09 Archibald Exhibition
James Powditch
Peter Powditch is a Dead Man Smoking
I had imagined a dark space. Ruby lips leaving their touch on champagne glasses (not the modern flutes but those old-style shallow goblets). The air is slow and heavy as it carries music, talk, temperature and smoke. She could have slipped into the booth and be sitting across from Peter, just outside the picture’s edge. Her cigarette is red-tipped at the filter where she holds it gently to inhale deeply.
(Image: © James Powditch)At first glance James Powditch’s entry for the Archibald Prize has the look of a piano lounge poster – monochromatic, moody and stylish. It could be a promotional photo for some Hollywood legend. The title “Dead man smoking”, inspired by the film “Dead Man Walking” reinforces this celebrity connotation. James takes most of his titles from films. His portrait of his father is rather attractive. Smoking used to be sexy – and so were the ads. Of course smoking also was thought to have health benefits. Times have changed. Information has changed.
It’s only when you study the artist’s notes and catch the expression on Peter Powditch’s face that the glossy veil is stripped away. You can’t see how you missed it. The tragedy stops you in your tracks. The notes tell of many nights last Xmas that the two men spent talking and drinking. Peter has emphysema and smokes like he has a death wish (as James himself describes it). During that period James captured the photo that is the central part of the work – and boy does he catch it! I’ve questioned if it’s just one of those terrible shots that catch the subject in an unflattering way – but I don’t really think it is. There’s something so honest about the sadness that escapes from Peter’s expression I fear it is genuine.
Looking at happier times, a photo of the whole Powditch family is repeated to create a “border” down the right side of the work. Everyone smiles and has fun around a dining table. The small scale means you have to get close to see that the children are holding things to their mouths “smoking”. Happy times! Copying the adults in an age when smoking was commonplace. The artist is bringing in the innocent times when the risks weren’t known, as well as the family who will be left behind to remember Peter and times such as those pictured. Such happy times I wonder, that they are what led James to build a table that seats 20 people, which I read he made from four laminated doors.
What on earth did the family say when they saw this portrait? How did Peter react?
Looking at old times your mind turns to the tobacco companies who brought cigarettes into all our dining rooms. Don’t make the mistake that James’ work is purely personal. With the lettering “Health Authority Warning” the preaching “Nanny State” (a phrase beloved of the British media) is brought firmly into the frame. They’ve lied, they profit from the industry, and now they tell us to quit. And they love to give statistics. Is the grid pattern surrounding Peter, with its connotations of graphs, a nod towards the science and figures that’s caught up in the anti-smoking campaign?
We are truly living in the age of the government health warning - and they cover everything - even old ladies balancing on chairs to change light bulbs. The nights spent drinking with his father flag up another growing taboo firmly in the government’s sights - alcohol. Is he showing how easily we can criticize one vice while we partake in another? This detail may also convey that he isn’t criticizing his father - a slight note of the pot and the kettle.
James set out to be a filmmaker and his interest in narrative, and his ability to operate on different levels is very apparent in this work. The precise craftsmanship and care that is characteristic of James’ assemblages [with a clean modern feel despite an eclectic use of materials] isn’t limited to its physical construction. It’s carefully put together. Any ease of having a close relative as a sitter is surely ruled out by the subject matter in this case. How everything combines in this work is what has been playing over in my mind.
It’s a work that surprises – under the cosmetic glamour is a hidden darker side; similar to smoking which is a pleasure with hidden dangers. Is its aim to get his father to quit? Is an art gallery the place to view a plea to stop smoking? Government health warnings are everywhere so why not? Do they actually work or is it just damned depressing? We all (smoker or non-smoker - over 18 or under 18) have to view more graphic and emotionally harrowing messages. What about our freedom – to not be subjected to them – or to die from smoking-related disease? We fear there are two faces to the “Nanny State”: covert taxation cloaked under the guise of “doing what’s best for you”. Maybe the day will come when there will be signs about blocked arteries dotted among paintings at art exhibitions.
I’m not surprised James created this work. Not only is it reflective of the times we live in - he likes to use his art to get important issues out there. With past works such as The Emerald Forest concerning climate change, and God is in the detail (intelligent design) reacting against creationism, James likes to take a stance. With a hatred of political spin, anti-science and lies it’s not hard to see how he’d be drawn to the tobacco companies, the issue of health, and the government health campaigns. Although deeply personal, the work hits at a far wider level.
There are very intelligent aspects to his art. In a group of works based on films where the action is seen through the eyes of a child he shows an interest in considering all angles. Is he considering his viewer here? Maybe a society that worships celebrity and is so influenced by reality TV and the media can only respond to billboards and real-life examples like Peter? The text “Health Authority Warning” also transforms his work into an actual health warning. For how many of us know smokers or are smokers who are going down the same route?
Walking around the Archibald Prize Exhibition, I was starting to get bored with how many of the portraits were of artists. But I hadn’t dwelt much on the fact that James’ father is a very well known artist. James’ portrait reaches an emotional intensity that my focus is truly on Peter the man: a living soul, and one with a family. In contrast to today’s graphic health warnings James’ portrait looks to emotion. It’s incredibly respectful and considered but also very hard-hitting. The materials in the work almost become secondary to the emotional content.
I almost feel there is a change of process, rather than working
from the materials towards an idea, the idea was the starting force.
James’ art has been praised for the “tension between material
thingness and ethereal flights of imagination”. In this
portrait I feel the tension has shifted completely into the creative
realm and away from the physical. The tension now resides in
the emotions, and between what is great about the work, and the
great sadness.
END
Art is the means by which life reflects on, transforms and indeed creates its values; human life without it would not properly be human at all.
Antony Gormley