Humans are known for our inability to understand complex things like large numbers and relative mass. Art for me is a point in time, life with clutter removed. We need art to understand the other, to have a contextual measure that lets us spectate and reflect. In my art practice, the central theme is time and measures of what we know and anticipate, our life experience gestalts.

I work with oil on metal mostly. I absolutely love painting on old and new metal. Because it’s generally tough it allows for more surface abuse and stressing, a key component of the aesthetic. Metal bears witness marks well – its aged surface confirms the passing of time, and it feels like a good tenet of what it is to be human.

I’ve had many studios over the years, most notably Anvil House in Wellington for about 6 years in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was a shared studio where I feel I cut my teeth on a lot of things that now are a continual part of my process and art practice in general. The social aspect of shared studios is a very good place to develop and grow as a young aspiring artist. I miss the chaos.

Most notably after that was a studio I rented for five years in West Hampstead, London. I was in one of 40 old garages down a mews running behind the West Hampstead shops. We had these great big forest green doors that concertinaed open, and the community we had there was special with an assortment of sculptors, painters and mechanics. We spent many an afternoon piled into one of the studios for a smoke break, sharing ideas and delving into all sorts conversations that were well off the beaten path.

Following that I found myself in East London in an old warehouse conversion in Hackney Wick, a live/work space in the middle of what was, to my knowledge, the most heavily populated area of artists per capita for the whole of Europe, for like I want to say twenty years, but don’t quote me on that.

I now work and live in Taranaki, New Zealand with my wife Suraya, Mario the cat who hitched a ride back from London and eight chickens.

David Le Fleming