The London Olympics. 2012
To win an Olympic or Paralympic medal takes a singular focus that ranks everything other than training an immediate second. It was a fascination with the ‘extreme’ motivation and sacrifices necessary to produce world-class results that inspired Houghton’s work documenting athletes in the run up to the twin games of London 2012. One of 12 commissioned artists, he created paintings that aim to show different versions of ‘what it takes’ to be the best.