The first painting you see on my homepage is an urban scene full of wheelie bins catching sunlight. The view was located behind restaurants in Borough Market London, painted in 2014. The scene presented me with an unusual subject matter and formal artistic challenge in reproducing the juxtaposition and colour structures of the bins and the fabric of their surroundings. But why paint wheelie bins?
Wheelie Bins Again 2019 acrylic on plyboard 15 x 20 cm
When I embarked on painting urban scenes, much of my work featured classic London themes, often consisting of various famous landmarks set against a modern skyline. Over time I also took an interest in local areas and places that featured ordinary depictions of residential buildings, structures and objects, consisting of aesthetically functional form with less emphasis on traditional or historic architectural styles. I sought an artistic expression of a human experience of being rooted in a real time and place, the ‘somewhere’. And this sense of ‘somewhere’ is present in simple everyday scenes, though one could quite easily miss it. Wheelie bins fit neatly into this experience as they are objects that are ubiquitous, yet hide in plain sight.
Wheelie Bins N8 2018 acrylic on board 50 x 70 cm
You will find wheelie bins with various colours, manufacturers and operators. One could attach a mildly nerdy element of interest and intrigue when considering the colour coding and livery of wheelie bins, but I cannot say that I am particularly interested in cataloguing the array of designs and types of unit seen about. I do feel, however, that an element of mystery is attached to the behind-the-scenes nature of these objects, as if there is something on a greater scale that is taking place. They are direct evidence of human life and activity, a conduit of life, where something takes place or is about to take place. Refuse is removed and taken away in a uniformly and uniquely mobile way.
Wheelie Bins Islington 2019 acrylic on plyboard 12 x 18 cm
My artistic curiosity for wheelie bins is also very much an aesthetic one. They seem to mimic a still life arrangement but on a bigger scale. Their brightly coloured plastic and metal fabric and geometric shapes make for interesting compositions, especially in strong sunlight, and their contexts seem to change when placed within different landscapes, seemingly making them take on some sort of living persona, like sentinels awaiting junk. From another practical artistic point of view wheelie bins are able to populate empty street scenes without making paintings appear vacant or unfinished in nature. The viewer is given a sense of scale of the landscape in which the bins reside (parked motor vehicles are also handy at achieving this.)
Far from being anonymous or nondescript, wheelie bins take on a life and narrative of their own. Like them or loathe them, they remain part of the fabric of modern life.