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Piers Secunda is a London based contemporary artist working with paint sculpture. He has work in collections internationally and has exhibited extensively in both the United States and the UK. Here he speaks to SPACE about his practice.  How would you describe your practice?
I remove paint from the traditionally applied 2D Surface, force the use of paint into the 3D, and then develop my own language within that space.
How did your current practice evolve?
To keep a long story short, I realised when I was in my late teens that I didn’t like the restriction of applying my paint to a support. Inevitably the support had an outer edge, and that stopped the paintings from continuing indefinitely or growing in any direction. I wanted to develop a way of working where that just wasn’t a concern. Did you study sculpture or painting?
I did a painting degree, but now I study both. Can you tell us how you get the paint to behave the way it does?
I think of what I do in the studio as being somewhat like a primitive alchemy. In the past with acrylics, I asked the paint manufacturers to make the paint do the work for me. At the moment I’m using an industrial floor paint, which is more durable. I cast, pour, heat, tear, smash, assemble, fuse, wrap, clamp, bolt and colour it. However, no matter how strong and advanced this paint is, its only paint. It will only do certain things before it gives way, which I like because its like the paint is telling me “you’re pushing me beyond my outer limits and I have to fail you now.” To me this means in that isolated instant at which the paint fails me, I’ve completed the work. Do you place your practice within any recognisable tradition of painting or sculpture?
For years artists have escaped the cul-de-sac of minimalism by blowing open the painting practice into the expanded field. Its an open territory, a bit like a land rush. I’m in there somewhere, down a rabbit hole probably… Does your knowledge of the history of painting inform an important part of your making?
Not in the standard sense, because my reading of some of the history of art is slightly different. However I can’t help feeling that painting has been moving itself incrementally towards the 3D for as long as it has existed. I feel that if I was not pushing the envelope in this direction, I’d be driving over old ground. What’s more important- form or content or both? What about colour? Does it play an important role in the work?
The form is the content and the colour is an inseparable component of that. Sometimes I just use a colour to mark out all the devices (clamps, wires bolts etc.) It makes the work a little more like an industrial object, which I like. When it’s a wire work, I like multicoloured wires because they add to the visual confusion. Do you ever consider taking the pieces off the wall into more sculptural territory like the floor or a plinth?
I have made floor based works in the past, but not so many for plinths yet. The largest floor based work I produced took about 2 years to make and weighed over a ton. I have a pad of drawings for unrealized floor based works, but I can’t make large pieces unless they’re commissioned. They’re just too expensive to produce. Previously you have spoken at length about wanting do architectural interventions / Installations could you tell us a bit more and is this your actively pursuing?
This is something that I’m really interested in. I’ve been talking to a couple of people about it. Indoors is really simple, and I think they would predominantly be the wire works. They would just grow organically on site, and envelop and cover things like a climbing plant. That’s really the realisation of the idea that I had for the work a long time ago. Again these types of ideas just come down to cost. I’d also like to do a long-term project with the interior of a cave. Completely envelop the inside. If you know any one who owns some land with one on it – let me know.
Your practice is very studio-based, do you feel your work is restricted or defined by the size of your working space?
Temporarily restricted, yes. Defined, no-because the works can grow indefinitely and I’ve already defined for myself what I’m doing.. Do you socialise with any of the other artists in the building?
I’m “come to the studio for a coffee” friendly with half a dozen people in there. And people are always really helpful when I need a hand with carrying or lifting something! Sometimes you cast objects using the paint - what determines the objects you choose?
Their potential usefulness. Generally the objects that I cast are devices such as nuts and bolts. These are seriously useful when it comes to holding things together, and that’s the intention. I am having a mould constructed at the moment so that I can reproduce a small work as an edition. Casting finished works is new for me though, and there’s always the possibility that it wont work out how I envision it. What about the multiples you produce - does the idea of mass manufacturing appeal to you?
I think mass manufacturing is just an inevitable part of the systems that I’m using. However the paint wires are the only component of the works that I currently mass-produce, and they’re always deliberately lo-fi in their production. I want you to be able to see the cast lines etc. That’s a part of the character of the work. What is it about the multiple you like?
Just as Joseph Beuys said, the multiple is a way of spreading the word. There is a lot of process involved in your work, would you ever be tempted to pass the material making over to assistants? Is the act of making important for you?
When it comes to assemblage I don’t think that can be done by someone else. The decisions would be too hard to direct. The making of thousands of wires for a large-scale project can easily be handed over to someone else though. Everything’s in place to do this, should the relevant project come up. You’re also a curator and work with private collectors. What sort of work/artists do you want to work with? Do you collect work yourself?
The simple answer is that I’m drawn to people whose work operates outside the traditional box of painting. www.pierssecunda.com MJ
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