The Persil billboard project
Three individual canvases, all hand made, have been created for the ‘For Whatever Life Throws’ campaign of Autumn 2013.
Creating three works of art for Unilever
The brief required the replicating of stains like pesto, smoothie, bolognese, ketchup, mustard and jam. All three paintings have been created using synthetic materials to replicate these foodstuffs. The theme of kids playing was set, the shapes defined and the need to show spontaneous action and movement (whilst retaining shape and colour) was also required. Heavy texturing was also required.
Over a six month period these paintings were created using a large number of materials and techniques. 91 different components went into recreating these food stains – each one hand mixed for each application session on each painting. Multiply each stain by fifteen sittings by three paintings and that equates to over 400 individual textured food mixes for the whole project.
The silhouettes of three children were vinyl cut and used as templates. The textures were built up over fifteen or so sittings (per painting), layer by layer and each requiring a new vinyl to be applied and stuck each time.
Materials and logistics
Canvas was manufactured bespoke from a polyester weave coated with three layers of gesso. The painting time alone totaled around 200 hours (including trial pieces). The result is three unique paintings that are so full of paint and texture that they weigh around 75kgs each. Custom made alloy channeling prevents bowing on the frames.
Two additional industrial units were hired, in addition to my own, just so they could be laid out, stretched and stapled and moved around. Part of the problem with working on a large scale is space and movement. There is never enough of it…
The three subjects ‘Hanging Girl’, ‘Arms Out Boy’ and ‘Handstand Girl’ are subtly different in that they have marginally altered colour palettes; achieved by adjusting densities of certain stains and frequency of normal paint colours.
Bespoke, handmade frames, several thousand staples and around 600 man hours have gone into the entire project; culminating in a photo shoot by leading London photographer Laurie Haskell.
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