TERRY HAGGERTY | WIDEWALLS - About the Ambiguity of Forms - Terry Haggerty in an Interview - News

Basel, Switzerland: "Protrusions and Areas of Concern,"

September 3, 2011 - November 5, 2011. Installation view of Untitled, 2011. Image courtesy of artist and von Bartha.

ABOUT THE ART

BH: For your show at Von Bartha in Basel last September, all the work was acrylic on wooden panel, correct?

TH: Yes, all the works are acrylic, painted on wood panels.

BH: And despite the illusion that things are ‘in the round’ the color, or the forms, sit on a flat surface, right?

TH: Yes, the image is painted on a flat surface. What you are looking at is an image of a dimensional form painted on a flat surface with the outline cut out so that the form is somewhere between the different spaces.

– Brent Hallard

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Basel, Switzerland: "Protrusions and Areas of Concern,"

September 3, 2011 - November 5, 2011. Installation view of Untitled, 2011. Image courtesy of artist and von Bartha.

What’s interesting about Terry Haggerty’s work, whether it be in mural form, sculptural, or saddled up close to painting, is that he uses technology as an assistant, while being very much at the helm of things – the idea, the process and how it all turns out. The final ‘thing’ is clear, upfront and intriguing.

However, my take is there is a lot of mystery being unraveled. And I wanted to find out what that was, operating behind the scenes.

TERRY HAGGERTY IN THE STUDIO

Brent Hallard: I remember you telling me, and it was probably over a beer, that you loved getting into the studio and making work.What does your studio look like and how does it work?

Terry Haggerty: It most probably was over a beer as I can’t remember that conversation, but I take your word for it. It’s not always productive, but then, just being able to go somewhere where you have the possibility to put something together is pretty cool.

Basel, Switzerland: Installation view, September 8, 2018 - October 27, 2018. Image courtesy of&nbsp;artist and von Bartha.

Basel, Switzerland: Installation view, September 8, 2018 - October 27, 2018. Image courtesy of artist and von Bartha.

The studio is on the first floor in a back courtyard of a listed industrial building in Kreuzberg, Berlin and is 160sqm.There’s an area of about 35sqm that is a wood shop with all the tools and a cnc machine for cutting out wood panels, and a kitchen/office area that’s 20sqm. The larger space is where I have the spray booth, storage rack, plotting machine for cutting stencils, a wall of shelving for paints, etc.There’s several moveable tables and a new additional moveable rack (to makes some space) for the paintings to dry on. Ultimately, it’s pretty jammed when we’re in full flow. I could do with more space as usually I work on several paintings at a time which need to be set on tables so it gets very congested.

The studio is set up to make shaped wood panels that are primed, painted, and then varnished. I usually start the process on the computer where I work on several ideas using Illustrator. When I have a work to be made it then travels to the CNC machine where my assistant sets up the machine to cut the outline of the shape in two parts that are then bonded together to form a shallow wood panel that’s 24mm thick. From there, the panel heads over to the spray booth to be primed with several coats of white.Then on to a table where the stencil is applied for the image to be painted with the chosen color.The painting is then cleaned up and any necessary repairs are made.The final stage is to varnish with several layers of gloss and then a final layer of matt. This is the typical process at the moment in the studio.

For the relief objects, they’re fabricated off campus at a metal workshop.