Most artists look to hide the structures of a painting that keep the canvas taut and straight and allow the viewers to think almost exclusively of the surface in which paint lies. A Separate Fiction is a constructed painting that bucks this trend making clear the workings of a painting’s structure required to stretch canvas.

The work cleverly plays with the idea of perspective. From a distance the work resembles a 3-dimensional object, with its structure exposed. It is not until viewers investigate the painting closely that the construction of the painting is apparent.

Paul Hinchcliffe mused that it would be unwise to build a chair without thought for the body that sits in it. Likewise, with paintings and the eyes that look at them. As he said, ‘I don’t paint paintings, I build them.’

Winner of the 2004 Invitation Art Prize