The story behind the Boxes
Terry Chipp is fascinated by people – singly and in groups. He finds the endless variations in shapes formed as people move, rest or engage with others to be intriguing. Add in the effects of lighting and the possibilities are endless. He loves to make drawings of people in cafes and meetings, street performers, dancers and musicians. He is never far from his sketchbook.
His most recent series of paintings is of people posing in a large box. The idea formed while sketching actors in rehearsal at his town’s newly opened theatre. He noted the way their body language changed as they slipped in and out of character or even between their private thoughts and talking to others.
Chipp also recognised the simplified way that people or characters were described, often with a single word. This led him to the idea of people being pigeon-holed or ‘put in boxes’. By physically placing his subjects in the confinements of a box he is referencing the stone carvings of saints and demons squeezed into narrow niches in mediaeval cathedrals and how those figures are often contorted to fit the space.
Taking a box that canvases had been delivered in Chipp cut a large window and invited members of the cast to pose in it as a miniature theatre where they could decide how they wanted to present themselves in the unusual situation. Some were comfortable in the shadows while others contorted in their discomfort. Some became playful and many sought to escape by projecting out of the frame of the box. This gave Chipp the opportunity to showcase his painting skills by creating convincing tromp l’oeil effects as hands and feet broke through the picture plane and into the viewers’ space. The shadowed interior of the box allowed greater control of the light falling on the figures creating dramatic, theatrical effects reminiscent of Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
While the figures are painted with a striking reality the background is kept neutral and the subject emerges from deep shadow or a coloured haze. Either way there are no clues beyond the title to tell us who this person may be. This again relates to Chipp’s experiences in the theatre when, at lunchtime, these larger than life and highly talented individuals became anonymous in the crowd. His paintings present a simple yet enigmatic image to illustrate how little we may know about the people we see and meet. To add to the illusion many of the resulting
paintings were made onto the same 30x30 inches canvases that had been delivered in the box making the painted figures almost life sized and giving them a heightened presence in the room. Visitors to exhibitions were frequently seen to approach very closely to the paintings to check that the surface actually was flat.
“ ‘Katrina the Artist’ is part of a series of paintings representing people posing within a box. The painting can be perceived as an authentic and excellent trompe l’oeil: the mastery with which it was created generates a deceiving illusion of the real, but also enchants and amazes the viewer. “ Paola Marconi Art curator M.A.D.S. Gallery, Milan.