After a 27 year career in the City, Charles Binns decided to enrol at Central Saint Martins to study MA Contemporary Photography, Practises and Philosophies in 2018, graduating during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. His art is about loss. Loss of biodiversity, loss of pristine natural habitats and loss of cultural diversity. His practice asks how is it that humanity finds itself on the brink of environmental catastrophe and what does this say about us, both individually and collectively.
Binns’ work navigates through real and imagined worlds; myth and reality become intertwined in a world where what is absent is more important than what is present. Truth cannot be found in the sensual but in the emotional response to what is lost. Binns’ practice combines photography, printmaking and sculpture to both records the evolving landscapes of today and reimagines the narrative of our future.
Self-taught or art school?
I spent 30 years trying to teach myself photography before studying MA Contemporary Photography at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 2020.
If you could own one work of art what would it be?
Magnetic Painting No 7 by Takis.
How would you describe your style?
I try not to have one. I am not really sure I understand what people mean when they discuss style. I try to take a varied approach to my work – working across disciplines and to an outsider it might seem that I jump around a lot though to me it seems perfectly natural to take a non-linear approach to art. Maybe that’s my style.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
There tends to be a trigger – a reaction to something I have read or seen – and then a frenzy of activity as I create works in response, then a period of reflection as I try to figure out what I have made and organise it into a coherent body of work.
Is narrative important within your work?
The short answer is no. My work is about where we are now, rather than how we got here. Of course, you can’t really reflect on one without reflecting on the other and I believe that often the viewer constructs their own narrative in response to seeing a work of art. It isn’t my place to tell the viewer what that narrative should be.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
John Baldessari because I love his wit. Takis and the almost magical way he uses electromagnetism to create artworks that seem to hang in the air. I also love the work of Kurt Schwitters and the way he uses colour and materials.
What or who inspires your art?
I’m inspired by what I see in the world around me. Everything I do is a reaction to something I have seen.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
I have a studio in Harlow. It is just a basic room but it is somewhere I can spend a few hours thinking and working and that has been invaluable during the lockdown.
Do you have any studio rituals?
In winter I switch the heater on the moment I walk into the studio!! I make a cup of tea and I get particular pleasure in pulling dried silicone from the mixing jugs so I like to do that before I start on work proper.
What are you working on currently?
A few things. I have a collaboration with another artist in July so I am making a number of small pieces that will be displayed in a dresser in her studio. I am creating fake archaeology, making pieces in bronze resin that are taken from religious imagery, mythology, popular culture and the modern obsession with the self. I’m also working on my landscape photography at the moment.
Where can we buy your art?
I have a lovely series of screenprints on New Blood Art but otherwise, I have no representation yet so you can contact me directly. www.charlesbinns.com
