Work in progress

This is the working title for my current project. The work is based on 10 canvases, each themed to a specific aspect of the year 1966.

This year was pivotal in the UK for many seminal reasons including England’s one and only World Cup victory. However, 1966 represented the final break from the austerity of the post-war period, giving rise to a new vibrant counter-cultural wave with a modern, forward-looking outlook. It was a rare cultural moment: the creation of an exciting, self-defining era where ‘norms’ were simply cast aside. Its epicentre was London – the main focus for this new project. London was defined by Time magazine (April 1966) as the “Swinging City”.

The 1966: COOL CONJUNCTURES project explores a pivotal year of change, defined by fashion, music, film, TV and politics. The project works in and across 10 themes that drive the narratives of this era. My inspiration, apart from my personal ‘living archive’ stance, looks at how the methods employed by the French narrative figuration movement during the 1960s in Paris, has a complementary bearing on my representations of London in 1966. My project uses compositional devices (narratives and figurations) from this movement to symbolise the energies of the ‘new’ juxtaposed against the realities of everyday life – cool conjunctures.