Anthony Whitfield
Fig.1. ‘Resting Man’, 2023
'Resting Man' (Fig.1.)
Porcelain, gold powder, resin.
Worn and cast by Anthony Whitfield, 2003
Smashed and repaired by Amy South, 2023
Life after death speaks in the fall of a cup, in the silence of a painting, in the stillness of this ‘Resting Man’. This was a porcelain cast of my late Father's face. I hung it on the studio wall, closed the door and it fell. A new artwork was created from the broken mask.
Fig.2. ‘Resting Man’ at ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far’, Globe Gallery, 2020.
Photograph taken by Colin Davison.
Fig.2. was taken at Anthony Whitfield’s retrospective exhibition, ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far’, curated by his daughter Amy South at Globe Gallery 2020.
The mask was cast during the creation of Domain Field, an exhibition by Antony Gormley at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, in 2003. 287 people were wrapped in plaster to create body moulds for Gormley to cast sculptures out of.
Anthony went on to create a painting inspired by the experience of being in this full body cast. This work is entitled, ‘In The Womb (Death and Rebirth)’ Fig.3.
Fig.3. ‘In The Womb (Death and Rebirth)’
The late Anthony Whitfield’s painting, ‘In The Womb (Death and Rebirth)’ (Fig.3.) was exhibited at his retrospective exhibition in 2020, and then again at ‘What Does Life After Death Look Like?’
Soon before his death he reflected; “All I could hear was my own breath and heartbeat, it was like being in the womb… I felt a strange relief. The shapes in the painting are the remembered light that resonated in my mind after the light was diminished by layers of scrim tape. Hours later, a knock on the head, you're set! And I was broken out into the light, it was like being re-born!” I wonder if that’s how he feels now? Like a glistening black void in the wall.
Fig.4. ‘Corner Painting’
‘Corner Painting’ (Fig.4.)
An optical illusion that shifted visual perception, inviting us to experience what we choose to see. Was it a doorway into darkness or a doorway into light? It was both, held together in one form, like yinyang, like life and death. As I focused on the doorway into darkness, it actualized. This reminded me of the phrase: ‘What you focus on expands.’
Below, some insight into Anthony’s practice, taken from the exhibition text for ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far.’
“Whitfield, once a plasterer by trade, unexpectedly entered the world of art following an injury at work. From an Art GCSE in 1995 he went on the study for a BA degree at Northumbria University in 1999.
Freed from the constraints of his trade, with a deep appreciation of the working material, Whitfield was able to challenge the materiality and processes of plaster and began adapting and reinventing Secco, Fresco and Bocco painting techniques.
Stains of liquid plaster, bare screws, and edges of exposed plasterboard reveal Whitfield’s process, standing in contrast to highly finished, often mirror smooth surfaces. His work is constructed using materials and techniques which combine pigmented plaster, layers of carving, biro and acrylic paint and thin layers of varnish glaze.
‘Language’ Fig.5. (“Like in this ancient script-like scribe.”)
“Whitfield’s negotiation with colour, form and space has changed a lot through the years, but the interconnection is present in the translation of something immaterial, a phenomena that transcends the work’s physical form.
“Art has given me a place to escape to and I escaped into my art. Art became therapy to me. Life is therapy in a way. Sometimes it’s good therapy sometimes it’s bad. I think that it’s important to realise and remember that there is much more going on in this life than meets the eye.””