>> Artist Piers Secunda wanted to chronicle the most important natural resource of our times; oil. But he took his interest to obsessive lengths – he decided he wanted to depict the pioneering age of the petrochemical industry by actually painting in crude oil itself. Which is much harder than it seems – he couldn’t just buy a barrel and get it delivered to his studio.
The results are displayed in his intriguing exhibition at the Aubin Gallery in London until Christmas. I met him there and he gave me a guided tour of his work. He was so interesting I almost wished everybody who attends could have the same insight into his thought processes and methods – as it is the lack of gallery notes means it would be easy to miss his point. Still, if you take along this interview with him, you’ll get the idea…
“I want this to be a record of an amazingly important time. You have the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Bronze Age, and the petrochemical age will be acknowledged in the same way. I think it can’t not be – it’s too significant”
Click here for the full interview with Piers Secunda in The National
