Pam Glew is featuring in the Archetypes urban art exhibition at View Art Gallery from June 4th. Pam is best known for her unique bleaching technique on national flags. She uses dye, stitch and traditional skills to paint, embellish and distress vintage materials in her own breed of painting.
Heavily inspired by film, her strong cinematic paintings often use screen stills of women in horror films and film noir as their starting point. She obsessively watches contemporary and classic movies to capture a pivotal moment; when a character is being chased, startled or discovered by the enemy. The result is often compellingly beautiful and yet has some element of vulnerability.
Pam’s work has been showcased extensively in over 60 international exhibitions. We caught up with her to explore the technique and inspiration behind this stunning unique work.
When and how did you develop this unique way of working?
I wanted to find a way to make images appear ingrained in fabric. Back in in 2007 I tried using heat guns on fabric to burn a portrait into a american flag. It had an interesting affect but wasn’t controllable and it filled my studio with thick black smoke. So I thought maybe if I used dyes and bleaches I could make it appear like a face was part of the cloth. After a few failed attempts I worked out how to do it, that was in 2008. I now refine it by using thin layers of bleach and wash it at each stage, so the results take longer but are more precise and I can now get real defined detail like eye lashes and small refections in the mouth and eyes that make a portrait look almost realistic, compared to the fairly impressionistic portraits I did at the beginning. I also sometimes use a ‘burn out’ technique that you paint on clear and it only appears when you use steam, that feels like magic.
You stitch together flags for your canvas, what relationship do they have with the images painted?
Usually the flags reflects the person on it, so the Aboriginal flag ‘Everlyn and the Sun‘ is of an Aboriginal actress in the film ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’, the flag is handmade in the studio. And the girl in ‘Cherokee’ is a North American Indian, the flag is a peace flag, also made in the studio with cotton drill fabric and applique stars.
The flag should really be their heritage, as if they are representing their lineage. ‘Haunt‘ is of Lily Cole, the English model and actress, she looks kind of spookily perfect, so I surrounded her with skulls and flowers and made the Union jack for her portrait from scratch from thick denim and heavy weight cotton drill.
I imagine that painting with bleach is irreversible once applied. Do you have a preparation process that you go through before you start each work?
I plan the images by taking screen stills from movies, or using photographic references, and then often plan where the image will be on the fabric pretty exactly before I start painting. Then its a case of having a cup of tea, putting my hair up, getting comfortable, putting on my bleach mask, latex gloves, and taking a sharp intake of breath before bleaching. Once I start bleaching I cant answer the phone, but it inevitably rings as soon as I start. Bleach starts developing so quickly and has to be an even coat, so I will do one coat, then wash it, dry it, iron it the next day and repeat the process up to 10 times. After its bleached I may use inks to alter the colours, sometimes making the reds deeper and more punchy.
You use contemporary and classic movies for your inspiration, are there any movies that you have used for more than one piece?
Usually one movie just has only one image in it that is strong enough to use for a piece, but I have re-visited actresses. Lily Cole is in ‘Saint‘ and ‘Haunt’, ‘Porcelain‘ and ‘Eden‘.
Marlene Dietrich is in ‘Lake‘ on fabric from the film ‘Blonde Venus’ and ‘Shanghai Lily‘ from the film ‘Shanghai Express’ which I made for the Beautiful and Damned solo. And Mia Farrow was in one of the very first paintings I did on brocade fabric called ‘Doll face‘ from the classic ‘Rosemary’s baby’ film and I painted her the 60s film ‘Dandy in Aspic’ on an American flag for the Circus show for a flag called ‘Wonderwheel‘.
Which pieces are you most fond of or proud of? Why have these pieces left such a memorable impression to you?
This year I started painting multiple people in one portrait, I did a commission for Red Bull of 3 screaming Beatles fans, which was a bit of a new thing for me, so subsequently I have painted a few multiple portraits; for the Beautiful and Damned solo I made Double Portrait – a woman and a dog- taking the same title as a Lucien Freud painting with a dog- which was the first time I’d painted an animal in a piece. After Hours and The Band are of jazz musicians, I think that was a step up for me, not being too scared to paint a full jazz band with piano, trombones, clarinets, the whole shabang. Profane Angel is also a favourite as it took so long making the quilt but doesn’t look overworked and still looks like a strong and powerful woman, and Carole Lombard is such an icon, that I think Madonna is greatly inspired by her, the look of Lombard in Profane Angel is just like Madonna in the ‘Vogue’ video, I like the connections of icons from one era to another, like from Lombard, to Madonna, to Lady Gaga.
What is next for Pam Glew?
A solo in NYC is planned next. I’ve only just hung my latest solo in London, Beautiful and Damned. So next on the agenda is to start on the NY solo show. I need to knuckle down and do some research and spend a week in libraries and watch a load of films based in hotels, source the fabrics, I’m thinking of using more American quilts next, and probably make some more quilts too, so thats a good mission!
Thank You.
