Siamese Dream, David Hancock. From The Beautiful People. Photo: Chris Breese.
Chris Breese made his way to Leicester's City Gallery to see an affecting exhibition.
Two stunning photo-realist painting projects by Manchester artist David Hancock are making a rare appearance at the City Gallery, Leicester.
Based on photographs transferred to large-scale canvases, both exhibitions are a rare opportunity as Hancock has no immediate plans to display them again after the current run ends on March 5 2005.
Get Happy!! David Hancock. From The Beautiful People. Photo: Chris Breese.
Completed in 2003 The Beautiful People is a series of spectacular panoramas depicting the bedrooms of several real-life 'alternative' young people. Sprawling with colour and vivid detail, each piece shows the subject going about their everyday lives in their cluttered bedrooms.
Hancock decided to address the issue of self-harm in The Beautiful People after discovering that some of his subjects had practised it.
Describing how he had not encountered the issue before he said: "I knew some of the people in the paintings had self-harmed and it was something I wanted to deal with. It changed the way I was working with the project. I kind of realised it would be a good idea to get to know the people in order to make each painting more personal and more real.
Siamese Dream (detail), David Hancock. From The Beautiful People. Photo: Chris Breese.
"There aren't any current plans to display either project again in the near future while I concentrate on my next project, which deals with family history."
The second more recent project, Jane Says, is a collaboration between Hancock and a young writer, Janie Doll. Displayed in a fake Victorian room, the series of paintings focus on suicide, with each work accompanied by a narrative composed by Doll.
Depicting a young heroine in a series of romantic poses, the images draw on the symbolism of nature found in Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian fairy painting.
It's Too Close To Home and It's Too Near The Bone, David Hancock. From Jane Says. Photo: Chris Breese.
Presenting the mind-set of a young woman, Jane Says is an uncomfortable blend of fantasy and fact in hallucinatory colour.
Hancock came to prominence in 2000 when his work was included in the BP portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery. In recent years he has had solo exhibitions at the Kirkby Gallery, Merseyside and at Comme Ca in New York.
Jointly titled The Beautiful People, the two exhibitions run until March 5 2005 at The City Gallery Leicester, Granby Street.
Chris Breese is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the East Midlands region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
