Sean Crossley

Sean Crossley is an Australian artists currently living and working in Paris. He is part of the curated satellite art fair NotFair 2012.

Tell us a little about your practice.

My practice alternates between drawing, video and painting to explore and experiment with ideas of language, materialism and image making. I use my studio like a laboratory where I search for works through separating and fusing concepts and materials.

Trucforme
Oil on linen, 112 x 110 cms, 2012

Do you use models for your work or find inspiration from found material like images from web/magazine, ect?

I use quite a lot of source material, coming from photos that I find  or take sometimes, fashion magazines and books, film screenshots and Google. Anything is fair game. I like to change, mix and play with the images I work from. I used to use models and drawing from life, which I do often use for drawing and video works, but for the paintings I prefer to work from images. Sometimes I take diagrams and texts and put them into the work, which I might find in maps, medical journals or even Ikea handbooks. I also look at a lot of work at galleries and on the internet. Recently for the Notfair works it’s been Nabi painting, 19th century French neoclassical paintings, minimalist works and colour field paintings.

Carte rotation
Oil on linen, 100 x 91 cms, 2012

Do you find that the variety of mediums (painting, drawing, projection) allows you to investigate your interest in the body in different ways?

I kind of feel like my work is investigating language and materialism more than the body at the moment, but I think that will become a little more obvious in the next body of work. The body has played a big part in developing the ideas within my practice. I like working across video, drawing and painting as these three practices give me enough flexibility to interchange and develop certain ideas. Ideas and processes are exchanged between the media, they feed each other.

Partscreen
Oil on linen, 80 x 91 cms, 2012

How long have you been living in Paris and what bought you there?

I have only be living in Paris for about 6 months now, its quite new to me, then i had to fly back to Australia for this exhibition. I want to make my work in Europe and develop my practice there. There is so much art to see and work around, and also its great to think and make in different places with different people and languages.

Swatch couche #3
Oil on linen, 80 x 80 cms, 2012

What are you looking forward to in the next 12 months?

 Spending time developing a body of work in a new studio, going to Documenta in Germany, going back to summer in Paris next week!