tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26672816898040388322024-02-07T05:58:00.420-08:00Spanner in the Workz Tool tales, art and reviews from Artist and Blogger, Natalie Parsley.Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-17413379582748205492019-07-21T08:02:00.000-07:002019-07-21T08:02:11.425-07:00Art Overload: Venice Biennale 2019
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What do clairvoyant spiders, anvils, underground tunnels, washing-machines,
a cow on an automated track to nowhere, looming environmental concerns,
creation-myths, vanity, surveillance and issues of censorship, gender, race and
politics all have in common? Two years have passed and it is time for the
Venice Biennale 2019!</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Writing about the Biennale as a whole is a feat worth
applauding! Now in its 58<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> cycle and featuring far over fifty
countries and hundreds of artists/works in all mediums in what is a huge, complex
art Olympics that is, for all its delights also quite exhausting! The central
pavilion’s theme, ‘May you live in interesting times’ is a fittingly ambiguous,
yet pleasingly all-encompassing, title for what is essentially the world
barometer for art, what’s hot and what’s not. Who, which themes and ideas will
be appearing in exhibitions near you! Save your applause, however, because instead
of trying to cover it all, I have focused instead on the things that were most
memorable or had resonance with me. In a vein-attempt to make some sense of it
all (in no particular order) is my personal ‘unconventional’ top twenty-one of
the ‘must see’ experiences this Biennale. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Arsenale</span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/tarek-atoui"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Tarek
Atoui</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ceramic sculptures used to create unusual sound-based
installations. Intriguing to watch how these pieces moved as it was to listen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/tarek-atoui"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/tarek-atoui</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/christoph-b%C3%BCchel"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Barca
Nostra/Chris Büchel</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the more controversial exhibits in this year’s
Biennale, but also one of the most poignant. Barca Nostra is a shipwreck from a
disaster in the Sicilian channel in which between 700-1,100 people seeking
refuge from Libya were have believed to have perished. The ship appears ghostly
but almost ‘at home’ in its maritime setting of the Arsenale (where many boats
are docked) where it could be easily dismissed by those unaware of its history.
It is debatable on whether displaying this boat, associated with such tragedy
is tasteful or appropriate but I think its greater legacy in being a reminder and
political tool ‘for change’ to those whose lives were senselessly lost is
something which should not be ignored. In bringing this to the Biennale the
reality of what happened becomes more significant in current memory than
reading about it in a piece of journalism. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/jesse-darling"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Jesse
Darling</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unable to use their right arm due to a neurological disease,
Darling creates assemblages from ‘small, low-cost, everyday materials’. In
‘March of the Valedictorians’ red school chairs on impossibly long spindly legs
teeter precariously whilst supporting one-another as a whole group. Humorous
and playful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/zhanna-kadyrova"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Zhanna
Kadyrova</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Russian Constructivism meets Pop Art in Kadyrova’s ‘Market’
in which fruits, cheeses and meats are ‘for sale’ re-created from tiles and
concrete. The idea of ‘art as commodity’ is questioned as each item in this
market is sold under the currency of weight. My parents are and have both
worked in the fruit-trade all my life and so this piece has a personal
association that appealed to me. </span><br />
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/tavares-strachan"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Tavares
Strachan</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Robert’ is a neon sculpture representing the skeleton of first
African-American astronaut, Robert Henry Lawrence Jr who died in a training
accident in 1967. This piece is part of a body of work Strachan has made around
the story of Lawrence’s death in working in conjunction with SpaceX. The work
raises awareness of Lawrence’s achievements as the first African astronaut as
well as the racism encountered around the incident of his death and why,
figures such as Lawrence should not have remained invisible in history for this
long. Given the 50 years milestone since the moon landings, this collection of
work gains added timeliness that leaves a lasting impression.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/christian-marclay"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Christian
Marclay</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have been a fan of Marclay’s work since I first saw the
film, ‘The Clock’ in Plymouth’s ‘British Art Show 7’ 2011, in which 24 hours
worth of film clips create a real-time clock. If you love movies and like
collage then you will appreciate how entertaining it is trying to work out
where each clip has come from or guess what the next one will be. For the
Biennale Marclay presents, ’48 War Movies’ which are screened (with sound)
simultaneously as each film is layered on top of the other to create 48
borders. The sound is perhaps more disorientating than the image, as the
cacophony of noise is unsettling and chaotic as war itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/pics-from-the-biennial-part-1-1540588"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/pics-from-the-biennial-part-1-1540588</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/ghana"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">John
Akomfrah [Ghana]</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a three-channel film titled, ‘Four Nocturnes’, British
director, Akomfrah uses natural history and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>archived footage edited alongside shots of characters contemplating,
