Liam Mertens
"Within my works I like to explore how internal and external spaces can inverse each other and become confusing so the viewer never really knows if they're on the inside looking out or the outside looking in."
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?
I'm originally from New Zealand, born in the South Island and grew up in Auckland on the North Island. I've always been creative and thankfully my parents encouraged me to explore this from a young age. I completed a Visual Arts degree at AUT in 2011 before moving to London at age 20 to pursue painting. I took part in various group shows in the UK and Netherlands until I began my Masters at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2017 where I came to really piece together what it is that I want to paint. I currently live in London on a 60ft narrowboat on the River Lea with my partner Lydia and our dog Kenny Biscuit.
Your latest body of work incorporates personal objects and scenarios, creating surreal and dreamlike images. Could you talk about the significance of these objects and how they play a role in conveying themes of restlessness, presence, and absence?
Presence and absence come into it in several ways. Firstly, the objects are connected to people and moments from my past, so they act as a kind of index or symbol. Secondly, I find the presence and absence through positive and negative space in the composition. I'm particularly interested in how positive and negative space can cross over, and I enjoy this as a compositional tool. Finally, there is the way in which I choose to formally depict the objects in my images. For example, the objects in my paintings might be with me in the studio, others from memories or some from online image searches. By drawing from multiple sources which are either present or absent, representing things, people and places in my life which are also either present or absent, my images take on a restless fluctuation in a liminal space. Painting in this way can often generate self-referential moments where paintings solidify old memories but, in this process, create space for them to be remembered again in a new context.
Your paintings draw from both your New Zealand roots and your experiences living in the UK. How does your unique perspective shape the way you approach image-making, and how do you navigate the duality of your experience?
I'm a very laid back person, something I think comes from growing up in New Zealand, however that said, I did have the constant feeling of missing out which I attribute to New Zealand's isolation (this is a divisive subject, some love NZ for its isolation, others never think about it, and some people leave for totally different reasons). This desire to leave led me to move to the UK, which in hindsight is quite extreme. I live half a planet away from my family because I want to paint. It's ludicrous really, but it's also rich in content. I'm in the privileged position of being a foreigner in the UK that can fly under the radar. This can be interesting when people assume that because you're white and speak English that everything in the cultural fabric in the UK must be familiar or make sense. Some of it does but a lot of it doesn't and this affords me a unique perspective of both cultures. For example on a recent trip to NZ I was struck by the potency of brand names and logos on food, buses, shops etc. which I grew up with. I was seeing them through new eyes but with a strange familiarity much like I did when I moved to the UK and there were things I had seen or come to understand from a distance playing out in real time at the source. All of this becomes potent fodder for future work.
Whisking (soft peaks), 2023
Backyard Vanguard (reprise), 2022
Darlin' you're late, 2021
Va tutto bene, 2022
Watching the past pass, South London Gallery New Contemporaries 2020, photo courtesy of New Contemporaries
Your work is grounded in exploring the relationship between internal and external spaces, particularly in the context of domesticity. How do you use symbolism to communicate these ideas and what role does deceleration of time play in your creative process?
This answer kind of feeds into the last question in that the relationship between internal and external relates to the duality of my experience of 'home' (UK and NZ). The most obvious and potent exploration of the idea of 'home' is through domesticity. Within my works I like to explore how internal and external spaces can inverse each other and become confusing so the viewer never really knows if they're on the inside looking out or the outside looking in. This is usually signified through the use of a silhouette of windows and doors, then the objects begin to interact and again play with this internal/external paradox. As far as time slowing down, this is something that emerged in my practice on the long days of the first lockdown here in the UK. I was able to interrogate objects passing through time. I would draw plants growing, watch how shadows fell differently over my domestic spoils throughout the day and this gave me an intimate understanding of how I want to treat the objects I paint. By doing this I noticed a sentimentality occurs in a way that excites me. It's an idea that spawned Cubism, and although my paintings don't look Cubist, I like to think of the object I'm painting in all its forms from every perspective when I paint it.
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?
I like to paint during daylight hours, I often leave home at about 9am with my dog Kenny Biscuit and walk to the studio which takes just over an hour. I share my studio with another artist and it has one wall which is completely windows and south facing so it gets wonderful natural light all day long. I'm quite a tidy and organised person, so my studio is never too far out of control, but it does accumulate a healthy amount of mess from time to time. I spend the morning doing admin, mostly emails and applications, anything that needs attention really. Have a small break for some food then spend the afternoon working on something new. I walk home from the studio around 6pm, in time to make some dinner and spend the evening with my partner. Or a variation of this depending on what else is going on in my life.
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
While I was visiting New Zealand recently my uncle suggested we visit Auckland Art Gallery together to see the Robin White retrospective. I was familiar with her work but had lost touch with it since living in the UK and it was wonderful to rediscover. Particularly her work 'Fish and Chips, Maketu' which she painted in 1975.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
Having returned from New Zealand after my first trip back in seven years I'm exploring some exciting new ideas in the studio which I'm really looking forward to sharing when I feel they're ready. I'm also currently looking at opportunities to exhibit the body of work attached to this interview.
All images are courtesy of the artist
Date of publication: 20/04/23
