Cover Versions is a series of 12 1/3 inch square paintings based on LP record covers. The project started in a single moment some years ago when, taking an album from the shelf, I suddenly ‘saw’ it as a painting, the same shape and size but transformed into a painting.
I often use pre-existing ‘readymade’ material in my work making originals, paintings, from multiples; printed or photographic imagery. I think of this process as ‘turning’ this imagery, borrowing the situationist notion of ‘detournement', from one context to another. Although naturally often received as such there is no intention in the work of paying tribute to 'favourite' albums and artists, more a general celebration of the genre and its period of dominance.
Each painting is a stand alone piece but there are a number of systems guiding the project. The paintings are developed in groups of 12. Within each 12 there has to be at least one of the following: a portrait, a monochrome, a hand-drawn (rather than photographic) image, an image referencing an existing art-work and an 'abstract' or purely typographical one.
Bal Masque / Poulenc | Cover Version 4 (4/1) | 2002 |
Cha Cha Cha | Cover Version 7 (7/1) | 2002 |
Close To The Bone | Cover Version 19 (7/2) | 2003 |
Dido & Aeneas | Cover Version 21 (9/2) | 2003 |
Dovetail | Cover Version 36 (12/3) | 2004 |
European Concert Volume 2 | Cover Version 30 (7/3) | 2004 |
Introspective | Cover Version 41 (5/4) | 2006 |
June Christy Recalls Those Kenton Years | Cover Version 13 (1/2) | 2003 |
Love Songs | Cover Version 28 (5/3 | 2004 |
Olé Coltrane | Cover Version 23 (11/2) | 2003 |
Prince Charming | Cover Version 26 (2/3) | 2005 |
Rock’n’Roll Animal | Cover Version 37 (1/4) | 2006 |
Sarah Vaughan Sings Gershwin | Cover Version 2 (2/1) | 2002 |
Smokey Wood:The Houston Hipster | Cover Version 42 (6/4) | 2006 |
Songs For Swinging Lovers | Cover Version 29 (6/3) | 2004 |
The King Of New Orleans Jazz | Cover Version 5 (5/1) | 2002 |
The Times They Are A-Changing | Cover Version 18 (6/2) | 2003 |
We Got Latin Soul | Cover Version 17 (5/2) | 2003 |
All paintings acrylic on canvas |