Stamping his digital passion on ‘selfie’ art
NO CANVAS is too big for Durban artist Claude Chandler, not even the side of a building.
Chandler made waves at an International Public Art Festival in Cape Town last month, where he painted the owner’s portrait on the side of his home.
“It’s all about community and brightening people’s lives.” he says. “It’s about enriching their urban environment with creative energy and camaraderie, making neighbourhoods more beautiful and safer, teaching children how to be creative and stimulating new businesses and creating jobs,”
Chandler grew up in Durban, the son of artists and art teachers. At 16, he decided to pursue art as a career.
He matriculated in 2007 from Glenwood High School and studied art at the Durban University of Technology . He moved to Cape Town in 2012 where he works from his Salt River studio.
“I grew up in a creative home. A huge part of my love and understanding of art came from that,” said Chandler.
“I fell in love and admired the way artists thought, spoke, and most importantly, solved problems.
“It’s important to consider: how can your career contribute to society and your community. I felt that there was opportunity for me to give back. And because art stimulates and intrigues me so much, it made the sacrifice of time, energy and money towards pursuing such a career easy. You could even argue that I simply joined the family business.”
Chandler began focussing on portraiture and figure painting. But by second year, he had hit a creative brick wall.
“For me the challenge was to transform a portrait to mimic the digital. Instead of painting a selfie, I decided to ‘code’ the face. I had a passion for computers and was more than happy to marry the two disciplines. I ended up making a stamp with 1s and 0s (binary code) and from there my stamp technique took form.”
Chandler’s inspiration stems from the Age of the Selfie. “It’s a recurring theme and influence on digital platforms. I think portrait artists are popular and relevant because of the social media era. We are bombarded with thousands of portraits and selfies daily and that is how we communicate now. So I feel my portraits mimic that.”
Chandler’s technique has been described as reminiscent of binary code. When constructing the portrait, the conventional process of paintbrush to canvas is eliminated. Chandler stamps foam letter cut-outs of a name or word with a connection to his subject, creating a pixilated portrait.
“Like all artists in the festival we met the home owners to make a proposal before painting the murals. After meeting the home owner I thought it would be best to paint his portrait.
“The words I stamped were Mimesis (imitation) and Carbon (carbon copy). The owner is also a mechanic so I like the fact the word ‘car’ found its way in there,” he said.
Painting murals is a lot different from painting on canvas. Scale was the biggest obstacle.
“Perspective becomes warped. There is definitely a lot more stepping back and eye balling to get your proportions correct. The weather also becomes a factor, especially wielding a ladder in Cape Town winds.
“Besides that, it is so much fun. I enjoyed getting friends involved, as I needed a hand with all that stamping, we had a blast. The size and impact is just so hard to achieve on a canvas, bigger is better,” he said.
Travels, overseas exhibitions and more adventure are all on the horizon for Chandler.
“I’m heading off to Europe this year and will be having an exhibition in Germany in July. You’ll also see my work at the Joburg Turbine Art Fair and at my solo show with WorldArt Gallery (Cape Town) in October. I’m also looking to buy a van so I can transport bigger paintings and go on adventures.”