Martin Pollock
With no formal training and self taught I’ve understood what a paintbrush can do from an early age now in my late forties there have only been a few periods of time when I’ve not put one to use. I can’t say whether formal training could have benefitted my work in any way but feel that all work whatever it may be by whoever created it has the same fate either loved loathed or left alone.
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Born in 1961 in the east end of London, there were many opportunities still to see a side of London that was either outmoded or partially destroyed in world war 2 up until the mid eighties when development began to change the face of London on a massive scale . Though the development of docklands was a much needed thing to retool it for the twenty first century from working class to white collar many of the old buildings that evoked memories of a bygone age were gone for good. It was these images that inspired me to view the old alongside the new in whatever way they presented themselves.
In the old I personally see something of a gift if you look for it and you see it you are rewarded, the new (the ongoing) is observed, underlined or presented to us by the old. Using detail not just for its own sake but to emphasize the wider use of discipline in the past in everyday activities from their use of materials to design form and function, a testimony to their abilities and skill. An example of this that is strong in my mind are the remnants of a fishing fleet of wooden boats that have been abandoned and left to rot on the shingle beach they once worked from, they were constructed to last and after many years unattended their integrity remains intact for so long after working life has past.
These images are sometimes bleak, but viewing change often is until it’s accepted then things move on the cycle continues. There is only one message in these images and that is about “change” it having to be accepted, endured or welcomed.