motionlessly. Unmistakably recognisable in its editing and beauty of
photography present the concept that humanities destruction of the natural
world is ultimately also a destruction of ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://www.lissongallery.com/news/john-akomfrah-presents-four-nocturnes-video-installation-at-venice-biennale"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.lissongallery.com/news/john-akomfrah-presents-four-nocturnes-video-installation-at-venice-biennale</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/grand-duchy-luxembourg"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Marco
Godinho [Grand Duchy of Luxembourg]</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hundreds of blank notebooks ‘sculpted’ by the artist’s hands
line a slope in the Grand Duchy of Luxemborg pavilion. Each one unique as its
page’s have been manipulated and made supple by the sea water in the
Mediterranean. ‘Written by Water’ is an exploration of ‘human learning and
remembering as a continuous process of writing, erasing and overwriting. As
with other works in the Biennale (referred to here) I am personally drawn to
work which appears to be simple, but has been created from someone noticing
something and then exploring it on a grand scale (in this case, almost
obsessively). I like the idea that a book soaked in the sea could become a
piece of sculpture as much as there is something mesmerizingly meditative about
watching these books being created in the accompanying film to this
installation. </span><br />
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/saudi-arabia"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Zahrah
Al Ghamdi [Saudi Arabia]</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">50,000 handmade leather ‘pods, line lit fabric walls in Al
Ghamdi’s immersive and interactive installation ‘After Illusion’. Viewers are
invited to touch and explore the work with their hands to seek out interactive
sounds triggered by placing a hand inside a correct pod. Leather being used as
the primary material relates to craft within Saudi Arabia and title from an
Arabic poem about ‘the struggle to remember home after being away for 20
years’. The other worldliness of this installation does go some-way to
achieving just that.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/india"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Gr
Iranna [India]</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the several artists exhibiting in the Indian pavilion
for this Biennale, Irana’s piece titled, ‘Naavu (We together)’ consists of worn
and altered padukas (wooden footwear) which line the walls. Each one uniquely
altered or adorned with objects (possibly from their previous owners) and
symbols that are significant of various spiritual connotations within Indian
history or culture. I have always liked objects, ephemera that tell a story of
its owner and I like the possible connotations and narratives that seeing these
shoes conjure. </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/philippines"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Mark
Justiniani [Philippines]</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The piece, ‘Island weather’ by Justiniani is a work that
must be experienced to be best understood. Viewers can step on top of a series
of clear-topped, island-shaped platforms containing objects housed by mirrors.
The effect is one of looking down to what appears to be infinity. Half a
ladder, a stack of papers are in fact the reality but when placed in these
mirrored containers appear, to the viewer standing above, to continue downwards
forever into a black endless nothingness below. It is genuinely quite
disconcerting but impressive at the same time. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/review/venice-biennale-2019-the-must-see-pavilions-in-the-arsenale"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/review/venice-biennale-2019-the-must-see-pavilions-in-the-arsenale</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span><br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gardini</span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOYFp_j0HyTiwfpl6mwITeLMdzqW2YkeSyeLfhyPIoP61HDyrnNsytNpPriEk6n_ag0kCpCbgKdB55SY_bszpptJJMYU_CHf5oyYsP13lW2Q3oMWYa-7XLrh0JpFjqguu5sjjCERTV2M/s1600/Biennale+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOYFp_j0HyTiwfpl6mwITeLMdzqW2YkeSyeLfhyPIoP61HDyrnNsytNpPriEk6n_ag0kCpCbgKdB55SY_bszpptJJMYU_CHf5oyYsP13lW2Q3oMWYa-7XLrh0JpFjqguu5sjjCERTV2M/s400/Biennale+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/tom%C3%A1s-saraceno"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Tomás
Saraceno</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Arachnomancy is performed in Saraceno’s ‘Web pavilion 7’
inspired by the Mabila Nggam divination practiced in Western and Central Africa
in which spider’s actions and webs are interpreted. The pavilion features
spider webs, tarot cards and divination readings. Aiming to use interactive
installations and ‘sustainable ways of inhabiting the environment’ to turn
audiences awareness to other species and systems. Again the joy for this work,
for me personally, is an idea I have already expressed, that this work is great
because spider’s webs are fascinating, the artist isn’t trying to compete with
that idea, merely notice and present it to a wider audience through the context
of art.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://universes.art/en/venice-biennale/2019/fast-tour-2/tomas-saraceno"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://universes.art/en/venice-biennale/2019/fast-tour-2/tomas-saraceno</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8AAbHkV2tSLrsmulDZonuVpZVXyp37ggOI3AERVmIgEOOjZTPS0eIMSBSejqQmR7d-1CO7bfD5FaVQQ5FN3DM8ymzk_1Ao7d-wse7p6eMHWuHv5kPDt8juJmrkl4Ewl4kMVGvrjhOsKk/s1600/Biennale+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1025" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8AAbHkV2tSLrsmulDZonuVpZVXyp37ggOI3AERVmIgEOOjZTPS0eIMSBSejqQmR7d-1CO7bfD5FaVQQ5FN3DM8ymzk_1Ao7d-wse7p6eMHWuHv5kPDt8juJmrkl4Ewl4kMVGvrjhOsKk/s400/Biennale+13.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/partecipants/sun-yuan-and-peng-yu%C2%A0"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Sun
Yuan and Peng Yu</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For anyone who routinely feels compelled to wipe all the
condensation off of steamed-up bathroom mirrors, the plight of Yuan and Yu’s
robotic arm that ends with a shovel as it attempts to scrape back an endlessly
encroaching red liquid to within a circular area will be highly relatable.
