Through his paintings, Andy Farr is able to tell stories that often go untold. His work with people that often suffer from mental health issues produces much-needed conversations whilst simultaneously helping the subjects through their experiences (as well as helping Farr to some extent, it seems). However, it would be hard to guess that this was a regular angle that Farr's work takes from the painting he submitted to our exhibition. A woman poised in a confident stance on an armchair, wearing vibrant orange clothing and taking a moment to look away from her book, the piece delivers a message of strength and hope.
We caught up with Farr to discuss how the painting, which he admits is a departure from much of his usual work, came into existence, the personal experiences that fuel his work and the inspirational stories of many of his subjects. Read the full interview below and head to our New Tenants exhibition to see Farr's work in the space.
Can you tell me a bit more about Waiting With Style, the painting you submitted to us which is shown in the New Tenants exhibition?
In lockdown number one I was doing a series of pieces based on both myself and other people waiting for what we hoped would be the end of Covid and the return of freedom. I did a painting of my wife, a painting of myself and I did a series of paintings of people, I do a lot of work with people who have mental health-related issues. This painting was actually completely random, there's a friend of mine called Silvena, who's an artist, and during the lockdown she was posting on Instagram a series of pictures of herself in different outfits as lockdown went on. She posted a series of pictures of herself with this orange headscarf around her head, sitting down and I thought it was quite an interesting image so I got her to send me the original photographs. It was completely serendipitous in the sense that she'd taken the photo, I cropped them down and I did a painting based on it.
The orange is really poignant, what is it about that colour which really excited you?
I don't know, that's a very good question because the orange was what attracted me to Silvena's picture in the first place. The pose is good but it's the orange and it contrasting with the leather of the chair that stood out for me. It's just a very powerful colour. It is a colour of hope, apparently, and I guess it's a colour of spring, maybe there is an element of that.
There is a focus on fashion in the painting as well, with the orange headscarf and dress and this being a picture of a lady expressing herself largely through clothes. Is that something you have explored in the past?
No, not really, I like to build an element of colour and design into what I'm doing. I quite like it when you can take an abstract thing and contrast that with maybe a more figurative element. Textiles and fabrics are interesting but not so much fashion itself. If I went through some of the paintings I've done there probably is a lot of the clothes telling a story of some sort.
You mention in your artist statement that you sent to us that you're inspired by Hopper and Hockney, how does their work inform the way you look at art?
I'm not a big fan of Hockney's work since probably the 70s but I enjoy the work he did in the 60s. In Hopper's work, I like the storytelling. There's an implicit story there and you're not quite sure what the story is and you're not quite sure what the timeline is but there is a sense that things have happened or are about to happen, or there are unsaid words or unspoken things; it's that slight tension that exists within the paintings. In a way the picture of Silvena sitting in the chair, there was an element of not being quite sure what she's thinking or why she's there or what's happening. There's an implicit story, my better paintings have an implicit story to them.
Moving beyond artists, are there any people or situations that have had a similar amount of influence on your work?
Through the work I've done, increasingly telling other people's stories, you find quite a lot of inspiration in people's lives and how much they've overcome. Most of those people haven't really got an artistic angle to their existence, to be able to work as an artist with a person but who has an untold but inspiring story is a motivation for me. You feel a lot of responsibility to those people but it's also very rewarding when you can do something that works for them and helps them to move on in their lives and they appreciate it. That, in a way, is part of the inspiration for me.
You mention how a lot of your work is based around mental health, what draws you to that subject?
My father was bipolar, he was first diagnosed when I was about 12 or 13 and that created various bouts of illness and they were quite challenging for me. They had quite a big impact on my teenage years, I went from being quite a happy-go-lucky individual to growing up very quickly. You don't realise how much of an impact that's had on you until later in life when you look back on things and more after he died in 2011. It took me quite a while to overcome my feelings of resentment for his illness because of how it affected me and how it affected my mother. Then you get to the point where you feel guilty that you resent it and you want to try to understand more about what happened to him, why he felt the way he did, why he behaved the way he did. When I was doing my MA, I spent a lot of the second year exploring my recollections of childhood and how his illness had affected us and I spent time talking to other people who had suffered from similar conditions. I found that whole process very cathartic for me as an individual, there were a lot of things I had locked away that I needed to understand better. The response I got from pieces I created from other people who have either got lived experience themselves of mental health problems or other family members, I found that the work seemed to connect.
I ended up doing another series of work around trauma with the Institute of Mental Health. Trauma is particularly interesting because a lot of the issues with trauma is that you lock stuff away, things have happened to you and you try to bury them and then at some point they seep out and fester and affect you. I guess I found something within myself by doing work around this and then I've given back to some degree but I find it quite interesting. Some of the subject matters are quite challenging to create art about which isn't exploitative and voyeuristic but is still truthful and honest, there is a line there. I don't want to dwell on what happened but it's about the recovery process.
Are you encouraged by the increased conversations that are had now about mental health, especially amongst men?
Yes, conversations are an interesting one though because I've done a lot of work with people who are involved in peer support networks and people still find it hard to talk about things. However, if they're talking to someone who they know has had a similar experience that is more productive than maybe just talking to a random person. I've certainly found in my conversations with people, because I've got some understanding and lived experience, people feel more prepared to talk to me. It's not just talking to another random individual because a lot of the time people don't think there is anyone out there but there are a lot of support groups for different people.
I am encouraged that people are willing to talk about stuff more than they used to. Seemingly, I know there are a lot of mental health issues related to lockdown but I think people have been better at accessing things and the fact that people can do it remotely maybe it encourages people to talk in a way that they wouldn't necessarily have done face-to-face. There's probably a PhD somewhere in that.
Are you optimistic about the future?
Yes, why not? If we can survive a year of this. I was quite ill at the back end of October and I watched the whole of the US election unfold and I have to say now that we've got rid of Trump I do feel more optimistic for the whole world. I'm feeling this year is the beginning of lots of good things from both a political point of view and an environmental point of view, it feels like maybe the idiots are no longer in charge in some bits of the world.