{"id":70,"date":"2012-02-23T13:17:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T13:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/?page_id=70"},"modified":"2012-09-25T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T11:58:44","slug":"john-gelsthorp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/john-gelsthorp\/","title":{"rendered":"John Gelsthorp"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Teoman

’84 nudes #1′ -2002<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEach of the sibling images appears unique. There seems to be an underlying principle at work, something almost magical.\u201d<\/h1>\n

I used the same image reproduced many times; computers are good at repetitive tasks, to initially construct the first work \u2018One Million Nudes\u2019.
\nIn retrospect this imposed limitation turned out to be very interesting. The very fact that every single image in the whole series is derived from this one original image of a figure suggests that the process of reproduction\/regeneration\/etc makes as important a contribution as the original figure.
\nDistortions, errors or mutations introduced have spawned radically different results.<\/p>\n

Why one million nudes?<\/strong>
\nBecause that is what I set out to do, originally. I couldn\u2019t imagine what it would look like. At first the task seemed near impossible. That is what really got my attention. I liked the challenge.
\nI figured one way would be to print images of 100,000 figures, A0 size, ten different ways. That would be exactly one million.<\/p>\n

The actual figures are very small. It looks like a carpet.<\/strong>
\nYes they are about 2 mm tall. Maybe they could be a bit bigger. However, the final images were not very interesting. I must admit I was a little disappointed at first.<\/p>\n

You really need to look very closely at the works to see what they are.<\/strong>
\nI agree. But I discovered something. A crowd is not as entertaining as individuals or a small group. Obvious in hindsight. But the process had fascinated<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"One

’84 nudes #2′ – 2002<\/p><\/div>\n

me none the less. So I started isolating individuals. That\u2019s when the work started to show potential.
\nThe proceeding work is so different to the initial prints.
\nI\u2019m excited by all the endless possibilities. The spin-off paintings are so much more interesting.<\/p>\n

Only the early paintings seem to be of nudes. The later ones have completely evolved away from that proposition. Why continue to insist they are nudes when clearly they are something else?<\/strong>
\nI called them nudes because they started off as nudes. Well a single nude actually. But you are right, they have dressed themselves somehow and some quite elaborately. The well dressed nudes. I like that. But this has never been a conscious effort on my part. It\u2019s the process. Thinking about it, it\u2019s kind of inevitable that the evolution of the paintings has taken this course, developed in this direction; because you can\u2019t undress a nude now, can you?<\/p>\n

Do you feel there is inevitability in the direction the work is progressing and if so where do you think it is leading?<\/strong>
\nThe inevitability I just mentioned is really only in hindsight. I don\u2019t know where all this is leading me. The Dark Nudes series, the latest work, could give some clue to what might further develop. I hope not because I lose interest quickly when things become predictable.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"One

Detail from ‘One Million Nudes #9’ – 2002<\/p><\/div>\n

I understand they are all based on one initial image. But who is it?<\/strong>
\nThat is not an interesting question. The real question is how can it be \u2018a who\u2019? Meaning, how can all this be one image or a person? Every drop of personality has been wrung out. Completely. The process was brutal! And yet each of the sibling images appears unique. There seems to be an underlying principle at work, something almost magical. What is it? Now that is the real interesting question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEach of the sibling images appears unique. There seems to be an underlying principle at work, something almost magical.\u201d I used the same image reproduced many times; computers are good at repetitive tasks, to initially construct the first work \u2018One…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"1r-sidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-70","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/superabundance.co.uk\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}