Mesmerising in its almost human/animal-like size the giant arm might be one of
the most videoed works in this year’s Biennale but it is also one of the most
compellingly watchable.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nnX7ym-fOuaZa0O2g7KKMYrHvMP3i7al8Poq4EUpI22Fo4SpCiDUEHi_PE_koG4gsdfBNp26MPzeS5ffkfY9DxAIFJyDe3Wb9CjISxLQg7UrfsVVOuJQnT64rsxV1OZrQmr4S4vbEmE/s1600/Biennale+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nnX7ym-fOuaZa0O2g7KKMYrHvMP3i7al8Poq4EUpI22Fo4SpCiDUEHi_PE_koG4gsdfBNp26MPzeS5ffkfY9DxAIFJyDe3Wb9CjISxLQg7UrfsVVOuJQnT64rsxV1OZrQmr4S4vbEmE/s400/Biennale+5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/denmark"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Larissa
Sansour [Denmark]</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Denmark pavilion’s dystopian sci-fi film offering titled,
‘Heirloom’ ruminates on life, memory and identity after ecological disaster.
Shot in black and white its otherworldliness and themes such as nostalgia,
explored reminded me of Tarkovsky’s, ‘Stalker’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://www.idoart.dk/kalender/larissa-sansour-heirloom-danish-pavilion-la-biennale-di-venezia-2019"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.idoart.dk/kalender/larissa-sansour-heirloom-danish-pavilion-la-biennale-di-venezia-2019</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gZ5paAM4T0OEsbc3CAY06HQQcGjtI1KDoZ7qBTaILuYCVGuybaAFqsX_Zb3aMfnPHFv4irs2-tbfGclxUj0Hy0RqnEbO3z3D2XrPyEBRGY5jJ925huGIok31T66qhDKEyF9BzMZ9u-0/s1600/Biennale+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1024" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gZ5paAM4T0OEsbc3CAY06HQQcGjtI1KDoZ7qBTaILuYCVGuybaAFqsX_Zb3aMfnPHFv4irs2-tbfGclxUj0Hy0RqnEbO3z3D2XrPyEBRGY5jJ925huGIok31T66qhDKEyF9BzMZ9u-0/s400/Biennale+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/japan"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Motoyuki
Shitamichi [Japan]</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">An architect, an artist and a composer are the creative
disciplines behind the Japanese pavilion installation that tells the story of
‘Cosmo-Eggs’. Essentially the work consists of photos of boulders, sound and an
inflatable egg-yolk yellow central seating area connected by a series of sound
cables, like umbilical cords. I struggled to see the point of all of this until
I had read the allegory on the wall (see below) which helped contextualise the
work and was a refreshing insight as an alternative creation-myth for the
Japanese islands. For me personally it reaffirmed that the Biennale doesn’t
have to always be a looking-forward or comment on current life but can be an
exploration of traditions and storytelling, re-imagined for new audiences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“A long time ago, sun
and moon descended to earth and laid a single egg. A snake came and swallowed
the egg, and so sun and moon visited earth once more to leave behind three eggs
that they hid: one inside earth, one inside stone, and one inside bamboo. The
eggs soon hatched, and born were the ancestors of three islands. Once grown up,
they each built a small boat and travelled to different islands: one in the
East, one in the West, and one in the North. The tribes of these islands
visited each other by boat, and despite occasional fights, they overcame
pestilence and poor harvests to live in peace for a long time. Each island
passed down its own language, its own music, its own traditions, its own
festivals. They each possessed the power to speak with the animals: the earth
tribe spoke with the worms and the insects, the stone tribe with the snakes,
and the bamboo tribe with the birds.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Image sourced from: </span><a href="http://myartguides.com/national-participations/japan-2019/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://myartguides.com/national-participations/japan-2019/</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJZxm5O_Rt3MAeapKnno7h-aVPkaWt8vg4ooRvNS2-lr8szU3zSCb9kA3UA2I0k7mSOCJA3atoWOg6UR7bue-gcTH4KTGJ1lkavIHiqBuc2HcKgKbrG-KMn7okbB3Rw_KpaeA1PjBvdE/s1600/Biennale+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJZxm5O_Rt3MAeapKnno7h-aVPkaWt8vg4ooRvNS2-lr8szU3zSCb9kA3UA2I0k7mSOCJA3atoWOg6UR7bue-gcTH4KTGJ1lkavIHiqBuc2HcKgKbrG-KMn7okbB3Rw_KpaeA1PjBvdE/s400/Biennale+14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/poland"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Roman
Stańczak [Poland]</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">An inside-out luxury aircraft is the central piece to this
year’s Polish pavilion. In reversing the aircraft the artist is attempting to
criticise the ‘rich elite’ and inequalities of capitalism. Somewhat ironically,
if this piece, as ‘art’ (and sold as art) then feeds back into the rich elite
it is trying to challenge. All of that aside it is a fascinating piece to
explore visually and out of curiosity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Venice Pavilion </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A mysterious but compelling queue of people beckons closer
inspection of the Venice pavilion, revealing an embodied experience experienced
by no more than 8 people at a time. Stepping from the heat of the Gardini into
what is a life-size, inflatable tube with water underneath is a remarkably welcome
and cooling experience (not to mention slightly hap-hazard) as it is basically
like walking on the world’s longest and biggest waterbed (or imagining of
intestinal tract)! It is an unashamed spectacle in which the viewer becomes
participant in its existence as a piece of art.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWBxY01IarqxVqpOD3_tcvjkh2cz6hXQtjt67jipnF2kCyWguU67BYRyLtE6QSrcvnj5mLH8tGblATSZgNDxbJfAfHJHaHm9CVyVLBMVIomp-ZUk_6QVLpl_JQVkGBnApSdj5pGKbNSn0/s1600/Biennale+17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1494" data-original-width="1600" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWBxY01IarqxVqpOD3_tcvjkh2cz6hXQtjt67jipnF2kCyWguU67BYRyLtE6QSrcvnj5mLH8tGblATSZgNDxbJfAfHJHaHm9CVyVLBMVIomp-ZUk_6QVLpl_JQVkGBnApSdj5pGKbNSn0/s400/Biennale+17.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/national-participations/israel"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Aya
Ben Ron [Israel]</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Historically speaking, the Israeli pavilion has always been
one of my favourites out of the four Biennale’s I have attended. This year’s
offering may not be up there with my favourites but it definitely made me think.
