Stuart Pearson Wright

Paul

Paul comprises the first 10 paintings in a proposed body of 50 paintings in total, all of Stuart's cousin Paul. The paintings, which will be sequential, narrate the story of a day in Paul's life. It's a day in which very little actually happens: he makes innumerable cups of tea, urinates, takes his dog for a walk, watches television, washes up and so on. All of this takes place in a somewhat impoverished flat in South London and in the open spaces of Mitcham common.

Paul suffers from depression and has been a sufferer of alcoholism and drug abuse at various points in his life. He cannot work, due to a back injury sustained in the construction industry some years ago, and suffers from near-constant pain. In spite of all this, the paintings manage to avoid the trap of presenting Paul as a victim of circumstance, nor are the images consistently bleak. They are full of humour and some of the paintings exhibit an unexpected visual poetry and lyricism. Each painting is made within a 24 hour period and the summation is 50 paintings which depict a 24-hour period in his life. The pictures inevitably play on the idea of repetition in human existence and with a Beckettian sense of humour, pose questions about the futility of our lives. Yet the beauty of the paintings and Paul's stoicism and good humour allow the installation as a whole to transcend these questions and becomes almost inadvertently a celebration of human life.