Paul was identified by the guardian newspaper as one of 20 talents across the arts to watch for in 2017. Encompassing film, TV, literature, comedy, dance, theatre, art, entertainment, and music the list highlighted those pioneering these areas.
To quote the guardian article which sums him and his work up excellently.
“Artist, stalker, drawer, makeup enthusiast, pervert and video broadcaster,” reads Paul Kindersley’s online profile. His preferred medium is his own body, having posted hundreds of images of himself in innumerable poses, guises and situations (most of which he concocts at home) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Using paint, make-up and costumes Kindersley’s work is a kind of free-access public sketchbook. His Youtube channel is also full of alarming and often hilarious and impromptu videos. He is the son of a family of traditional and much respected stone-carvers, but his work is an irreverent queering of British modernist tradition. Whenever he deals with reclining figures, he finds it hard not to think of Henry Moore. Moore in drag, now there’s a thought."
Paul showed us the huge variety of the prolific body of work he has created. This covers online pieces on Youtube, twitter, instagram and facebook as well as gallery installations, site specific events and performance art. His philosophy is the sharing of art and he is equally happy with his work being disseminated to an audience with all of these platforms. The blurring of these too interests him and where artwork exists, begins and ends and different interpretations of it depending on its dissemination. However it was obvious he derives the most pleasure from the immediacy and the "immediate response" of his online pieces.
His style and aesthetics are born out of necessity. Armed with little in the way of technology but an iphone, basic computer software and the internet he creates his work. Due to living in a small flat in London he uses flat objects, begged borrowed and found materials, costumes paint and largely his own body and performance to create his work
His themes are broad ranging drawing on his own sexuality, the human form and nudity in life and art, popular culture, TV, politics, notions of fame and celebrity, trashy 70's horror, and Andy Warhol and his factory to name but a few.
It was interesting when he talked about the internet providing worldwide distribution through platforms such as facebook and Youtube. He loves the fact his work could be an intimate experience for the audience challenging the very notion of audience actually existing. and art or media texts being often a 1-1 experience. He used the example of the "make up" tutorials that inundate youtube. They are created by one person often in their bedroom and generally consumed by another person (the audience) in their bedroom so are very personal and intimate from conception to consumption even though they may get millions of views.
The above clip aptly demonstrates this with one of Pauls make-up "tutorials". They are an un-nerving and uncomfortable watch which works the hinterland between truth, parody, realism, art and you are never quite sure exactly what you are watching. The production values are pretty low with the crashy music at the start and basic titles through to the one average/poor quality locked off video shot and dubious sound quality. They have an authenticity in the quality of them but do not come across as authentic in terms of content. This is a mix of Pauls DIY attitude and lack of technical ability and training working hand in hand with a lack of concern about it. He mentioned after his presentation he is not trained in video and quality and production values was never a huge concern often recording his work from screen to play around with the quality. His make-up tutorials also allow other issues to be discussed by his alter-ego during the make-over. Another plus of the tutorials is the fact that his "art" pops up randomly in searches for make-up tutorials due to his tagging of them as such like a Trojan Horse. Therefore if you are searching for make-up tutorials Pauls subversive work may show up in your hits and therefore potentially reach a potentially huge unassuming audience. The other factor that this allows Paul is feedback and comments from viewers. Other mimicking and parodys of online phenomenon work include his subversion and re-interpretation of beauty pageants and adults dressed as babies. All awkward and uncomfortable content taken to the next level with Pauls interpretations of them.
paul is a keen art historian and regularly uses or draws inspiration from the great masters in his own work. Colour, composition, modern staging of or interpretations of these from art, sculpture, film and dance populate his work. He also works for another artist as a "performance artist" and argues that performance art has been around for years and is not that new. Playing roles characters to an audience and performing is just a mutation of acting. He also argues that the human form is perhaps more relevant in art and the media today than ever. Selfies on instagram with people creating representations of themselves and personas online and even creating photo-shopped images to mimic those the media continually expose them to being examples. Often pusing the boundaries of nudity, exhibitionism and what is acceptable. Some of his work has explored this with his "look books" blurring and creating cross over fashion/advertising images.
He calls this way of finding audience for his work "images that disrupt the flow of normality" and loves the idea of shocking audience out of their online zombie state. He aims to disrupt space and the norm and to make audiences think twice by challenging them and their behaviour and expectations. In his own words he "loves to frustrate people" and to explore the "uneasy area and territories between what is real and what is not" arguing that it does not really matter. he regularly treads a thin line on what is acceptable in galleries with his sexualised imagery and nudity. More especially he does this also online and almost taunts the policing of this and it's gatekeepers. His work is generally un-exploitative of the human form but does raise interesting questions as to when does nudity in online art start to become pornography? The issues of what a piece of art is, what it is about and when does it end are all areas he loves to explore and question.
