Home.

Johny Haycocks. My contemporary art practice.

I am a contemporary artist who studied contemporary art at York St John University in York. I have developed this web-based archive to allow you to access my portfolio of contemporary practice to date. Hopefully you find many things filled with intrigue and wonder as to their origin. Please feel free to view my body of work and ask questions at will or leave feedback on the works that interest you.

The aspects of contemporary art that interest me currently in terms of practice disciplines are aesthetics , ready-mades , popular culture, sculpture, installation art , video art, neoism, surrealism and the Freudian unconscious, amongst others. Drawing, photography, animations, collage, songs, using light as a medium and u.v. activated paint techniques of the materials process.. Journals of experiments, unpredictable outcomes from an endeavour to make Art that questions the very experiences that we take for granted as being set in a structured reality into which we fit, rather than a world into which we are forever finding the nature of its experience being anything other than ordered and rational. What is real? What is un-real? And what lies on the edge of perception in between the two pillars of experience? All I know is the life I have dreamed and the life I have lived. My Art plays on those experiences in an attempt to create work that questions reality or at least offers alternatives in the form of the uncanny.

My latest projects while i wait to study masters are a new series of drawings, paintings, poetry, photography and print. However the biggest project which started in earnest in August 2014 is the video art film i am currently writing scripts and story boards for. Its a huge undertaking of what, who, when and why i have become the artist i am. How my life and my experiences have shaped me into the being i am and how i see life and the world. My lens if you will.

Update August 2015.

My film is in the writing and planning stages of development with 18 chapters completed so far. As the project has grown over the last year it has become a therapeutic cleansing of my years from the age of 13 to present day. There are a variety of elements that form the central focus of the film which include Addiction, Britpop music, Comedy, T.V. and Films and associated Popular Culture and Mental Health as well as a theme that will only be revealed within the editing suit. I have posted a few extracts on Facebook for a little feedback from a broad audience which has been very positive, all of which is copyrighted from the very outset.

Along with this there have been various projects involving people with addiction issues in their lives with the ethos of allowing participants to have a break from their own situations with fun being the general aim. My free pop up Art drawings have made several appearances since last year in York and it’s surrounding villages.

2018 Update.

Over the past twelve months I have been engaging with my art practice in many new ways, to try to enhance both my current areas of research and practice as well as engaging with new readings and research to push myself into new areas of interest and understanding.

I have taken up painting and drawing again and I am starting to understand both my subject matter focus and my own unique methods of painting which have been good therapy as well as a welcome distraction from researching new areas of theory which seem to be the focus of many contemporary artists work currently.

Also my film and book research and writing has given me a means of both expressing my experiences personally within a forum that has organically taken its own shape as time has passed during it’s development, as well as increasing my interest in film making and how each chapter could be delivered in a contemporary video art framework. Included within this area of my practice is my engaging with charities in York that deal with various social problems currently, which has allowed me to question how art can engage with these audiences and change social issues for the individual as well as enhancing societies understanding and awareness of matters such as substance misuse and homelessness in particular. I am hoping to develop my relationships with the clients and the charities that engage with these problems in the next year and hopefully change the communities understanding along the journey ahead of me in this area of interest.

Art is a fantastic tool for social change in my opinion amd there is so much scope for development in this area to create change within society on an individual basis as well as collectively within a community which is a wonderful way of collaborating with other creative people in so many ways , it’s been such an education for me so far and has given me many new ways of searching for my own understanding of social issues and how to approach a change within my current community.

summer 2019.

My research has let to Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophy and work which has many facets with which I am currently engaging and reading, from which I have a starting point for new work.

‘ art is present to stop us lying about the truth of life’ Johny Haycocks June 2018.

From this I am going to explore what this means in terms of new work as well as applying my reading of Nietzsche in editing the film scripts already completed and review the next three chapters to really relay the indie music zeitgeist and how that has influenced my life and work is so many ways.

Feb 2020.

I have continued to research around Nietzsche and my alternative twist on some of his work around truth and life. I have also become involved in a network in York which is working towards social change within the community of York and how my practice can enhance projects and introduce new ones to help with people within York’s community and people with multiple needs. Social change through Art and creative practice is still very close to my heart and I am finally engaged in helping to forge a better future for people.