* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ben Gooding is a London, UK based artist who earned a BA in Fine Art from the Cambridge School of Art and an MA in Fine Art from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design.
Ben explains the work by saying, “In all my work I am interested in following a very simple system which is devised prior to execution and cannot be deviated from during the course of production. There is an abandonment of color, of gesture, of the expressive, and instead I instate an almost mechanistic methodology that minimizes the decision making process and emphasizes a systemic approach. In this respect the work can be seen more as a result, bounded by a set of rules as opposed to something derived from an intuitive, responsive operation. Although aesthetically, the work appears almost machined, they are very much hand made objects, obsessively labored and crafted. I am attempting with each piece to follow through the process as accurately as possible, however, there are invariably “mistakes” present. This presence of the human acts to undercut the implicit abandonment of any expressive or gestural mark making. One is thrown into relief by the other. The work occupies a space between this pure, reductive detachment of authorship, and an acknowledgement of the hand made.”
