“Ugly Beauty was one of Thelonious Monk’s only known waltzes. It is a delicately sweet and slow tune with an underlying sense of melancholy. The term ugly beauty is a reference to the French expression “Jolie-laide”, which literally translates to “pretty [and] ugly”, or more loosely, the concept of presuming there is beauty to be found in flaws or less pleasing features.
This body of work explores the notion of “jolie-laide” as well as our shared modern landscape. My gaze tends to be fixed often on abandoned and derelict structures, or vacant structures that are to be reassigned another function, yet others that are awaiting purchase for their first assignment. It is this transitional state, otherwise known as liminal space, that I am deeply connected to. When a space loses its proposed function it goes into stasis, it becomes liminal. The word liminal comes from the Latin word “limen”, when translated means threshold. In other words, on the precipice of change, stuck in a constant state of transition. My perspective has been informed from a young age by the silent refined background art of animation’s Golden Age, from the background art of Looney Tunes to Tom and Jerry and Disney. When you strip away the characters from each scene an exquisite silent and abandoned liminal space is revealed.
I approach architectural form, and the space in which they reside, more as portraits than as landscapes. I believe in the construction of a painting, laying down a framework for which all subsequent layers will have support to rest upon. The concept of ‘building’ a painted image/ form allows for a more sincere discourse with my interest in the constructed landscape and with my fascination of structural form”. Mark Bradley-Shoup
