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Another approach to non-portraiture can be found in the work of Robin Clare, from Brighton, whose paintings employ an amusing anthropomorphism, allowing household objects to stand in for human counterparts. The house is a well-worn metaphor for a the human body, with its extensions of bodily processes involving respiration, ventilation, waste disposal and fuel intake. This funny painting of a toilet 'hiding' behind a skip manages to capture a gleeful expression on the toilet's 'face' as though it has outwitted its captors who would take it away to be dumped.
Robin Clare, Hiding
The objects that Clare uses manage to appear pathetic and sorry as well as vibrant and mischevious, painted in a milky dreamy style perfect for capturing the futuristic dreams that 'white goods' once provided.
Robin Clare, Radiator on Lime Pattern
Clare also depicts objects in a discarded and degraded state, but on a background that evokes the popular styles of advertising, wallpaper and patterning from the 1950s and 1970s. Clare describes this juxtaposition as a 'metaphor for homelessness and our impact on the word.'
