Andrew Grassie was educated at St. Martin’s School of Art BA Hons (1984-1988) and the Royal College of Art 1988-1990 (MA Painting). Recent solos shows include Installation, Maureen Paley, London (2006), Private, Sperone Westwater, New York, (2006) and New Hang, Art Now, Tate Britain, London in 2005. Group shows since 2004 include Very Abstract Hyper Figurative, Thomas Dane, London; The Studio, Dublin City Art Gallery; Wrong Galerie Klosterfelde, Berlin; Territory, The Arts Gallery, University of the Arts, London; News from Nowhere, Lucy Mackintosh, Lausanne. Switzerland; Edge of the Real, Whitechapel Gallery, London; Galleria Fabjbasaglia, Rimini, Italy; In Search of the Real George Elliot, The Hatton Gallery. Newcastle; If You Go Down To The Woods Today, Rockwell, London; John Moores 23, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and Size Matters, Arts Council Touring Show, UK.

Document First

It is true that the ‘Documentation of Artworks’ whether they be my own or other artists has become a central concern in my practice. I will attempt to explain how this has come about and what implications there may be. From my initial awareness of becoming the narrator of my own story, of standing back and painting myself painting, to the creation of implausible exhibitions that never actually existed. I hope to examine how the actual media and technique of working closely from a photographic source correlates to this detachment and comments on the artwork itself. It may touch upon the supposed neutrality of the ‘slavish copy’ within art photography and the position of authorship, or the notion of faking your own work. Further more, the gradual documentation of an artists work creates a kind of mausoleum for them and a monument to their life’s achievement. Aside from the issues of ego and the markets vested interests, there seems to be an appetite from a public’s perspective to steal a glimpse behind the art object as if they might capture some of the magical process that goes into creativity. It seems to me that there are more and more ‘preserved’ artists studios and archives around. This ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse has always fascinated me and I may look a little at whether this actually reveals anything other than a hall of mirrors.