All My Exes Live in Tescos

source: saatchigallery

“All My Exes Live In Tesco’s is quite an expressive piece. You try to have a conceptual rigour, but spontaneity is important as well. I was interested in how you can make a really big thing out of nothing. I used a ladder instead of building a frame, and the gesture of it is quite reduced. I strapped cardboard boxes to it, and attached the bin liners to a fan so they filled with air and then poured paint on them. In one way it’s like a car crash mess, but also very lively and poetic. I’m interested in conservation, and this work is like a performance or instruction guide. Because I have to remake it every time it’s shown, it can never look exactly the same twice. I think of my work in relation to object production rather than a documentation of the final thing. I always video the installation of the work so there is a record of the experience and action of making it, and I hope that if it is recreated in the future it might retain its fragile and delicate quality.”
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source: art-stud110couk

Born in Ardwick, Manchester in 1960, Graham Hudson is a visual artist his studio is based at Manchester charity Mustard Tree, where he also occupies the role of Creative Projects Manager.

Graham has experienced a hectic life journey so far, living through spells in prison, homelessness and years spent battling drug and alcohol addiction, all of which have been influential in the pieces he creates.

His professional commissions include creating work for The Bank of New York, John Lewis, Manchester United Football Club and for the Archbishop of York John Sentamu. During his four years at Mustard Tree Graham has contributed to a wide range of community art projects, which include travelling to Mexico to work with children from deprived communities as part of a project organised by Mustard Tree in 2010. He has also worked with Manchester Royal Infirmary with patients of Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as on a growing number of art projects in schools in the Greater Manchester area.

Alongside his classes within Mustard Tree, as Creative Projects Manager Graham is responsible for driving the development of a number of creative initiatives, including the development of private art studios, the appointment of Artists in Residence and in 2013 a new music recording studio, all based at the charity’s home in M4 Manchester.
His latest finished body of work was created for an exhibition held at the mustard tree entitled “Angels Vs Demons”. The exhibition featured 20 brand new works as well as acclaimed paintings spanning his entire career.
This body of work explores the theme of ‘angels’, a longstanding fascination of the artist. The paintings are strongly inspired by beautiful photographs of nebulae and galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which often feature explosions of light and colour suggestive of celestial beings.

The notion of ‘demons’ is present in the exhibition through works created during less settled periods of his life, which have been overshadowed by crime, personal loss and homelessness.

Angels Vs Demons marked an important moment in Graham’s career as a visual artist. Visitors to the exhibition understand clearly the gratitude and joy he feels in the present day at having come to terms with the more challenging moments of his life. The home of Manchester-based charity Mustard Tree formed the perfect backdrop for the exhibition, with Graham describing the charity as ‘my salvation’.

Graham Hudson says ‘With Angels Vs Demons I have had the opportunity to create a body of work exploring one idea in great depth, which is a first for me. The theme of ‘angels’ interests me so deeply that the creation of the works has felt almost automatic, as if the pieces have been waiting for me to bring them to life for a long time.’
He is now immersed in creating a body of work of which the concept has been within the pages of his sketch books for over 14 years.

This concept is centred around the human condition and will attempt to express at least 10 stages of life from the act of sexual union and conception through to growing old and extinction. Leading ultimately to a final piece depicting the light reflected in a child’s eyes from the crown of God.

They are Coitus, Conception, Gestation, Parturition, Aptitude, Continuance, Senescence, Salvation, Extinction, Judgement.