Joe Simpson - Almost There

The show comprises two music-inspired collections: ‘Musician Portraits’ and ‘Almost There’

‘Almost There’

Almost There’ is a project that combines painting and music to evoke the mythic traditions of the American road trip. Simpson collaborated with twelve bands and solo artists to create a series of paintings that have an accompanying original soundtrack.  Each painting has a song written specifically for that piece, inspired by the scene and composed to compliment the mood of the image.

The twelve paintings depict scenes from one characters journey, as he leaves the city and seeks redemption on the open road. The images draw reference to cinematography- particularly within the ‘road-movie’ genre - to evoke the feel and mood of a film still.  The widescreen format, filmic composition and theatrical use of light all enhance the cinematic quality of the images.  As well as a literal journey, the twelve scenes depict the character's internal journey.

Throughout the paintings there are references to other road stories such as Jim Jarmusch’s 'Broken Flowers' and Jack Kerouac’s 'On the Road', - deliberate nods towards the mythology of the genre.  Simpson says: “The road trip idea is ingrained in culture, after Kerouac, 'Born to Run', and a thousand road movies – so certain expectations and clichés are always going to be there.  There's an expectation for somebody on a road trip to have an epiphany, or realization, or of 'arriving' in some way. The title of the project, 'Almost There', refers to the characters attempt to arrive at this state of mind; to have an epiphany; but it always seems slightly out of reach.”