Gary Mills - About My Work

The drawings displayed in this exhibition were inspired in the first instance by the great pop-era illustrators, with whose work I became familiar as a child. The styles of Arnaldo Putzu, Ivan Rose, Bernard Fuchs and Bob Peak could be seen in all manner of advertising, movie posters and book jackets before falling prey to the whims of fashion. The particular respect for process that these artists were able to communicate is sorely lacking in the illustration of today, where faux naive trends and an over-reliance on software are seemingly of greater value.

A basic initial study (taken from a screen grab of the 1974 film The Internecine Project) lead to more drawings, and eventually, in a bid to stave off the potential internecine damage that my woefully brief contribution would bring to bear upon my collaborators, an audio piece was added.

In the spirit of both the cut-up re-imaginings of Burroughs and the sampling sports of modern music, around 50 or so audio clips from the above film were assembled. A new, partially musique concrete-inspired soundtrack piece was then created using the clips - Follow The Instructions On This Card/You Know Something? - as a study of moments taken out of context, a drawing together of both a pencil-drawn instant and the isolated line of dialogue. The general theme aims to prompt a concentration on how these moments can be re-appraised through an alternative rendering, or the ways in which a re-arranged narrative can suggest another story altogether.

With acknowledgments to James Coburn, Ken Hughes, Geoffrey Unsworth and Roy Budd