Emily Crozier in Conversation with Artist, Noj Barker
Noj Barker.
MADE IN BED’s Editor-in-Chief, Emily Crozier, interviews Noj Barker, the British multidisciplinary artist, about his World of Dots.
Having put down his paintbrush during the first lockdown this year, Noj Barker has returned to his canvas and, on November 21st, launched a new online exhibition entitled KALEIDOSCOPES. The exhibition is available online for viewing through to the 19th of December, 2020. Below is an excerpt from the exhibition catalogue.
“If you look through KALEIDOSCOPES, a new world is revealed before your eyes, with every twist and turn, the detail magnifies. The colours appear brighter and unique patterns are transported into various forms of art that merge together to create a hidden world of beauty. Just as Noj Barker’s immersive paintings, the closer you look, the more details draw you into his unending field of dots. When you look at his painting you hear music. His accumulations of dots are the sort psychedelia which blazes your retina.”
White Multi (Circle Series), acrylic on museum board, framed: 68.74 x 68.74cm.
Emily Crozier: It has been said that to you “meditation is the act of painting and the dot is your mantra.” This really comes across in your repetitive movements and the calm stillness of your brush in the video, Dot Painting To Schubert. How did you discover this process?
Noj Barker: My work is very OCD. I start painting and I just carry on, and on, and on, and on. Sometimes I will get up at half past five in the morning and I will plan to work the entire day. I'm just trying to achieve the optimum of what my output can be in a day. It is very meditative, but it is very focused. Once the formula has been set, I’m then having to paint thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of accurate dots. It takes a huge amount of time to paint and not all of my paintings necessarily work. It's a very demanding, very stressful, and ultimately, a very rewarding experience. I can only do it if I reduce myself to a sort of semi-meditative state.
EC: Your colour choice is bright and bold and different for each artwork. Is there any meaning behind your choice of colour palette for each piece?
NB: Nature in decline can create so much incredible beauty, so I do tend to go through periods of embracing particular kinds of colour palettes that are associated with the seasons. It is a wonderful opportunity to explore those very deep, rich, pure colours.
Untitled #1, acrylic on museum board, framed: 43.5 x 35cm.
EC: You have developed a reputation as an “Instagram artist.” What do you think of the role and relevance of social media in the practice of an emerging artist such as yourself?
NB: Life would be easier if I lived in London, but I live on a farm in the middle of Northamptonshire, and I'm very cut off. I used to live in London and it would be much easier if I was going to an art show every night, and meeting people every night, so I have to reach out using social media.
What I find fascinating about social media is seeing how many people in the world call themselves artists. I mean millions! And 99.9% of these people do not make a living from it. I have been sucked into this world of social media as a means of expressing my own creativity, and ultimately as a passport to be able to show my artwork. I'll do anything in reason to get my work out there. What is quite interesting is the extraordinary reach which you can get through social media. I mean, I put a video on Facebook and it had 1.5 million views. These videos are an on-going collaboration with the Parisian filmmaker Lulu Lxix. The idea is when we create those images, I’m taking the public into my own kind of inner world. I ultimately try to create some sort of dream-like state within an installation. It’s very exciting! I have also collaborated with Anthony Peter Boyle’s couture Hat Designer Brand, based in Paris.
I suppose I'm trying to be in my house in Northamptonshire and I'm trying to use social media as a beacon to put out this message [to other creatives] to say: come and collaborate! It's growing, but I feel I should have got much further than I have.
Violet. Hats by Anthony Peto. Photography by James Anthony Parker.
EC: Can you tell us about the representation of your work in terms of the physical vs. the virtual?
NB: [In person] you run your hand over the piece of artwork and it's a very prickly surface. The work is very sculptural because of the several layers [of paint]. The problem I have is, because the paint protrudes from the surface, if it is not covered in glass it will attract dust. It is for that reason, that I do like to protect my work with the highest calibre of non-reflective and UV filtered glass. When you're standing close to it though, you can see the texture.
The other big problem with this is using photography to highlight the 3 dimensionality of my artwork. I'm constantly thinking about how to manipulate my artwork: to photograph it; to scan it to turn it into other objects; to ultimately help it to form an installation; to turn it into fabric; to turn it into backgrounds; to turn it into clothes.
I now have really great people almost competing to come and be in my photographs. Ultimately, I plan to take portraits of people in front of the artwork and sell these in addition to my paintings. It is slightly frustrating though because I'm always constrained by what I can spend every time I have a poster printed or item of clothing made. I am kind of living my life as though I were already a highly established and successful artist and I'm not. If money were no object, I would be printing fabric, having more and more clothes made, having larger backgrounds created, forming the most extravagant and outrageous installations, and doing it every week, but I haven't got there yet. I've got some great press behind me and I think everything is in place for me to be potentially very successful.
Untitled #33, acrylic on museum board, framed: 70.11 x 70.11cm.
EC: How did the pandemic and the months of lockdown impact your practice?
NB: I can't believe it! I didn't paint for four months over lockdown! The thing is though, the crisis of coronaviruses has meant that everyone in some respect has had to re-evaluate their life. I have four children and so my immediate priorities were their well-being, how to pay the bills and because, it's an essential part of my life, obviously my art. I find the life of being an artist absolutely, how can I explain it … it amuses me.
EC: Any final comments?
NB: I came from a very difficult childhood and survived it. So, I know what is important, I know this from the absence of what I had as a child. I think I always wanted to have a large organic nuclear family. I suppose I just find it incredibly difficult to be an artist, which is so all-consuming. Most people who are artists tend to be very selfish people. They tend to put their art above everything else and so, for me, I've just got this torment of not being able to do that. I'm living a kind of compartmentalised life. I have to create pockets of time that I can just completely focus on the art and then I also have to make time where I just have to put it aside for a while. I had a break from my art in 2011 because I had become so completely consumed with my art that I’d been slightly ignoring my kids and my family. So, I stopped painting for two years and took my kids out of school and we moved out of London. It was only when I really felt that my family was kind of on track that I started again. I suppose I regret to some extent not being able to give it 100%. It is extraordinary how some people can juggle an enormous amount and that's what I'm trying to do, but it's very difficult.
Untitled #2, #3, acrylic on museum board, framed: 43.5 x 35cm.