The Effects of Various Viewpoints on the Human Psyche

Last Friday a few of us took a trip up to Sheffield to see the current group exhibition, Hybrid , in which each artist has explored in their work a relation between art practice and science.

The exhibition was segregated in a number of different locations around the city centre, some which had seemed to have ended or non existent at all! However, among the spaces we visited we did manage to locate some artwork.

Located in Sheffield institute of arts gallery we discovered a few people gathered around watching a performance piece taking place in the corner of the open-plan exhibition space, Princess Clock Timing by artist Sarah Spanton. However, as I stood watching the performance my eye couldn't help drifting over to another character sitting solemnly in the middle of the space, his head burrowed in the palms of his hands.

The character situated in the middle of the project space was Paul Digby's Styrofoam sculpture, Man.The fact that I was instantly intrigued by the Styrofoam man despite its momentary conflict with Spanton's performance installation here is something very successful about the way Digby manages to lure the audience in with such a simplistic sculptural form. Digby explores the context of nostalgia combined with an atmosphere of unreality, or dream-like imagery in his use of comic-like imagery to investigate the relation between visual communication and psychology.

This particular rendering of the human form in his sculpture piece is further investigated in a series of four works in gouache on paper. In contrast to the use of the spatial in Digby's sculptural piece, where the sculpture sits in isolation, only accompanied by the chair he is installed upon, These works on paper communicate upon the relation between our mentalities and our surroundings.
Digby keeps to a very specific graphic form allowing him to focus on the effect of various viewpoints and different forms of perspective in his 2 dimensional works and the relations to human emotion. The communication of angst and despair is immediately realized when surrounding objects and buildings protrude within the geometrical space, almost as if reaching out of the paper and confronting the audience, whilst the solitary man (whom finds himself present in each of the four situations) sits in the foetal position, overwhelmed by the spatial he finds himself in.

What Digby also ensures to apply to in his studies are surroundings typical mundane, everyday life. The effect on emotion therefore entirely relies on the artist's play with perspective and viewpoints. This is clearly defined in the works that the artists had chosen to display out of his broad collection, and too, the order in which he has chosen to display the paintings. As you pass the first two works Waiting Room and Buildings you are confronted with the protruding perspectives and a sense of angst and despair. However, when moving on to view the third work of the series you are confronted with a viewpoint that plays on the contrary.


In the third painting Hard shoulder we become confronted by our Man having been taken out of everyday surroundings and placed on a hard shoulder in front of greenery. The location itself bares relation to a sense of hope and optimism contrasting with the other entirely industrial settings. This sense of elevation from the subject's despair is in fact communicated in a number of ways. The relation between the figure's clothing and surroundings also convey the intended mood. Whereas, in the other three works the figure is dressed in a brown-grey suit, in Hard shoulder the figure is conveyed in a green smock that corresponds with the greenery in the background. Moreover, the sitter seems to have managed to uplift himself to some degree out of his favoured foetal position and straighten his back, relieving the sense of restraint displayed in the other figurative poses.

Yet, what really strikes me is Digby's clever use of viewpoint. Whilst before, we were discomforted by the protruding perspective, Digby now employs the flat-painterly aspect in full proportion. As the pictorial space works flat, over a horizontal plane, we are given relief and allowed time to contemplate the imagery.Paul Digby's work is highly resolved in our relation to our everyday lives and our sense of psych. Visiting his work has brought a powerful sense of confrontation between our sense of selves and how we overlook the constant working of our mentalities within even the most routinely aspects of our daily lives. A must see!