Ed Hathaway – Oxfordshire Artweeks

221 Ed Hathaway

Region: Bicester – North & West

Artform: Drawing, Painting

Semi-abstract line drawing and paintings reinterpreting popular cultural imagery through the lens of absurdism and fantasy. Using ink and paint to describe casually obtained or overused media images. Rather than becoming obsolete media, drawings or free hand painting take on a relationship to the freely reproduced digital or printed image. Perhaps discussions of originality or imitation/duplication versus the unique object are measured against the impossibility of manually drawing the same piece twice? Amazon rarely employs monks to illustrate the margins of a web page in the manner of the illuminated family bible. At least part of the discussion of value in an artwork or artifact rests on its physical uniqueness and the sheer labour involved. Scarcity as relates to value (if not necessarily to ‘quality’). In the digital realm, the theoretically infinite duplication of an image has led to the creation of NFTs as presumably an attempt to maintain a concept of the ‘original’. If an oft repeated cultural image of an historical figure (real or imaginary) is reinterpreted by its context, or its meaning leached by a nearby web banner advertising haemorrhoid ointment, how does its reading change again if that image is used as reference for an ink drawing? What if the artist’s imperfect understanding of what they’re looking at coupled with a literal lack of detail changes the reading again? In addition, in a physical medium with no UNDO function that predates the printing press and is never entirely predictable in its execution? Finally, what if the artist has an agenda?

Located above a Farm Shop with ample parking