Rob Birch's practice is an investigation into humanness: what this includes and what it comprises. It is concerned with the authenticity and role of identity and portraiture in a world where the conditions of visuality have been radically altered. The world is now one that is transformed into one of images. Rob's work asks how can we measure the meaning of what it is to be human through the cultural production of the portrait. Rob Birch is engaged in a process that looks to break from the Enlightenment, single point perspective view of the world that is still so prevalent in much contemporary portrait practice. Rob wants to create a sensorial likeness that exists within a world of relationships and fertile transformations - where identity comes about as a form of poetics and replaces the colonised, racialised and patriarchal constructs that have endured for generations and are no longer fit for purpose.
1) Which art movement do you consider most influential on your practice?
It is difficult to pin down any one movement over another. Spanish Baroque and Dutch Portrait paintings have strongly influenced my work. The Renaissance is vitally important as it articulated the development of perspective and a Cartesian view of the world and as an artist trying to negate representation in favour of sensation knowing what it is you are trying to overcome is vitally important. Modernism in all its various forms with Surrealism the first movement I was aware of, floppy clocks and strange creatures were very influential to me as a young child.
2) Where do you go and when to make your best art?
I never know where or when my best art is going to be made. I do have a studio but to be honest, more art gets made outside of it than in it. I do try to keep set hours to make my work but this rarely corresponds with the desire to make it. So using a laptop computer to make my art has ensured that in any location and at any time I am ready to make my work should the need arise (which thankfully it does on most days).
3) How do you describe your 'creative process'?
Chaotic at best. Collage is about taking already existing images, and divesting them of their context in both time and space. The displacement of these contexts is then redefined through the creation of new images that look to create a sensorial likeness of the subject (in my case the portrait). To do this I try to divest myself from the image-making process with a certain amount of faith in that whatever images are a result of this process are appropriate to my understanding of how the world works. This seems only right as it would be arrogant of me to think I know everything about the world and there is nothing left to learn.
4) Which artist, living or deceased, is the greatest inspiration to you?
I am a lover of paintings rather than artists, having said that the artist who has created the most paintings that I love is Francis Bacon.
5) If you weren't an artist, what would you do?
As a child, I wanted to be a demolition man. I see a lot in common between that desire and what I am doing now.
6) What do you listen to for inspiration?
At the moment I am listening to Coil, Sigur Rós, Johann Johannsson, Tindersticks, Nick Cave, Michael Nyman, Jocelyn Pook, Dark Jazz (the only Jazz I like) and The Associates (amongst many others).
7) If you could own one artwork, and money was no object, which piece would you acquire?
“A Francis Bacon triptych
8) If your dream museum or collection owner came calling, which would it be?
The thought of my work being in a museum or collection does not appeal to me at all. My work is for everybody. So my dream is for it to be in the front room of anyone who wishes to have it.
9) What is your key piece of advice for artists embarking on a fine art or creative degree today?
Find your subject. This can take a lifetime to do so. If it does, document that journey through your work.
10) What is your favourite book of all time (fiction or non fiction)?
The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee
11) If you could hang or place your artwork in one non-traditional art setting, where would that be?
In YOUR home!
12) What was the biggest lesson your university course or time studying taught you?
That it was only the beginning.
13) And finally, if we were to fast forward 10 years, where would we find you?
Hopefully happily in a relationship, and earning enough money to get by without compromising my beliefs/politics. But in all reality probably much the same place as I am now, which is not such a terrible thing.
Learn more about Rob and discover his collection of artworks