‘Field Hospital’ is an interactive art ‘institution’ established by the artist,
Aya Ben Ron, with the aims to ‘provide a space in which silenced voices can be
heard and social injustices can be seen’. Looking and acting like a ‘real’
hospital the pavilion is transformed into a waiting room where viewers wait to
be called to experience ‘care-kits’ upstairs which include special
video/seating chairs showing recorded testimonies of social injustices and
Safe-Unit areas in which participants can scream in sound proof booths. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Offsite</span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhyhfn17wapfDjNt7orEZHF29X8LompN1jM-4HXRs-Q6cUL5zYllqV4BZBie6ZqTFzD92P1oYu_hTt7OCFOKHUkuob2VFRdW98dnW7NaTLdfUoN8CPbZw-xrPNsKL9i1jT9uPaPtEshQ/s1600/Biennale+20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhyhfn17wapfDjNt7orEZHF29X8LompN1jM-4HXRs-Q6cUL5zYllqV4BZBie6ZqTFzD92P1oYu_hTt7OCFOKHUkuob2VFRdW98dnW7NaTLdfUoN8CPbZw-xrPNsKL9i1jT9uPaPtEshQ/s400/Biennale+20.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.carpentersworkshopgallery.com/exhibitions/dysfunctional/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Dysfunctional
–Ca’d’Oro</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you see one offsite exhibition during this year’s
Biennale, Dysfunctional should be it. Featuring 21 artists from the Carpenter’s
Workshop Gallery who have made work in response to the architecture of the Ca’d’Oro
and its collection of Renaissance art. It is refreshing in its lack of pretentiousness
as it seems to celebrate really well-made, visual but still thought-provoking
pieces as a much welcomed break from the depth of intensity needed in digesting
many of the other Biennale shows. Shown here: Maarten Bass 'Real Time XL' (2019) a recorded twelve hour performance involving painting, removing and repainting hands on a clock-face. And the Vernoeven Twins 'Moments of Happiness' (2019) glass giant bubbles.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://phi-centre.com/en/event/phi-in-venice-en/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Renata
Morales, Invasor –Ca’Ressonico Gallery</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Self-portraits of the artist and 70 gloss painted-used tyres make the
components of Mexican artist, Morales’ exhibition at the Ca Ressonico Gallery.
This assembled collage of stuff which includes dinosaurs (why not) aims to,
“challenge our perceptions of texture, touch, beauty, solace and violence”. I
struggled to engage with how all of these elements came together, personally, but from a
purely aesthetic and debatably shallow perspective enjoyed seeing so many
coloured tyres as an installation.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4i7jGLEcu_9tCByHsK7dKep9Hn2VYTr0xuy6C6JK3ETB6ZwxOjIsnd32N-lv5MSYCaK31sCuNlopai_ovNd2l1u6WHtoHZrLad3nYyac-bHFFmeVbi2ue_hI62OXRvdsb_J5zMZtgmk/s1600/Biennale+19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1393" data-original-width="1600" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4i7jGLEcu_9tCByHsK7dKep9Hn2VYTr0xuy6C6JK3ETB6ZwxOjIsnd32N-lv5MSYCaK31sCuNlopai_ovNd2l1u6WHtoHZrLad3nYyac-bHFFmeVbi2ue_hI62OXRvdsb_J5zMZtgmk/s400/Biennale+19.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Eila Yenlysarja –Various locations</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Biennale’s best kept secret (one you won’t find in any
of the guidebooks)! Yenlysarja’s weathered, textured surfaces and palimpsests
materialise themselves around the city in various locations. A celebration of
beauty and purity in surface and form. I could look at these all day long!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Biennale can
be seen across locations in Venice until November 24<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Previous Posts about the Venice Biennale can be read here:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2017 - </span><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2017/07/viva-venezia.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2017/07/viva-venezia.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2015 - </span><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-always-believed-in-futures.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-always-believed-in-futures.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2013 - </span><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2013/11/venice-biennale-2013.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2013/11/venice-biennale-2013.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Images (except where specified) and text copyright of
Natalie Parsley ©</span></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-86589078866705622932019-05-11T06:29:00.000-07:002019-05-11T06:29:00.214-07:00Catch the Chicken!<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpibCoywv8T26X7sAqNfKmvkfbWTXvXiDMCblgwE18cT6UofLOCb-Pp3HfLVloVcHaK5Ezq2WAx5lUWWZLlLqdrU-K58Ts5u9adK_P2v2voXPyVPOD_XjYdcKkmzgzZAZTwUHWpP2zF_c/s1600/Wright+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpibCoywv8T26X7sAqNfKmvkfbWTXvXiDMCblgwE18cT6UofLOCb-Pp3HfLVloVcHaK5Ezq2WAx5lUWWZLlLqdrU-K58Ts5u9adK_P2v2voXPyVPOD_XjYdcKkmzgzZAZTwUHWpP2zF_c/s400/Wright+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Nicholas Wright Ceramic Wall Pieces (early 1900s -present)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The prolifically produced and charming animal-influenced
