'Depicting the City' by Chris Orr, RA

Chris Orr, former Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art gives a talk to coincide with his exhibition, LONDON-TOKYO-NAGASAKI, on his paintings and prints, regarding contemporary developments on cities and the history.

 

“Working directly from the subject has recently become important to me again and on recent visits to Japan I have been outside drawing in Nagasaki and Tokyo. London, my native city, has always been an inspiration and a subject for me. I have developed the idea that I am a “history painter” and that my work is concerned with the complex social and physical layers that compose the modern city. In the process of working, time is spent at the heart of a place. The artist takes on temporary honorary citizenship. It is amazing how many people stop to ask directions even when you are clearly not a local.

 

Printmaking, a powerful tradition in both Japanese and European cultures, is a beautifully expressive voice for the subject of the city. The printing processes are urban and lend themselves easily to the subject matter. My prints are made using the drawings as a starting point. Back in the workshop I take things a step further on. Although still recognisably about a specific place, the printmaking process allows me to adapt and change things to create a new subjective identity. My Japan, like my London, becomes a place of new imaginative reality.”

 

Chris Orr RA