Paul was the first recipient of The Transition Gallery Prize is a contemporary art award that was set up in 2009 with a solo exhibition being awarded to a Chelsea BA graduate for outstanding work. Paul's work was described by the gallery as the following. "Kindersley's multifaceted work is situated in the cultural interface between viewer and film moment. Drawing on camp, nostalgia and the extremities of exploitation movies of the 60s and 70s, his starting references explore the exaggerated filmic concepts and emotions of tragedy, eroticism, melodrama, violence and the tacky. His installations or 'sets' include constellations of found objects and images, arranged and filtered through convoluted and esoteric amalgams of histories and personal experiences. Large-scale photocopies and immediate environments of available objects act as clues in an unknowable hyper-drama. The objects function as 'props', which Kindersley also describes as 'gifts to the filmic moment'. She wanted his soul, but he could only give her his blood is a new work specially made for Transition. It references sexy 70s vampire movies in a form of shrine to stolen film memories and real life encounters with the cult Germen actor Udo Kier. In a charged environment formed from sounds, looks and props from Kier's films the viewer becomes the vampire with the film as the ultimately doomed, but struggling to stay alive, victim. With his mise-en-scene facades into which the viewer is physically invited to enter, Kindersley strives to own and thereby validate the ethereal film experience, offering the viewer a degree of ownership of the romanticised glamour of cinema."
The work brought together as mentioned above many of Pauls regular themes and ideas. He described the installation work as being like a film set mise-en-scene with the audience the actors and inhabitants of this performing in the space he created. The straw in the middle created an object for the audience to have to navigate around the other elements as well as providing smells to invoke response in them. The oversized prop like elements from a film set, with their bright colours and benday dot huge image of a face throwing back to pop art. These were combined with sounds to complete the atmosphere. I never got to see the installation but as an early Kindersley the themes that continue to inform his work are present. the blurring of then real, fantasy, performance, interaction with the audience are all here and plain to see. The DIY nature of the work and the created elements alongside the found and borrowed that create his familiar aesthetic style are also apparent.
Pauls philosophy towards his work is simply to create it with what he has around him. His body, paint, costumes, props, backdrops, material even work created by collecting everything from his flat that is the same colour and them composing them.
He also is very happy re-purposing, re-cycling, re-inventing and re-creating his content, props, sets and work. The same images and props crop up again and again born partly out of necessity and budget constraints but also due to them being images, themes and ideology he appreciates. In terms of his work one idea can create a body of different work exploring this for multiple platforms exhibition and dissemination by audiences. One idea was first created then filmed in a gallery space, but eventually shown as a gallery installation/performance piece. This was then streamed online, stills were taken from the stream and shared online and as static images and eventually comments from viewers of the stream were added to these still images. So one idea created a body of work spanning 6 different strands of work encompassing stills, video, gallery installation and streamed!
He is uninhibited by waiting for "perfection" and this he said is very freeing. Rather then spending a huge amount of time crafting something that is perfect he would rather spend his time creating 9-10 pieces that are close and learning as he goes along. This attitude has allowed him to create a large body of work rather than a focussed small body. Another example is that he just shot
After his presentation Paul was available for tutorials and we both had a great discussion and sharing of skills and knowledge as well as me getting some great advice from him.What to take forward from Pauls work and the discussion is listed below..
- Recycling, repurposing and re-inventing works and content. Same content recreated for different platforms and audiences.
- Using of many different platforms for dissemination to try and find multiple audiences.
- Trojan horse online works to find new audiences. tagging work up so surprises audiences and finds new viewers. Also piggy backs on existing genres of content masquerading as them but "art". Challenge audiences.
- Not to get too caught up in aesthetics or production values and create MORE work rather than aiming for the "perfect" piece every time.
- However use my film knowledge, skill, technical and ability as a strength as high production values is one of the USP's of my work.
- Do not be afraid of collaboration or improvisation. Paul said a lot of his best work came from this and creating an environment, spine and mise-en-scene for it to happen. Does need to be c"controlled" by me though.
- Blurring of boundaries, art, factual, parody, real, fake etc really interesting and worth some exploration.
- Using what is around me more to create my work. Can I be more central to it? Will this open up potential for making video work and subjects easier?
http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/paul_k.htm
http://www.belmacz.com/artists/kindersley_paul
https://vimeo.com/user8092710
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jan/07/new-talents-2017-stage-film-books-art-design-music-tv
https://twitter.com/PaulKindersley
https://www.youtube.com/user/thebritisharecumming
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