ceramics of Birmingham born artist, Nicholas Wright [1956- ] have been a staple viewing of my visits to
Spike Island studios ever since I can remember. I learnt recently that he has
been at the studios in Bristol from the very start in the 80s when a community
of artists worked together on site. It is therefore really quite surprising that
the current exhibition showcasing over a hundred of his works (produced over
the last thirty years) is the first time his work has been shown on this scale
in the UK. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBfxN_IWkZSjlknfR7Q-gCkRHyJFMNDyuO7RIT2zwiClJKTG_o1f3niRzRoCBURDq0AVaiM4SzYsTlSJSMchvo3nJuNuuzsTBim87TbHDOu3Eeoy7uwf1nDcl0jF6mnvRmh1gEtMjql0/s1600/Wright+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1600" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBfxN_IWkZSjlknfR7Q-gCkRHyJFMNDyuO7RIT2zwiClJKTG_o1f3niRzRoCBURDq0AVaiM4SzYsTlSJSMchvo3nJuNuuzsTBim87TbHDOu3Eeoy7uwf1nDcl0jF6mnvRmh1gEtMjql0/s400/Wright+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicholas Wright Ceramic Wall Pieces [detail]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘A Chance to Look at Chicken’ is just that; chicken,
birds, cats, mice and cows are the subjects of this unusual menagerie of animal
representations in ceramic. Each one unique and situated within a crafted border
of fauna. Influenced by religious iconography and pierced forms from ancient bronze-age
metal work, these individual pieces have been designed in a dome-like shape mimicking
a boss, which one learns, is a ‘decorative keystone used in the vaulting of
medieval architecture’. They have a simple-looking nativity, imaginative or
folk-like appearance which gives these pieces their individual character and,
like most things of this nature, is deceptive of the skill and craft involved
in producing them. In their perceived simplicity they reminded me of Picasso’s
animal ceramics, specifically his birds of which I caught by circumstance at
the Louisiana gallery in Copenhagen last year. It had me thinking that there
seems <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>to be a quiet joy and elegance in sculpting
something from imagination and in its simplest of forms, which is pleasing to
the eye and more reminiscent of the actual feeling of happiness or feeling of ‘lightness’
on the glimpse of fleeting moment of seeing a bird than the laboured, detailed representations
I tend to render in my own work. One is an intent on capturing the nature/character
of the animal being represented, the other a more intense study of what it
looks like. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Despite Wright’s representations
being created in heavy fixed ceramic there is a transience in their depiction
that is perhaps more lifelike than the static observational nature of my own. It
is an interesting variation that makes me question what I am looking to convey
or achieve in my own work.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aw0t1MxJghdM4qXip5Xb4TsxLVWWG8XYJXngQ1VcIKLgn2c4NDcKK2iemxHImSWFG7BzKZjBoGuMC5f3eLhO3thfvBpVeQD39KE5lFmZiPjffoyqpg88lTqLoJY5vbq0kQ2MB0Z17Cg/s1600/b2a253d4efff1f3bf2e00c7c500f5b46--picasso-art-pablo-picasso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="709" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aw0t1MxJghdM4qXip5Xb4TsxLVWWG8XYJXngQ1VcIKLgn2c4NDcKK2iemxHImSWFG7BzKZjBoGuMC5f3eLhO3thfvBpVeQD39KE5lFmZiPjffoyqpg88lTqLoJY5vbq0kQ2MB0Z17Cg/s320/b2a253d4efff1f3bf2e00c7c500f5b46--picasso-art-pablo-picasso.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picasso Bird (Dove) 1953</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Displayed together as a huge set, one can really appreciate
the earthy colours of the glazes, mark-making and pierced-out shapes, defined
and distinguishable like stencils or silhouettes against the white walls of
Spike’s gallery space. Like Noah’s ark, some great animal archive or shrine
they work well together as one big piece even if they were perhaps never
intended to be shown in this way. Elsewhere a large ceramic chicken, from which
the show derives its name, is displayed on a plinth alongside some of Wright’s
drawings which are a useful addition revealing some of how he thinks about the web-like botanical fauna and mark-making present in the ceramic pieces.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDJ4mphG8up4Eg67VbfXSYip2LirGcV2E3swYAXvcL6RRN2cfTWPF8w_-umLIjZ5CE3zEZ5e2D_FizUJr4KJXKoOP9OEEowm63UKZSMS-73AtSzkKC8uXKReKixS0tPFdBXISn4ThwLQ/s1600/Wright+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1600" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDJ4mphG8up4Eg67VbfXSYip2LirGcV2E3swYAXvcL6RRN2cfTWPF8w_-umLIjZ5CE3zEZ5e2D_FizUJr4KJXKoOP9OEEowm63UKZSMS-73AtSzkKC8uXKReKixS0tPFdBXISn4ThwLQ/s400/Wright+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Nicholas Wright Chicken Drawings (2018)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The pierced forms within the ceramics is echoed in an
early work made by Wright (not shown here) when he noticed mice eating his paper in the studio.
