Rob Morris

This time last year upon my annual delve into the pool of talent graduating from Manchester School of Art I singled out Joe Sharpe’s excellent Patrick & Pigeons

. This year, another impressive field amassed for the ‘Ask Why ‘ show and for me, the  pick of this year’s graduates was Rob Morris with his thought provoking, socially-loaded acrylic paintings. One of my (many) shortcomings as a reviewer is that I tend to get a bit more enthusiastic about photography than many other artistic disciplines, however in this case my attentions were quite quickly re-directed.

Graduating in Illustration with Animation, Morris’ expressive paintings explore a grim element of British society, namely the xenophobic stance of groups like the EDL, BNP and Muslims Against Crusades and the subsequent impact on the communities they exist within. After catching his work at the show, I caught up with the artist to talk about his influences, creative process along and to discuss some of his most striking works.

 

KLLKT: So studying Illustration with animation, how soon did you settle into your acrylic paint style? Was it something that you were already developing before the course?

Rob Morris: It was only in the last 10 or 12 months that I started using paint. I’d always used charcoal and pencils up until then, but the work gradually got bigger and eventually it started to get impractical – I was working on pieces of paper that were 7ft tall. The increase in size wasn’t necessarily a good thing, because I found myself having to rush to get them done in time for deadlines, so I started using paints to see if I could work faster, but over time I’ve learned to appreciate it mainly for the freedom in using colour.

K: Your works all have a political and social subtext, influenced by your childhood in a white working-class town, part of which you spent living with a Muslim family. How did your art come to be an expression of these experiences?

RM: It’s just something that I’ve never forgotten. Where I grew up there was a general macho attitude that everyone seemed to have, and that was something that I was most definitely lacking, which meant I was usually observing what was going on. I can remember certain aspects of it vividly which is hard to ignore, and I suppose that’s what makes me work around these subjects now.

K: You have mentioned that fear and paranoia seemed central to what you witnessed, do you feel that some of the figures you depict (Nick Griffin, Tommy Robinson, Abu Hamza) use these human emotions to their own ends?

RM: It’s not just the way that they use fear and paranoia, it’s the people that they infect with it. People who are vulnerable look for someone to lead them, in Robinson’s case it’s the white working-class. They have the power to instill certain thoughts and attitudes in to their followers, and people in need are the people easiest to do this to. That’s why I included the painting of the dog, because it’s a perfect example: dogs are a reflection of their owner, and their temperament is the result of how their owner has trained them. 

Another example is something I heard from a friend who does youth work in London. She was talking to some white work-class children and asked them what percentage of England they thought was Muslim, and their answers were mostly around 70-80%. That’s how easy it is for these men to change the attitudes of vulnerable people.

K: How well did the Channel 4 documentary ‘Proud and Prejudiced’ reflect the tensions that you witnessed first-hand?

RM: What I found incredible was how reasonable Robinson and Sayful Islam seemed on camera, well until the racist and homophobic rhetoric began. When I was growing up there was no such thing as the EDL or the Muslims Against Crusades, but there was always a feeling of fear or hatred towards cultures we knew nothing about. There are people who I used to play football with in the park who are now active members of the EDL, and at the time I never thought for a second that they were racist – I doubt they even were. Now that there is a man on a platform representing that demographic, things have got worse.

K: Your piece ‘The convert’ shows a white man being converted to Islam, is this a comment on the idea mooted by the EDL/BNP that such things are endemic of Britain’s downfall?

RM: Yes, but I also thought that it’s probably not something many people have seen, and was interested to see if people even knew what was going on. As for the idea that it’s endemic, well that’s another example of what I was saying before – Islam only takes up around 4% of the population of Britain, and we have kids thinking that it’s more like 80%. I want to see if people looking at the scene in the painting find it intimidating.

K: Does ‘Queen’ act as a symbol of the ‘Britain’ that Robinson and Griffin claim is being lost?

RM: I don’t think they themselves even know what she represents, but yeah that is the reason I painted her. She’s just a bit of a benefit scrounger to me though.

K: Midnight Marauders takes its name from a Tribe Called Quest album, how do you feel that juxtaposes the image of the Stone Island-style goggled hoody wearing EDL members depicted in it?

RM: I was listening to that album during painting it, there’s no connection. I don’t really put much thought into naming the paintings, but I thought the name ‘Midnight Marauders’ fit well with the look of it.

K: The inclusion of a portrait of Damien Hirst in your work is an interesting one. What does the company he keeps in terms of what and who you feature in your other works say about Hirst?

RM: Hirst is a dictator of the art world, amongst a few others. He’s so big and famous that people are willing to throw their personal opinions to one side and agree with everything he does. I did the portrait after hearing an art critic compare Hirst’s latest paintings to the work of Caravaggio, and I couldn’t help thinking about when Kim Jong-Il died and all those funny facts came out about him, like how he once shot 11 holes-in-one in a row. It’s the same kind of thing. It seemed fitting to put him next to subjects who are widely feared.

K: Do you think that acrylic painting’s expressive nature allows you to best communicate your examination of this aspect of society?

RM: I think any form of media would allow me to show the things that I want to show, but paint helps me to achieve a certain amount of aggression in the work that I don’t think I could do otherwise. When I was using charcoal I found that I had to scrutinize the drawing every few minutes as I was doing it or it would never come out how I wanted, but I think there is something about paint that allows you to capture a likeness of the subject without having to be too exact.

K: What have you got planned for the near future in terms of exhibitions and projects?

RM: Hopefully I’ll be in a studio painting every day in the near future. In the weeks leading up to the degree show I was painting for something like 15 hours per day, and I want to keep that momentum. I’ll be moving city as well so the change of environment will hopefully bring about some new ideas, although at the moment my thoughts are still surrounding the same subject as before. We’re having a course re-union in London after summer too where we’ll be exhibiting at Coningsby Gallery

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