Dan Wilton invited me to his studio to stand and swear at him for a portrait. Its not particularly in my nature to shout out expletives, and I really don't enjoy having my picture taken ..........which is probably the exact combination of reasons he asked me!
The result is an exhibition of 54 portraits of friends looking comically caught-out, captured mid curse. The show in collaboration with director Huse Monfaradi was a joint project to challenge convention of obliterating imperfection in post production of portraiture and instead emphasise a genuine spontaneous split second. Aside from their earnest objectives, I can hazard a guess that it was also marginally a good excuse to snap and exhibit all their mates looking .....................
............................... far from how they would if they had gone to the portrait parlour in their local Debhenhams! (Top: James Copeman, Bottom: Nina Ribena)
So, Ive fired back some questions at Dan in the theme of the show, breaking down each word of the title Fuck Off, I Love You:
Q) FUCK - This word makes me think of the opening scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral when everything goes wrong..............whats the worst thing that's happened to you that's made you swear like Hugh Grant?
A) Wow, rowdy start. What's the worst thing that's happened to me that's made me scream Fuck in a posh floppy haired accent? Well at Glastonbury I was play fighting with my girlfriend Nina, she got a bit over excited and lost in the moment and windmilled me in the man region with a bottle of gin. Fuck. Ouch
Q) OFF - This word makes me think of off food. Whats the rankest thing you've ever had to eat.......... why did you eat it?
A) Ummmm, I got conned into eating deep fried buffalo testicles by some cowboys when I was in Wisconsin. I think they told me they were mountain oysters or something. But I wouldn't say they were rank. In fact they were really nice. I ordered seconds
Q) I - That's you ........... whats the latest self portrait you've done ......... how was it set up / what were you up to?
A) I took a portrait of me & Huse last week for a promo piece on the exhibition in Le Cool. We were in central London for a meeting and I had to send the pic over so we balanced my phone on some stairs and we stood next to an old gold Honda car. I was petrified the wind was gonna blow my phone off the stairs. You can see the pure terror in my eyes, sort of
Q) LOVE - Whats the last thing you fell in love with............ piece of art, song, camera.......could be anything or something you want to recommend?!
A) Last thing I fell in love with is my cat Ron. He rules. I totally recommend him
Q) YOU - This word makes me think of the 80's kids TV show "Why Don't You (Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?") - whats the weirdest/funniest game you played when you were a kid in the school holidays........what did you get up to with mates?
A) Wow, my memory's awful. I was probably watching Thundercats. Cheetarah woah...
The show is still on until the 26th, so go have a gander at all out vulnerable silly faces:
Fuck Off, I Love You
Exhibition 20th - 26th August
Londonewcastle Project Space, 28 Redchurch St, E2 7DP
Here is a moment Dan caught from the private view on Thurs eve:
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