SORDIDUM SOMNIUM : Augustine + Bridgland | Floor 1
In honour of Flora, goddess of Spring, CIRCLE are showing the exuberant floral prints of Royal College of Art graduates Danny Augustine and Adam Bridgland.
If in need of an antidote to the purveyors of gloom, then look no further. Augustine + Bridgland – these two men who paint as one, create abstract designs of inflated florescence. Think sunny gardens ripe with floribunda, think Monet and mothers curtains, think the emotionally charged blooms of Emil Nolde, but think also of the whip-smart commercial screen prints of Andy Warhol.
Honing their craft at Jealous, London’s hippest print studio, these two young men have a growing fan club which is partly due to those tongue-in-cheek titles which address their generation with themes of love, and lust. Flowers For Your Darlings was their first sell-out show followed by Behind The Curtains and Blinds – a nod to Howard Hodgkins ‘Clean sheets.’ Augustine and Bridglands latest offerings are provocatively named Fist Full – ‘its hard to concentrate with a head full of filth.’
Behind the quick and dirty playfulness, Danny and Adam are technically and aesthetically rigorous in the painting and printing of their billowy blooms, scuffing the lines between fine art and textile design. They get down to serious botanical research for each series, memorising each plant – setting the stage for spontaneous outpourings. And how do this talented duo get their mojo working: they go to the studio, put on good music and warm up with two pints of lager and a packet of crisps!
