Supposed novel

Art I selected Nicholas Middleton's Scene from a Contemporary Novel as one of my picks from the Liverpool Biennial and I somehow missed a talk he gave about the work last week. Luckily, the National Museums Liverpool blog is at hand with a podcast and transcript:

"In using the word 'scene' in my title I wanted to imply that this point in time shown is merely one in many such scenes which are possible from the supposed novel that the painting is taken from. I wanted to point out that the character in the picture has a past and a future. I chose the word novel in the title to explicitly make an association with written fiction. To emphasise the fictional nature of my picture without wanting to make it specific."

It's actually one of the most perceptive talks I've heard from any artist and is actually better than some dvd commentaries. I do wish I'd been there because far from noirish I would have liked to have asked if French New Wave had been an influence.