PAUL WALLINGTON: Feedback Loop

25 August - 18 September 2022
  • New Normal Projects is thrilled to announce the launch of our Online Viewing Rooms - a virtual exhibition space to...
    New Normal Projects is thrilled to announce the launch of our Online Viewing Rooms - a virtual exhibition space to discover, explore and collect some of our favourite artists.

    The program starts with Feedback Loop, an exhibition by South African artist Paul Wallington.

    In this series, Wallington considers how painting can have no ulterior motives. It is a false reality but attempts to be truthful in its sentiment. These works communicate a narrative emotionally and connect with the viewer through their form and humour.     

  • "The power of the narrative is something that has become increasingly important to me, I am interested in its ability to simplify a progressively complex world."

    • "Social Media, AI and advertising allow us to render scenes and create fictional narratives in increasingly believable ways, more often than not these scenes connote a sense of reality or truth. In juxtaposition to this, figurative painting is representational but does not attempt to place any sense of factuality on the narrative, it foregrounds itself instead as an interpretation of reality. Truth is foregrounded in the painting's deception. 

    • Painting is a means of connecting and communicating with one another emotionally, it is a way to validate one another. This connection is particularly important in a time where individualism is prominent, and people's emotions have been placed at the forefront. Through using direct references from painters like Manet and Goya, I begin to re-enforce the idea of this simplified reality within my work. A painting that can articulate a story but foregrounds the fact that it is first and foremost a painting."

  • "The park scenes act as an almost microcosm to study these ideas. Often a park scene is depicted as an idyllic or picturesque version of reality, much like a curated Instagram feed, however, my works explore how this can be completely subverted. These scenes aim to capture the banality of the park, attempting to capture the humour and absurdity of small horrors like a dog chasing the ducks or the cult-like uniformity of bodies stretched out of place during a 'yoga in the park' class. These small horrors mirror the greater ones depicted in the works of old masters, creating a world where painting does not exist purely as a beautiful and idyllic scene but rather as an ironic call back to previous works of art, like an endless feedback loop.

    These paintings aim to show that often painting has no ulterior motives, it is a false reality but attempts to be truthful in its sentiment. They communicate a narrative emotionally and connect with the viewer through their form and humour. These paintings are an honest lie, trust me I'm lying to you!"