Dancing between the title and the canvas – Comedian Noel Fielding brings his unique brand of art to the Royal Albert Hall
Art is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Noel Fielding, but today, at the Royal Albert Hall, the walls are ringing with his brushstrokes.
The marmite comedian is best known for his irreverent, observational humour and quizzical perspective (consider his lengthy imitation of a bluebottle, an act that appears in his on-screen repertoire). His raven hair and quirky style are all part of what makes him an icon among the mavericks of comedy – he is, after all, also famously friends with another bouffant-conscious wildcard, Russell Brand.
Walking into the preview of his art exhibition, Fielding’s painting has an obvious parallel with his comedy. At times humorous, at times uncomfortable, and invariably accompanied by an undercurrent wry curiosity, the series of watercolours are a first for him as a painter.
Putting aside a little time to chat to me, we perched on the stairs of the cavernous building. It’s sweet and rather beautifully childlike. He seems uncomfortable with the formal grandeur of this iconic monument and the thought that his work is currently featuring as a prime attraction. “It’s mad,” he says with a bemused glint in his eye, “my work … here … but if you have a chance to hang your paintings in the Royal Albert Hall, you don’t really say no, do you?”
It was on the basis of the intimidating and grandiose setting in which he had been allowed free rein, that Fielding, like a kid in a candy store, could not help but veer towards subjects beyond the realms of the establishment.
“I painted them all specifically for this exhibition,” he says of the extensive array of pictures, “it took two months and I’ve injured my shoulder. Michael Angelo hurt his back and I hurt my shoulder. Did you know he actually changed the shape of his spine doing the Sistine Chapel?” (I didn’t, but that doesn’t seem to worry Fielding who is pondering the thought for a moment).
In person he is as offbeat as one might hope. Dressed in an elaborately patterned kimono-style dress, a furry Chanel jacket complete with giant hood, and his trademark heeled boots accompanied by a generous slathering of detailed eye make-up, he looks like a walking painting in his own right.
His stream of consciousness thinking seems in keeping with the Fielding that we know from our screens, but what swiftly becomes apparent is that it isn’t really an act. The tone of the paintings straddles a line between humour and intense feeling and observation.
The same painting that sends either himself or an idea up (“the unicorn in that painting is doing a fart” notes my companion before realising that most of the unicorns in most of the paintings are either farting or languidly showing off large erections) is curiously titled Unicorns at the Job Centre, and sitting nearby are the likes of If Only John Lennon were here to ease my Loneliness.
I’m a bit schizophrenic he says, and one has the sense that he is apologising for himself in some way. Nonetheless, his paintings do have a sense of hopping from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other between brushstrokes. Accordingly, sometimes his work simply looks like he has been having a lot of fun producing it.
In this vein, his Uber taxi drivers have inadvertently found themselves gracing the hallowed walls, along with details of their vehicles: “it’s an abuse of the Uber system to take the small profile picture and use it to paint a portrait and hang it in the Royal Albert Hall … it’s perverse and wrong. That’s why I did it. I couldn’t help myself.”
Clearly Fielding is a man who thinks a lot, and by his own admission that thinking seems to take much more of a web-like shape than a linear one. He seems kind, and curious, and sometimes a little worried. But then, he brushes it all off with a self-deprecating quip: “I stole the actual title of the show off of the legend that is Jean Cocteau to appear slightly more clever than I actually am,” he says.
It would be easy to dismiss a well-known person like Fielding as showcasing more from ego than talent, but the paintings he has produced are a pleasure to observe. I like the sense that you don’t know whether he is being serious or not, and intentionally or otherwise there are some thought provoking subjects – the meaning of which dances somewhere between the titles and the canvases.
Two things are certain from this show. The first is that Fielding isn’t out to make any great statements, he is simply sharing his rather curious thought processes, and that is a pleasure (and sometimes a curiosity) to behold. The second is his total bafflement at the surroundings of this exhibition opening, something that will no doubt be appeased when it moves to his more regular artistic haunt, Gallery Maison Bertaux in Soho at the end of March.
by Bonnie Friend
He Wore Dreams Around Unkind Faces moves to Gallery Maison Bertaux on March 31, 2015. For more information visit Hooligan Art Dealer.