Sarah Ball: Tilted

PLUS MAGAZINE: Your exhibition “Tilted” at Stephen Friedman Gallery delves into the concept of dandyism in the 21st century. Could you elaborate on how you define dandyism within the context of your artwork, and what elements of contemporary culture influenced your interpretation?

SARAH BALL: My daily routine in the studio starts with listening to music whilst I get the space ready for painting. The title for this exhibition, ‘Tilted’, comes from a track I often play by Christine & The Queens.

The idea for these works developed after I read an article in which Heloise Letissier talked about this song in relation to their stage persona, Christine – who they refer to as a ‘writing technique.’ Heloise describes the song as being about ‘embracing who you are’, about ‘being playful with your identity… it’s about shapeshifting’ – that word ‘shapeshifting’ really underpins the works in the exhibition.

The idea of the ‘Dandy’ connects to a much wider conversation about the subject of identity and how we define ourselves, how we manifest and engage (or not) with our changing personalities and evolving identities. While working towards the show, I often referred to an essay by Andrew Solomon in which he examines the idea of the Dandy throughout history. The essay was written before Instagram, and in a sense, ‘Tilted” might be seen as an appendix to that text – asking visual questions about the form the Dandy takes in our over-sharing society.

Ideas shift, and this exhibition isn’t a definitive statement – the Dandy remains elusive. Susan Sontag, writing in the late Twentieth Century, thought that the Dandy in an era of mass consumerism could be found in camp. For me, the people I have painted are individuals who exhibit a very personal, theatrical, and creative path in the way they present themselves. I want to celebrate that.

P: Your subjects are depicted with striking individuality, drawing from sources archival photographs, and social media. Could you walk us through your process of selecting and portraying these individuals and how you blend various inspirations to create your paintings?

SB: I work from photographs – found or made – and much of my practice is intuitive. I choose people to paint simply by my immediate response to their presence – that could be via a photograph I come across on social media of an individual I’ve never met or through a chance meeting with someone in the street whom I photograph there and then. If I find an existing image on social media, I will always contact the person and seek their permission, and from those initial conversations or chance street meetings, deeper connections grow. Some sitters, such as the two Elliots in the exhibition, I have painted numerous times, charting their evolving contemporary selves. Others in this exhibition are new to me – people I have never met in person – but through the act of making the work, I have developed a relationship with.

I am drawn to that moment of stillness in a photograph – the formal considerations of how a subject is framed. I can be drawn to their stance, look, attitude, or the way they dress, but there is always a need to find and feel a connection on a human and emotional level to move forward from the photograph to the language of paint. While a photograph might be the catalyst for a work, there comes a point where the idea of the painting takes over, and I find myself more concerned with formal language – a search for space and balance within the work. I never add elements that don’t exist in the original image, but I might edit out details if the painting feels too noisy.

Key influences always for my work are Flemish painting from the 1400’s onwards, and English Tudor and Elizabethan portraits. I also look to cinema – filmmakers like Roy Andersson and Jacques Tati – storytellers who cut everything but the essential from the cinematic frame, but who are able to add layers of ambiguity and mystery.

Two paintings in particular were a ‘go to’ while making this body of work – both of which were included in the ‘Fashioning Masculinity’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One is a painting of Prince Alessandro Farnese by Sofonisba Anguissola made in 1560, in which the prince is portrayed in a short cape and tight hose, with elaborate embroidery that’s exquisitely rendered by the artist. The other work, made in 1664, is by Jacob Huymans – a painting of Frances Stewart who was to become Duchess of Richmond. In it, the subject is depicted in a ‘soldier’s buff coat’ with her hand ‘fondling’ the hilt of her sword. This painting captures the fashion for English women of the time to wear masculine riding clothes.

P: In your work, you deliberately withhold any explicit narrative about the identity of your subjects. How does this intentional ambiguity contribute to the exploration of dandyism and self-expression within your artwork? And how do you navigate the balance between revealing and concealing aspects of your subjects’ identities?

SB: The balance between revealing and concealing speaks again to the formal language of painting but also to the nature of the source material – much of which is found on social media. I am drawn to people who present a deliberate ambiguity to the world, and that quality is inevitably present in the final works. The titles of the paintings refer to the subjects’ names, which, in some cases, are naturally ambiguous. I love the idea of enigma, and by moving the subject away from any formal setting and placing them within a flat frame/space, I am able to push that mysterious feeling further. Painting people from a distance obviously enables a degree of separation, and I’m able to use this to create a very distinct viewpoint.

P: Your paintings are heavily influenced by the historical figure of the dandy, particularly as popularized by Oscar Wilde and Beau Brummell. How do you see the concept of dandyism evolving in contemporary society, and what aspects of it do you aim to capture or challenge through your art?

SB: I’ve come to realize that there isn’t a definitive description of a Dandy, and perhaps there never was. The idea is a fluid one that responds to changing social, political, and cultural mores. Beau Brummell and Oscar Wilde approached dandyism from differing perspectives, ideas, and backgrounds. Brummell could be described as a social climber who, by expressing his gentility in dress, progressed up through the ranks of British society.

Dandyism in contemporary culture feels less like a movement than a pursuit by particular individuals and sub-cultures – though perhaps it was always so. Social media certainly enables a continuous promenade for individuals to create, re-create, and curate an ongoing, evolving set of identities, but the interplay between fact and fiction is complex. Magnum photographer Martin Parr considers family photo albums to be complete works of fiction through the manipulation of images, editing, and curation of events. Instagram and the like have moved these personal fictions into the public sphere.