions back to that moment when inchoate thoughts emerge in response to perceptions from the world, and when, thereafter, terms become defined within our mind.
The poem I wrote first was in direct response to Paul’s Project 1 “to promote empathy and compassion” which he was able to translate into a painting.
Detail
Detail
My poem was inspired by a train journey back from a day out in Birmingham just before Christmas last December 2017:
Evening Train
Stuffed together on the evening train
Feverish with festive banter
Bodies lurch at each juddering halt
And others gently check the sway
In silent kindness
In the cold clammy air along the station platform
Legs crumple in slow collapse
Anxious faces offer help
As a young daughter looks on bewildered, mute
A calm lady relays questions from
The ambulance approaching
Her assurance brings relief
To all, as we wait
© Andrew Howe, January 2018
The second poem proved more difficult. Although, both Paul and I had existing work to respond to, all of our work for the exhibition was created afresh in collaboration. We met just once but maintained a conversation by various messages. I saw digital images of the paintings not quite realising just how textural they were. My attempts to write something in response to one of the other Projects that Paul has defined did not flow well, and so instead I drafted something which described observations from an urban walk, and which tried to capture a spirit of being in tune with the Projects.
Its about acceptance; acceptance of the passing of time and experiences. Nothing matters and everything matters. And before we, as individuals and as societies, attribute values to things influenced by memory and abstractions, there is a beginning. The beginning is the moment. In that moment, she, he, this or they merit the same attention and respect as her, him, that or them. It is up to us, then, to defer, delay, suspend or change the process of valuation to allow for alternative meanings and interpretation.
All and Nothing
Step on
Swish of tyres, glistening wet tarmac
Bass thump, door slam
Dachsund shivering
Two women laugh
As one holds the other’s arm
I’m not the fairy, I’m not
Step on
Ahead of the flow
Sweeping through
Erasing, smoothing
Double yellow slinking by the kerbside
Becoming silver ribbons catching low sunlight
Step ahead
Hooded man hunched over phone
No mate, there’s only one pack left
We sent all the others back last night
Plastic fragment quivers on hawthorn branch
Bent signpost, and a scattering of cable ties
Step on
Its all here, these are the facts
Streaming onwards in all directions
Leaves and sweet wrappers spiral in the breeze
Cardboard boxes trampled into mulch
Pigeons clap flapping
Coos echo in dank empty building
Windows blinded by OSB and ply
Webs of shattered glass, and a half peeled sticker
Electric drill screams, and a second starts up
Pulsing, phasing around one note
Step on
Dirt-blue sleeping bag rucked into door way
Upturned beer cans, and two copper coins
Step ahead
The flow washes over
Golden reflections shimmering on cracked paving
Long shadows flicker across railings
Black man in parka coat
Grinning and laughing
At me or with me?
I wave in salute
We’re alright
Step on
© Andrew Howe March 2018
Paul was able to create a painting in response. These are the finished works in the gallery:
The paintings are powerful and work extremely well in this gallery setting. It was a delight to meet Paul and I hope to maintain our conversations in the future.
No Time Like the Present 