Accession Code: wu0816. Title: Scenes from The Passion: The Swing Date completed: 2002/3 Medium: Painting Material: Enamel paint Height (mm): 700 Width (mm): 1010 Depth (mm): n/a Inscription: n/a Location Name: Social Sciences Building Location Description: Location Floor:

Purchased through the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme with Lottery funding from Arts Council England, 2003

For this and other works in the 'Scenes of the Passion' series, Shaw walked within a half-mile radius of his childhood home taking hundreds of photographs. Of these photographs he selected one from around every 36 to transform into a painting. Using Humbrol enamel paint usually used for painting model kits, he painstakingly buildt up the image layer by layer. The reflective quality of the paint also provides difficulties for Shaw, he often works whilst wearing a balaclava covering his head and nose to stop his own reflection interfering with the production of the image.

The images of the places he frequented as a child together with the use of Humbrol enamel paint evokes childhood memories in Shaw.
'Those places, trees and houses and things I was living with as a kid, they were mute witnesses to my early sentiments.' The familiar scenes the smell of the paint and the colours of his childhood provide works which are filled with nostalgia. In Shaw's words, 'the sum of the work fills the empty space that you leave behind when you die'.