Painting/Installation: Fish and Chips

Fish and chips - painting installation by Shadric Toop - Chinese dragon in the window of patcham fish and chip shop
Shadric Toop's art installation painting fish and chips displayed in the Patcham Chip Shop Window with artist standing outside eating chips
Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips which is a mostly red surreal scene inside a chip shop run by a chinese couple with a chinese dragon and other strange creatures that appear to be floating in the air
Detail of Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips featuring a dragon's head
Detail of Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips featuring Chinese shop owner
Detail of Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips featuring bizarre fish
Preparatory drawing of sea creatures by Shadric Toop
Preparatory drawing of chinese dragon by Shadric Toop
Preparatory drawing of chinese dragon in fish and chip shop by Shadric Toop
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing designs for dragon
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing visual research on fish
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing visual research on fish
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing visual research on fish
Detail of Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips featuring strange creatures
Detail of Shadric Toop's painting fish and chips featuring creatures swimming in the air
Preparatory drawing of dragon's head by Shadric Toop
Preparatory drawing of chinese dragon in fish and chip shop by Shadric Toop
Preparatory drawing of chinese dragon by Shadric Toop
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing designs for creatures
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing pen drawings of fish
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing ink drawings of fish
Shadric Toop page of sketchbook showing drawings of fish

Fish and Chips

Photomontage, varnish, oil paint and pencil on 3 panels.
302 x 162 cm

The painting Fish and Chips is based on my local fish and chip shop, as it was back in 2009. The shop was run by a Chinese couple from Hong Kong who I got to know over the years. I was drawn to the cluttered walls of their shop which were plastered in a fantastic assortment of pictures, posters, drawings and postcards. These pictures more or less fell into two categories; either Chinese related or British fish n’ chips related.

I grew up with a Chinese connection, as one of my uncles came from from Hong Kong. Some of my most vivid early childhood memories come from a trip to Hong Kong in the mid seventies. My cousin, who grew up in Brighton but now lives in Hong Kong, appears in the picture.

This is a surrealist piece of work – it deals with imagination and dreaming, but also the overlap of two cultures.

Fish and Chips was exhibited in the window of the shop that was the inspiration for the piece during Chinese New Year of 2010.

Related Work

Detail of Shadric Toop's combine artwork Mind Map