Redemption exhibited at the British Art Fair with Sedition, MuseFrame and Matthew Flowers on September 26th - 29th 2024 and immersively at Lume Studios in NYC at the same time.
This deeply personal exploration of the universal themes of struggle, transcendence, and salvation, expressed through the merging of visual art, poetry, and cinema.
At its core, Redemption brings together the powerful, raw intensity of Peter Howson’s paintings with Laurence Fuller’s poetry, animated through AI to create a living, breathing dialogue between form and language. Both Howson and Fuller have embarked on personal journeys marked by internal conflict, growth, and a search for meaning. These experiences are woven into the fabric of this piece, where redemption is not just a distant goal, but an active process of reckoning with one’s own past.
Howson’s paintings are known for their uncompromising portrayal of humanity’s darkest moments, and yet, within these depths, there is always a search for salvation. His own journey ~ marked by battles with addiction, faith, and a return to spiritual awareness ~ imbues his work with a profound sense of vulnerability and redemption. In Redemption, this inner struggle is brought to life as his static images are animated, their textures unraveling to reveal layers of emotional and spiritual depth, mimicking the cyclical nature of personal recovery and growth.
Through words, Fuller wrestles with doubt, guilt, and faith, much like Howson’s figures. "For when I transcend, a greater fool takes my place" ~ speaks to the cyclical struggles of generations, the son surpassing the father. The medium itself tipping its hat to Laurence’s father Peter Fuller who championed the truth to materials in paintings and sculpture.
The use of AI animation serves as a cinematic reconstruction of the given, transforming Howson’s paintings into a moving embodiment of beauty. As in cinema, where sequences of images represent the imagination, these animated works create a dream-like space where the viewer is invited to engage with the story of redemption on both a visual and emotional level. Through the interplay of thought, sound, and action, the audience is drawn into a sensual experience where ideas and emotions are reconstructed, creating a dream ~ an invitation for the audience to find their own redemption within the fluid movements of both painting and poetry.
In Redemption, the personal struggles of both Peter Howson and Laurence Fuller merge with the universal desire for atonement, offering a pathway for the viewer to traverse their own journey. By integrating poetry with painting, and animating these forms with cinematic fluidity, we create a shared space where the internal search for redemption is not only observed but experienced on a visceral level. Though this piece draws on the creative legacies of Charles Baudelaire, John Keats, John Berger, and Peter Fuller ~ in their own search for meaning in language and visual art. It is also a reflection of our personal stories, transformed into a universal narrative that beckons each viewer to explore their own path to redemption.
Paintings by Peter Howson
Redemption
For when I transcend,
A greater fool takes my place,
And in that redemption,
I find the road, for my own way,
Casting my doubts out on the rocking waves,
Begging my sins to wash away.
I clutched at the morning,
It dripped away,
There were tingling rumbles in the streets,
I heard sounds like dropping pennies at my feet,
I must pay my penance,
For the guiltless I do menace,
The sins I have witnessed,
I must not play the victim,
Street lamps glowed at me like the moon,
But they weren’t,
Like the eyes of God in the dark early morning,
Piercing my thoughts,
Like a lamp in my mind,
And my words the the discarded scrap paper thrown out the window,
For when I transcend
A greater fool takes my place
And in that redemption
I find the road, for my own way,
Casting my doubts out on the rocking waves,
Begging my sins to wash away.
Crumpled and landing at the port,
On their way out to sea.
What is going on in our world?
I’ll ask the moon before it fades to the sun,
At long last, I’ll climb the ladder on the bridge from the bottom wrung,
I have struggled to reach even the nearest star,
I grazed my flesh, to check I’m still here,
So many poems to write and never enough time,
Never enough time,
And what have I got for my toil and strife?
Splayed out on the wall for all to see,
This arena of humanity,
Violins playing at the degenerates ball,
This grand opera,
An incomplete Iliad,
I left it unwritten, by my pen and note pad.
Washed against the muddy shore,
Wash up the brilliant and trusted oars of a discarded rowboat that left the trash and seagulls flying with empty cans in their mouths and an empty chest where a ticking clock once was,
The tragedy of the evening and heavy breeze of eternity.
For when I transcend,
A greater fool takes my place,
And in that redemption,
I find the road, for my own way,
Casting my doubts out on the rocking waves,
Begging my sins to wash away.
~ Laurence Fuller, 2024