Shane Bradford – History 2

Friday, 2 November 2007 – Sunday, 18 November 2007

Best known for his ‘dipping’ process in which various objects are repeatedly dipped in multicoloured emulsions, Shane Bradford’s practice broadens to encompass large-scale oil painting, 3-dimensional objects and project work.

HISTORY2  (‘History Squared’) marks a development in the work away from the self-referential aspects of the dipping process. As the technique has evolved it is no longer necessary for the subject to refer to the process itself. Instead certain phenomena associated with the ‘dipping’ action; namely covering, sealing, burial, time, preservation, renewal, and layering are used to generate subject matter and objects which are consequently consistent with their own fabrication. Such a symbiosis between content and process, each driven by the other forms the trajectory for the exhibition and drives an enquiry into the artist’s personal history. Firstly pitting his work in relation to that of his artist parents, the theme expands to confront the modern role of the contemporary painter in relation to the long and weighty history of painting.

Consistent with previous bodies of work such as the ‘Sign Series Paintings’ in which the narrative qualities of one particular colour sequence is employed throughout, each work in HISTORY2 shares the hallmark of the colour-set red, black, and white. This acts as a kind of coded branding system, which assists painterly decisions about colour, and helps to further delineate and define the intention of each piece.