Friedrich Nietzsche notes, “We should consider every day lost in which we do not dance at least once.” Still, Germany’s most notorious philosopher never had to sit down on the dance floor in a line of make-believe rowers and chant "Agadoo-doo-doo". Dance music has come on since the days of Black Lace (who also had a hit called Superman, another concept with which Nietzsche was not unfamiliar).’
Paul Simpson, The Rough Guide to Cult Pop
Superpaintings features eight new paintings made in collaboration, for the first time, by two old friends who met at art school in the late 1990s. It is a friendship that started because of a shared infectious sense of humour, a love of old-master paintings and a tendency for late night disco dancing. All of these traits are apparent in the new paintings.
The paintings re-enact a dance moves from the 1981 cult hit song Superman by Black Lace. Dance moves include clapping hands, walking, swimming, skiing, spraying deodorant, sounding a horn, Macho Man, ringing a bell, and the Superman. As society suffers cuts from 'tightening of the belt' austerity measures, one has to remember that, maybe, in the bigger picture Nietzsche and Black Lace were right after all.
The process of painting is no longer just something that painters share by talking and viewing the finished piece. Using cutting edge technology the artists are adding a new dimension to the discourse of painting by creating an augmented celebration of the superman. The history of each painting will be able to be viewed in the gallery by holding a mobile device to the subject of the work thus unfolding the life and process of the artwork.
'Superpaintings' is one of a series of shows at Transition that examine ideas around collaboration. The subject is also examined in Garageland 15: Collaboration which features 'Rituals and Rules of Sharing' an interview with Oliver Bancroft and James Connelly.
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