Spencer Finch: Interview of the Month July 2021 – ArtLyst

15 July 2021

In his current exhibition at Lisson Gallery (‘Only the hand that erases writes the true thing’, to 31 July), Spencer Finch presents new works which continue his long-running investigation of the subtle beauty and mystery of nature and our perception of it. The show contains fascinating considerations of snow, light and a mountain walk, as well as the clouds, fog and mistakes he discussed from his New York studio.

Cloud (cumulus fractus under stratus, Connecticut), 2021, is a drawing of layered clouds. When you get close, you can see it’s made with Scotch Tape. How did you arrive at that medium?

It was an accident of experimentation. I was trying to make pictures of clouds using translucent vellum, and they looked OK, but you could always see the spot where I’d applied the adhesive. At one point, I was using Scotch Tape to hold the vellum to the paper, and I realised I could use the tape as both the adhesive and the material that adhered. After that epiphany, I found a way to build it up to create light and shadow.

That pares the work down to the essence, and I’ve always liked work where there’s nothing superfluous. Incidentally, the manufacturers won’t say that Scotch Tape is archival, but in tests, I’ve found it lasts much better than any ‘archival tape’!

Continue reading Paul Carey-Kent's conversation with Spencer Finch for ArtLyst here.