Wright used soup to paint onto the paper, the resulting work made from where
the mice had nibbled at the soupy areas to create a stencil of sorts almost
acts as an accidental precursor to the pierced forms of the ceramic work to
come. The element of play and humour also present in the later works. I hope that Wright continues to use Spike as a studio for many years to come,
but it is worth having the opportunity to see his work with the space it
deserves outside the clutter of the studio. Visitors should seize the chance to
look at chicken whilst they still can!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nicholas Wright’s
A Chance to Look at Chicken is on at Spike Island until 16<sup>th</sup> June
2019</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.spikeisland.org.uk/programme/exhibitions/nicholas-wright/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.spikeisland.org.uk/programme/exhibitions/nicholas-wright/</span></a> </span></b></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-1245745874004444042019-03-30T07:31:00.000-07:002019-03-30T07:31:53.266-07:00Stripped but not bare<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I felt that these galleries should somehow be returned to what they
once had been, halls for monumental sculpture. Places where people could come
and wonder at the sheer physicality of sculptural objects.” - Mike Nelson</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlX0_gFFi2lugV9o3atgq6uccgF9zUf3et8EqPXPdNqG09O-ya2GUerlXNMYQvZgS9i5XcoAYpxJKjtd7oXj7JXr6zy5wVu1Q9GZ6j-LPPailfrNNLltphov-YX-6N_wVb3O_JCZYphPk/s1600/Nelson+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlX0_gFFi2lugV9o3atgq6uccgF9zUf3et8EqPXPdNqG09O-ya2GUerlXNMYQvZgS9i5XcoAYpxJKjtd7oXj7JXr6zy5wVu1Q9GZ6j-LPPailfrNNLltphov-YX-6N_wVb3O_JCZYphPk/s1600/Nelson+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1600" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlX0_gFFi2lugV9o3atgq6uccgF9zUf3et8EqPXPdNqG09O-ya2GUerlXNMYQvZgS9i5XcoAYpxJKjtd7oXj7JXr6zy5wVu1Q9GZ6j-LPPailfrNNLltphov-YX-6N_wVb3O_JCZYphPk/s320/Nelson+5.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nothing in Mike Nelson’s [1967- ] latest installation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Asset Strippers’</i>, located in the
vast, stone-carved walls of Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries is trying to be
art. It simply just is. Former industrial-sized knitting machines, a digger
bucket, a cement mixer, scales, a lathe and a hay-turner are amongst a series
of abandoned machines from salvage yards and online auctions of company
liquidators, which have been collected and presented at the Tate as sculptural
objects. Woodwork benches complete with vices, drawers and remnants of string and
detergent bottles become the plinths on which many of these ‘ready-mades’ reside. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Each piece of machinery is a remnant fallen into neglect and disuse, symptomatic of
the shift in ways of manufacture and decrease from manual industries to service
ones. I confess that I don’t recognise what the majority of the machines here
were even for! I am probably not alone in this acknowledging that there is also
something unexpectedly exciting about trying to imagine or ‘work-out’ what the
purpose of these things once was (or perhaps could be!). Like Francis Picabia’s paintings of imaginary
Surrealist/Dada-esque machines, there is also the slightly more obvious connection to
Duchamp’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Bride Stripped Bare by her
Batchelors, Even’ </i>in the way these mechanical parts have been arranged as
though for a new use (for which they had previously not been intended) and
collaged together. In one piece telegraph poles lay horizontally atop red, blue
and yellow tarpaulin on which supports a circular tube (from possibly a drain)
of sorts; balanced together in a sort-of ‘found-objects’ version of an Anthony
Caro sculpture which can be seen also in the Tate Britain only a few rooms
away. Nearby a former hay-turner is presented so that its’ turning
blades take on the appearance of four golden suns or flowers; an association
that I feel, relates to the dry sunny days during which the hay-turner would
have been put to use. My mother commented that this machine reminded her of the one her parents used on the farm in Somerset and that she had never before looked upon or seen it in this way (as sculpture).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQQR2P0GDtIkJXzY7pcI5rDi2joPLM93Kb_2jnLBHAWjHSv8Sh2gB98CAJ69LA0TtzZIxJhOxFPaSwotu2trQydpGMHpvUdZ6G2XwmdaqP42x7qK5MEDWqYWjd3ocPz-f1ABXnbw8n5M/s1600/Nelson+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQQR2P0GDtIkJXzY7pcI5rDi2joPLM93Kb_2jnLBHAWjHSv8Sh2gB98CAJ69LA0TtzZIxJhOxFPaSwotu2trQydpGMHpvUdZ6G2XwmdaqP42x7qK5MEDWqYWjd3ocPz-f1ABXnbw8n5M/s400/Nelson+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Formally and aesthetically speaking there is much to be
gleaned from looking at all of this. Graffitied, worn and stained surfaces,
flaking paint; artificial metallic blues and bright reds against natural woody
browns and oil-stained metals. Boxy squares, circles, stacks and lines from
threads and strings still connected in the knitting machines all make for a
rich list of sculptural criteria. Though the question of whether we are being
asked to appreciate these machines as sculptural objects or to look upon them
