Contemporary artist Ashley Bickerton lived a nomadic childhood, his family moving countries often for his father’s research into Creole and Pidgin languages. Feeling a need to once again 'recontextualise myself' after a childhood travelling, Bickerton moved from New York, the ‘crucible’ of his art life, to Bali mid-career. He describes how this unique environment seeped into his practice and the implications of his move – not least in that ‘once you run off to a bloody island to make art’, the figure of Paul Gaugin becomes an inevitable Art Historical comparison to address. How can his series of ‘intentionally silly’ paintings, depicting a blue-skinned European antihero against tropical backdrops, be seen as critiquing the legacy of Gaugin?
