Images Hanging by a Thread Richard Cork, the Times, September 20, 1999

The Times, London, 20 September 1999 its, where Raedecker has applied he never once sat down during sequins, counter the bleakness and the afternoon I spent in his studio even make this empty terrain seem near Tower Bridge. Open and con- beguiling. But the longer we gaze fdent, he has no time for Saatchi’s Images at Mirage, the less anything make insistence on calling him a Neurotic sense. Realist. What, then, is the spring- Take the thin shadows cast alone board for images as bewitching as the ground by both trees. They are Mirage? “I like 17th-century Dutch contradicted by two more shadows, landscapes, the ones with moun running up the trunks and destroy- tains,” explains with an ironic hanging ing the illusion of perspective. Rae- smile. “But my own work starts like decker appears ro be suggesting a dream. I’m fascinated by the fact that the entire landscape is as fat as that landscapes were there long be- a piece of painted stage scenery. He fore we came alone. Mirage is about puzzles us even more on the right seeing something that’s an optical where the ground curves like a wave illusion. It’s all fake, and I make my by a and, as thouch shaken by a seismic art ambiguous so that viewers can tremor, turns upside down. The vio- complete the paintings in their own lence of this upheaval is ominous, minds. But people often tell me that indicating that the world has suf- my images derive from Australia or fered a catastrophic convulsion. locations they’ve seen in flms.” The thread plays a paradoxical thread aedecker, for his part, is role in his work. It emphasises the buoyant and “really sur- anifciality of a painling and, at the VISUAL ART: Richard Cork prised” that he won the same time. “makes certain details Rprize. He may put the stand out. To me, using thread seems money towards buying a house: “I’d such a natural thing to do. After all, meets the 1999 John Moores like to fnd something much bigger there’s a very old tradition of artists than my fat in Vauxhali - a ware- designing tapestries.” But Raedeck- Prizewinner, Michael Raedecker house or an old empty pub which I er is also aware of the risks involved could work on myself.” io giving thread such prominence. wo large hooks hang down pete in open competition with well Although he grew up in his native While hovering dangerously near from the rafters or Michael over 2,000 other paintings sent Netherlands, training initiallv as a the borders of craft and folk art. he Raedecker’s white-walled in for the Moores this year, but it fashion designer, Raedeeker has knows precisely where to stop and London studio. They look stood out at once. Both I and my lived in london for the past three how to play off the thickness of em- T years. He came here to take an MA broidery against the thinness of his disconcerting at frst,’ and give his fellow judges - Germaine Greer, room the air of an abattoir. But no former Moores prizewinners Mark in fne art at Goldsmiths College. acrylic paint. Raedecker also stops carcasses dangle in this luminous francis and Dan Hays and the new “London was at the centre of all short of introducing fgures into any space. Indead, Raedecker sus- director of Sydney’s Museum 0f the media attention about art.” he of his landscapes or interiors. “If I pends his paintings from the hooks Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann recalls, “and Goldsmiths made me put one of my sad old men into a so that he can work on them with Macgregor - were overwhelmed bv more self-as-sured - I wasn’ fully painting of a room, it would leave needle and thread. Embroidery, the avalanche of entries. Paintings, grown up before then.” the viewer out.” he explains, “When for this highly individual artist, is far from being dead, seems to enjoy His great-grandfather, John Rae- a room is empty, the viewer can step an integral part of the paintings he boisterous health at the century’ decker, was the sculptor responsible into it. But when someone’s alreadv makes. And the results are so im- end. But our exhaustion was offset for the prominent National Monu- there, the painting becomes too pressivc that Raedecker has just by the excitement of encountering ment in the centre of Amsterdam. close to narrative.” won the coveted John Moores Prize, submissions as outstanding as Mi- It was a prestige commission at the Raedecker wants his work to re- a £25,000 award to be handed over rage. time, and Michael’s work, in turn, tain a vital sense of mystery, and he on Thursday at the Walker Art Gal- Racdecker invites us to roam is beginning to recieve recognition seems completely absorbed by the lery in Liverpool. across the panoramic width of this in the Netherlands. He has already tantalising images conjured in his As a judge of the 1999 prize, I painting, as if we were travellers won a Royal Painting Prize in Am- work. “I cherish being in my own am delighted with the painting Rae- an epic journey. But the landscape sterdam, and Queen Beatrix has private space,” he admits. I really dccker submitted. The largest he unfolding in Mirage is a desolate bought two of his paintings. Other like going to the studio every day, has yet produced. Mirage was the locale. No one seems to inhabit Dutch collectors have acquired his and feeling that I can do whatever outcome of “a very intense period, this parched coutry, and there are work as well, but none matches the I want.” when I worked long hours. every few signs of vegetation. Plants enthusiasm of Charles Saatchi, who single day, for about four weeks. I are limited to the base of the two now owns “at least 13 of my paim- > Raedecker’s Mirage is included in saw it as a challenge to fnish that main trees, while their trunks and ings”. the John Moores Exhibition 21, at painting for the John Moores dead- branches are as stripped as the Raedecker is a restless, ener- the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool line,” bare, stricken woods in Paul Nash’s getic 36-year-old, tall, slim, and (0151-207 0001) from Sept 24 to Raedecker’s strenuous commit- paintings of First World War bat- constantly making dramatic hand Jan 9 ment paid off. Mirage had to com- tlefelds. Strange, glittering depos- gestures to back up his remarks, Richard Cork.

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