as relics from the past (or both) is really where this piece becomes both
socially significant as well as aesthetic. The knitting machines are
reminiscent of the ones Nelson’s family worked on whilst growing up in the East
Midlands, now in his early fifties, Nelson and many of his generation and
before will have seen a broader picture, perhaps than myself, in just how much Britain has significantly changed from the
industrial era to more service-based ones. Doors from a NHS hospital and wood
from a former army barracks act as visual and functional barriers to divide and
section the individual components of this installation into curated parts of one
bigger, immersive piece; they also unintentionally or not comment on the value
of both art and the materials it uses and the value or shift in value we have
as a society towards institutions like the NHS and manual industries generally.
For me, these make-shift walls help contain the unmistakable smell of oil from
all of the machinery that is reminiscent of my grandfather’s workshop on the
farm. I am utterly bias in this whole post from projects I have previously done
on car engines and farming tools! </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi15nt-ByRNZoLUglpNY8MsHW9xqa_03nb81sc1tziqq1h33-dpkhyphenhyphenIq9rdkgZza7LrXdJwJGd09AZb9zfH-pTE2UqoQSmSepDSd1zlwJCyrnSoteCQMxmo9_nDf5trRbK61giZocb-fQo/s1600/Nelson+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1197" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi15nt-ByRNZoLUglpNY8MsHW9xqa_03nb81sc1tziqq1h33-dpkhyphenhyphenIq9rdkgZza7LrXdJwJGd09AZb9zfH-pTE2UqoQSmSepDSd1zlwJCyrnSoteCQMxmo9_nDf5trRbK61giZocb-fQo/s400/Nelson+2.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a previous work, titled <em>‘Coral Reef’</em>, seen at the Tate
in 2000 Nelson similarly used reclaimed materials to create a
movie-set-like-labyrinth of rooms. Each sparsely lit by naked-bulbs and grubby reclaimed timber
to create a slightly seedy or sinister spaces, a gallery reception area, a
taxi-office, a heroin-den; each with a story awaiting to happen, they are suspenseful
and the closet experience I have ever come to like being inside an Edward
Hopper painting; their commonality being the absence of people. There is
something similarly haunting about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The
Asset Strippers’</i> and as the name suggests it is after the factory has
closed, the people who once knew the purpose of these great beast-like contraptions
have since left along with their stories and their skills to work these
machines. All is quiet. All is now still. It seems that in stripping these places into their bare commodities
we have also stripped or lost something of the people, stories and time in
which they previously existed. It is a proverbial ghost-ship but in being reclaimed
as sculpture, as ‘art’ and displayed in the Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain
where historically ‘treasures of the empire’ were seen, they are memorials to this
past heritage whose concept of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘value’
is in-turn put into question. What once were stripped assets are now reassembled art. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mike Nelson –The
Asset Strippers at Tate Britain until October 6th 2019<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/mike-nelson-asset-strippers"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/mike-nelson-asset-strippers</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-50057379081093255182019-02-23T13:46:00.001-08:002019-02-23T13:46:07.976-08:00I can see clearly now<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBiK-ogFs_GkPzqHIpePBvFIPASrA0XFyaoRJndi2vMex0rhXL5zJbblthdy_kP-TTB0h7FlB3mnL8xBym5bGe94NmbLK-QHZwVl7m_1SrfRjPcpZ4BvlksxvWB3ZuyAzNMPBe068z7c/s1600/Ruskin+Brick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1145" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBiK-ogFs_GkPzqHIpePBvFIPASrA0XFyaoRJndi2vMex0rhXL5zJbblthdy_kP-TTB0h7FlB3mnL8xBym5bGe94NmbLK-QHZwVl7m_1SrfRjPcpZ4BvlksxvWB3ZuyAzNMPBe068z7c/s640/Ruskin+Brick.jpg" width="444" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">*Study of a piece of Brick, to show Cleavage in Burned Clay
(1871) </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Watercolour and bodycolour over graphite on wove paper</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">One-hundred and forty-eight years have passed since its
creation but I do not think I may ever see again a more exquisitely rendered
and divinely detailed observation of a piece of brick than the one painted by
John Ruskin in 1871, currently on display as part of an exhibition of Ruskin’s
art and influences/collection<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>at Two
Temple Place, London. Covered in a moss/lichen this humble depiction of a piece
of brick, so seemingly small and insignificant in real life, once drawn becomes
the object of speculation. Victorian
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Artist, art critic, educator, social
thinker and true polymath’</i>, it was Ruskin [1819-1900] himself that, <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“...urged his audience to ‘Remember that the most beautiful things in
