Interview with Patrick Morrissey & Hanz

It is a pleasure to interview Patrick Morrissey and Clive Hancock (Hanz). In this interview I find out about the forthcoming show ‘Monochrome Set’ at Core gallery. Which is a collaborative project between Patrick, Hanz and ceramicist Leyla Folwell. The title of this show is intended to bind the works together under a theme which may evoke any number of associations with Pop culture and kinetiscism.

'Two People in a Room' 2010 © Patrick Morrissey

Morrissey’s work represents a development of ideas initiated whilst taking his degree at Goldsmiths College. Morrissey utilizes geometric and numeric systems to create a visual field or ground which contradicts and simultaneously informs the audience’s perception of each piece. 
 

Hanz has evolved his method as an outsider artist. He started to produce art in the late 1970s, very much influenced by the punk art and music scene. He uses ‘discarded’ material in his work.

September 2010  >>

CP: Can you tell us about your forthcoming exhibition ‘Monochrome Set’ at Core Gallery?

Patrick: Hanz did a piece of work some years ago; unusually for him it was in black and white instead of his highly colourful boxes.

Hanz: It was my Millennium box, obviously done in the year 2000 and is shown here in the ‘Monochrome Set’.

Patrick: So we decided at that time to create black and white work at some point for a future exhibition. When Leyla joined Cor Blimey Arts, we both found something about her strong sculptural forms that appealed to us. We invited her to contribute some of her work to ‘Monochrome Set’, we were pleased that she accepted and she produced the work you see before you now.

CP: Given the title, how do you selectively choose colour within your works?

Patrick: For ‘Monochrome Set’ the choice was easy, all the emphasis has been placed on the structures / language of the pieces. I usually work with colours that vibrate. 

Hanz: ‘Monochrome Set’ has given me the freedom to experiment with the language of my work also. In my colour boxes I choose a set of colours from the environment around me, then use a numerical system to place them on the tubes and cones.

Patrick: This is our first exhibition where we have created a body of work with a specific theme allowing us to go back to the very basics of our constructivist / concrete work and has re-affirmed our original direction.

Millenium Box,  2000 19"' x 19" © Hanz

CP: Hanz and Patrick, you have shared a studio space together since 2008. Can you tell us how your work has developed? How important is the studio practice.

Patrick: We have worked and developed in parallel for many years but since sharing a studio we have been very free with our ideas. We are both happy to have an open dialogue concerning our work and the creative processes involved

Hanz: We both work in very different media and can share a way of working in the studio but the work still retains its individuality. The work always seems to hang well together.

Patrick: Studio practice is all everything is about the work.

CP: What artists are you inspired by?

Patrick: Jose Patricio, Kenneth Martin, Francois Morellet, Sol Le Witt, Bridget Riley.

Hanz: Victor Vasarely. Mathew Frere-Smith, Fernand Leger.

Howeldrehevel, 8"  x 8 "  © Hanz

CP: Hanz, can you tell us how your abstracted relief constructions are formed and the materials you use?

Hanz: I use 1” long pieces of electrical conduit and the cones are made of paper, in my random boxes anything goes.

CP: Why do you choose discarded materials?

Hanz: Discarded materials / found objects can be used to great effect; the colours and textures can create amazing patterns, initially I created collages using packaging and cut up magazines, it was very anarchic. I found an off cut of conduit and started to place textures and colours in the tube and the work just seemed to develop from there. Patrick encouraged me to look at the constructivist’s work; which was a revelation to me. In my random boxes there is still an element of that anarchy but the tubes contain and order it.

Exhibition view at Nolia’s gallery 2010

CP: Patrick, you utilise geometric and numeric systems to create a visual field. Can you describe this process and how do you begin to create your paintings?

Pernambuco, 2009, Acylic on canvas, 4" x 4"  © Patrick Morrissey

Patrick: I usually prepare for a piece of work by having an idea of a form literally in my ‘minds eye’. I try this out on paper, producing and working through several drawings until I feel I have achieved my original intention. The ideas are fundamentally instinctive, but are reigned in or structured according to the geometric / numeric development of each piece. All the work has a developmental progression contained within a framework, but there can be deliberate variation or adjustment; which will contradict the progressive order of the elements concerned. The results, by the paintings very nature, will be to automatically create a field or mid-ground between it and the viewer, so that perspective becomes irrelevant and the relationship (hopefully) between work and viewer will be totally direct or physiological, i.e., the experience of looking will become the initial reaction, perhaps followed by associations within the viewer’s own experience.

CP: How do you both incorporate kinetic techniques within your art?

Patrick: The kinetic aspect of the work is a bi-product of the process.

Hanz: As my work has a depth to it, all of the surfaces cannot be seen at the same time. As the viewer interacts with the work its innate qualities are revealed.


CP: Do you have any forthcoming projects / news to divulge?

Patrick: We have both started a series of new works and are currently in negotiation with other established artists in the U.S.A, Europe and London with a view to holding a group exhibition in the New Year.

 

CP: Thank you very much!