Both Sam and Luke Jackson attended Middlesex University, graduating in Fine Art. They went on to achieve Post-Graduate Diplomas in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools. Both have since had their work displayed in Charlie Smith exhibitions ran by fellow MurdockMan Zavier Ellis and have a vast array of global group exhibitions under their belts.
The brothers paid a visit to our Covent Garden store yesterday for some Murdock love in the form of sharp and stylish haircuts. We caught up with the pair after their appointments to discuss the meanings behind their work and how they came to be brothers in highly creative arms.
As the guys come downstairs from their fresh cuts, they both take a pause to check the mirror along the way before sitting comfortably to await our questions.
Desert by Luke Jackson
How did you both come about choosing the same career path?
Sam: I don’t think it was pre-planned. It’s quite interesting though. We were both interested in music and culture and that fed into art. I was applying for degrees and in weird circumstances, Luke just always ended up going to the same places even though he’d applied elsewhere. We both worked our way through to the Royal Academy and have worked ever since from there.
What are your earliest memories of creating artwork?
S: Messing about and being interested in visually depicting things. Just being a very visual person from looking at album front covers to magazines and that type of thing and then drawing from that in some manner. I was interested in how I could express myself through that.
What have you and your family made of your education and industry success so far?
S: They’re incredibly proud. Dad has some idea of the art world so he can really appreciate it. They’ve definitely enjoyed coming to see the work. My art obviously has a lot of subversive elements and there are some family members who don’t fully understand what it means. I ultimately feel privileged to be able to have a say and have a voice in a cultural landscape.
Do you see your predominately black paintings as a notable trademark?
S: Definitely. Since I left the Academy I’ve always liked the style. I do some portraits out of a lighter background but I enjoy the practical, physical application of working with the darker style. It adds reference to old masterly work and visually works well. You can get into psychological ideas about the space around the subject and the density with the darkness.
Luke: It definitely outsets a weight and presence from the people we’re influenced by.
S: Black has that connotation to it. As soon as you switch a piece to a luminous colour, they lose all their meaning and become jokey and ironic. We wanted to stay away from stuff like that.
L: There’s a skeletal abstraction, so there’s sparseness to it. If you relate that with music for example you think of bands like Joy Division. You strip away the waffle.
Pubescent Dreamer by Sam Jackson
Many of your pieces suggest an aggressive, physical painting style. Is this the case or do you actually take a lot of delicacy to craft something that appears so rugged?
S: In terms of the application I like being able to see the artist’s physical impact. With a Caravaggio for example, when you get up close to them you can really see the work and when you stand back it all comes together more. I want people to see the touch of the artist and the anxiety of the line, but there is also with that a delicacy and a finite way of applying the paint as well. It’s very much a double-edge thing.
L: For something to look effortless is very difficult.
Are you happy for people to take what they can from your work, or do you have a specific idea about each piece’s intentions?
S: For me there’s no prescribed doctrine as such. With my more sexual pieces I want the meaning to be completely ambiguous and open to any readings that a viewer might want to put into them or take. The whole idea is freedom and subversion, but I still want my work to be quite open in a strange way.
L: There’s always going to be a certain philosophy to the art that people can get or not get, but overall you really just want for them to lose themselves in it.
S: It does work because collectors who have bought the work find their own meaning. It cuts right across the board with people who know a lot about painting to people who have no interest but might just like the idea of there being a certain violence emanating that they really take in.
L: You sometimes don’t even see these things yourself.
How else do you enjoy blowing off steam or expressing yourselves creatively?
S: Just by enjoying socialising and discussing what we’re into really. In terms of London and going out, we both just pick and choose certain things. We’re in quite our own worlds.
L: You take an interest in what’s going on in the world and that sort of thing, but you have your own sense of cultural interests be it film, music, books. When you’re not doing your practise and step away from it though, it’s good to just be in open spaces with peace and quiet. Forests are good..
S: We also both like running.
Do you think that it’s important to exhibit your work in places where people wouldn’t ordinarily see it?
S: Definitely. I think my work can operate in these quite bespoke environments with their quite sartorial edge.
L: The more you can engage with the public, the better – in any way that you can. You can break down the barrier between public access and a gallery context. Some people haven’t even been to a gallery before but if you break those boundaries down you can spread the essential point of a lot of our work – which is to communicate. The more you can communicate with someone the better.
S: If the environment fits perfectly – and Murdock does – then it’s a win/win situation. A lot of the artists I’ve been interested in out in New York will show you these old pubs which aesthetically change things and do something with the work that in just a white cube context wouldn’t happen.
L: In Poland and Belgium we’ve seen some really interesting shows.
S: It completely adds another dialogue.
Most of the figures in your paintings/portraits appear to be male. Are you trying to say something in particular about the modern male?
S: Around 95% of the people that inhabit my work space are male. I am a man and have the authority to speak from that perspective. I’ve always been interested in men in terms of what they portray to the world. As a youngster I had musicians such as Sid Vicious & Morrissey as icons on my wall and in some way that’s transferred into these portraits. It’s important to me to show elements of fragility coupled with sexuality & violence and I think I can get them all in there with the male. When I’ve tried with women it has been a different thing.
L: In a certain way it’s about inhabiting the voice you know. It’s very difficult to inhabit a female voice. A lot of male writers find it very difficult to write through a female protagonist.
S: It’s the natural thing to do. When you pick up a guitar it soon becomes natural to do that and for me it soon became very natural to paint a man. That focus offers to me a good space to be able to get across what I’m interested in.
The Guilty Thing by Sam Jackson
How do you want people to experience your work when they see it in a place like this, where their visit to such an exhibition space isn’t primarily for seeing art?
S: I want people to get a real buzz off it. You can be surprised. I like the fact that you don’t know if it’s been put there as part of an exhibition as such.
L: You can be sitting in a chair here and suddenly glance at a piece. Curiosity can lead to loads of different avenues. As you’re given more time to look at the work here when you’re getting a haircut, Murdock opens up a whole other viewing world to that of a gallery.
S: Multiple readings can be made of the work too because the people in them could be models, it could be about just the hair – It can mix up the readings when my intentions could be the total opposite. It blurs the lines which I find interesting. The simplest things are generally the best things and I think having work that’s quite simple makes way for more complex ideas and juxtaposition within a space like this.
Just lastly, how were your haircuts this afternoon?
S: We’d do each other’s usually… I like the idea that the barbers here have the authority and confidence with grooming materials like we do over our paint brushes.
L: It’s been very enjoyable and credit to the barbers. We get free haircuts for life now don’t we?..
The Reappearance by Luke Jackson
We love the work that these two charming and excitable chaps produce and think you will too. We are currently displaying several pieces at our Covent Garden store for public viewing.
For enquiries please contact direct@charliesmithlondon.com