The rhinestone and resin surrealism of Paul Hyde
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2020 04:09:35 +0000
Rhinestones are usually associated with old-school country and western singers like Buck Owens and Porter Wagoner, whose stylish stage garb was as glittering as it was colourful.
Their outfits were known as Nudie suits, because many were made by tailor Nudie Cohen.
Paul Hyde has probably never even considered donning a Nudie suit onstage. It would be a bit ostentatious for the down-to-earth Hyde, who most people know as the singer in the legendary local rock band Payola$.
But it seems Hyde secretly harboured a love of rhinestones. And it has finally come out in his first art show, Souvenirs.
Each of the 26 collages in the exhibition at Vancouver’s Chernoff Fine Art is decorated with the glittering “diamond simulant.”
In one work, Dickens, Hyde places the rhinestones against a black background, like they are far-off stars. In Caribbean Trout, he places rhinestones of various colours and sizes around a trio of fish, like they’re pebbles on a beach.
Well, like a beach in a Monty Python skit. The fish in his collage are all wearing polka-dot sweaters, and are floating against an orange background. It’s very Terry Gilliam-esque, a kind of East Van surrealism.
Other pieces have more of a Day of the Dead feel, because they’re based around a skull.
“I like working with the skulls, because you can bring them back to life,” said Hyde, turning towards a sparkling skull in a Lone Ranger mask.
“This one is Damien Hirst’s diamond skull (which is made of real diamonds, and Hirst famously tried to sell for 50 million pounds). It’s called Art Theft, I put thief things on it. There’s the Mona Lisa in the mouth.”
Art Theft by Paul Hyde.
Most of his works feature several images, clipped out of magazines or books and reassembled in the collage. Art Theft, for example features a trio of extraterrestrial-type creatures on either side of the skull, and a little deal at the top where Hyde posits that a deer plus a fighter jet equals an eyeball.
“The sums are not revelatory,” he said. “They’re there for my amusement. There’s some humour in (the collages), for sure. Hopefully there’s something in each one that makes you smile.”
They do, in fact, and have been going down gangbusters with the public. Thirteen of the 26 pieces in the show have sold, at $1,200 apiece.
“Twenty-somethings come in and go ‘Who is this artist? I love this work so much!’” said Brad Chernoff, whose gallery at 265 East 2nd is showing the exhibit through Feb. 15.
“They couldn’t always afford it, because they’re quite young and don’t have any money, but they really appreciated and responded to it, which I thought was really cool.”
Hyde, 64, first started experimenting with collage about three decades back. Basically he pours clear acrylic resin onto a frame, put the collage and rhinestones on, lets it dry, then puts on another layer of resin and some rhinestones.
Hyde never went to art school, but he’s always shown an artistic side outside his music career. A few years ago, he rebuilt and painted some old Bell and Howell film projector amps, and musicians love them, for both their sound and look. Guitar legend Ry Cooder has two.
The Payola$ were quite successful by Canadian standards, but for many years Hyde (who lives with my colleague Dana Gee) paid the bills by doing stucco on houses.
“I’m pretty handy with a trowel,” he deadpans.
Hyde with Dickens, his collage of a dog and buildings.
He still plays music with friends, and is completing a covers album with his old friend Bob Rock. But you may not see him onstage again.
“The last time I performed was about five years ago,” he said. “There’s no call for it, and I never really enjoyed it anyway. Stage fright gets worse as you get older.”
When his father died a couple of years ago, he retired to look after his mom. In his off time, he started mucking around with his collages.
“Somebody said, ‘Hey you should have a show,’ and there you go,” he said. “So I just kept making them.”
There doesn’t seem to be any grand plan before he starts making a collage, but some really come together, like Dickens, which depicts a dog in human dress standing in front of an assemblage of grand old buildings.
“When I got the body and stuck the dog’s head on it, I thought, ‘That’s it,’” he said.
“I have loads of this background already cut out, I could do this 10 times. I knew if I stuck a dog in front it would sell. Everybody who looked at it before the show said ‘Oh that’s great.’ This one was a no-brainer.”
Hyde has 26 works in the show at Chernoff Fine Art, including Another Gibson Fan (left). Arlen Redekop/PNG
The works take about a week to complete, because of drying time for the resin. Arlen Redekop/PNG