the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance’.”</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: xx-small;"> (Cooper, 2019, p29)</span></i></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">What could be more relevant a statement today, in a
society in which we are so busy, so consumerist focused, working and ‘stressed’
that we are increasingly having to be reminded to stop, consider and be more
‘present’ and active in being more aware. In an exhibition that celebrates the
bicentenary of Ruskin’s life it is fascinating and hugely relevant that it
should focus on this exact topic, stated in the catalogue itself, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“This is therefore not so much an exhibition of art as an examination
of how Ruskin used imagery to help develop education and wellbeing”</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: xx-small;">(Pullen, 2019, p13)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Long before the term, ‘wellbeing’ as we know it today had
been incepted, Ruskin was encouraging people to look and notice the world
around them. Drawing and painting for him were a form of enquiry to understand and
appreciate nature, architecture better, how the landscape effects us and we in
turn have an impact on the landscape in which we walk through, live on, utilise
and work on. In some ways it was a moralistic view on the power of art,<i> "To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one."<span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span></i> Contrary to much of the work at the time it was not even
necessarily about capturing an aesthetic form of ‘beauty’, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“For Ruskin, beauty was not neat; it could be savage, grotesque,
changeful, on the point of bursting into full bloom, but never florid or
decadent. He offered a new way of experiencing and interacting.” </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">(Cooper, 2019, p</span><span style="font-family: calibri;">4) </span></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTOZjtkMBsneeUuSsB0Mdrr6kGzqgiLDMqyHLixCchBR2-BJnZAxfJqmHN3wuQAvfR71xbLkCO5dE9ZMfrCaJ1al7vridJjB56RK4ld1k5fi8D8O1JNl21z87UjDOBHTHihzBHfKMcV8w/s1600/IMG_20190218_133510122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTOZjtkMBsneeUuSsB0Mdrr6kGzqgiLDMqyHLixCchBR2-BJnZAxfJqmHN3wuQAvfR71xbLkCO5dE9ZMfrCaJ1al7vridJjB56RK4ld1k5fi8D8O1JNl21z87UjDOBHTHihzBHfKMcV8w/s400/IMG_20190218_133510122.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Inside Two Temple Place</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: calibri;">I could have lingered in the busy room of Two Temple
place for ages looking at this piece of brick, its variation of surfaces,
colour, textures and detail. It is the embodiment of what the term, Romanticism
means to me; the ‘greatness’ observed in something naturally occurring<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>on something as mundane or potentially
overlooked as a lump of brick. The relationship between nature and the
man-made, the brick is made of earth (clay) but is now a man-made thing, the
moss is taking over the brick as it decays and returns back to its ‘natural’
state. It becomes its own <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">miniature planet/ecosystem. It is amazing how this one drawing both </span>connects with Ruskin’s appreciation for both
architecture and nature but also his opinions that he wrote and spoke about on
the importance of the hand-made, understanding where things ‘came-from’ or how
they were created and how the rise of capitalism threatens to undermine the rights
of workers and value in what is made/produced. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I confess to not having really known a huge amount about
Ruskin prior to this exhibition and whilst I claim to be no expert it is
interesting to see that for many of his ideas it seems to me that in many ways,
he was a man ahead of his time. Though it is hard to ignore or write about
Ruskin without acknowledging that for all his influence in the arts
(Pre-Raphaelites, Arts and Crafts movement for example) he himself was a
strange and troubled, the speculation that he never consummated his marriage, his
controversial fascination with young girls/women and prickly nature are strange
but to some extent are perhaps symptomatic of his child-like sense of
fascination and obsession for understanding the workings of things that
consumed or were at the forefront of his existence. Later in life at the loss
of his family and cousin he suffered a mental breakdown from which he never
really recovered.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2H5TBTrTCAr87E-4mXiOf_ygVtq7hbMWHEM-zMrKCtj0U0KtvADIfLc9XziQc5FpWLb_BOIDkkzc0Wfpm8pxuP0ab-KsltJHtkaEKPqNUB5ofPLXqvXM1WH7jXU4aRp3sFox_zq2kwe4/s1600/IMG_20190218_134115698.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2H5TBTrTCAr87E-4mXiOf_ygVtq7hbMWHEM-zMrKCtj0U0KtvADIfLc9XziQc5FpWLb_BOIDkkzc0Wfpm8pxuP0ab-KsltJHtkaEKPqNUB5ofPLXqvXM1WH7jXU4aRp3sFox_zq2kwe4/s400/IMG_20190218_134115698.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">Studies
of Birds (assorted artists) from the Ruskin exhibition at Two Temple Place,
London</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: calibri;">Within the exhibition at Two Temple Place there are examples
of Ruskin’s work alongside that of artists such as Turner whose depictions of
landscape, weather and nature had a significant influence on Ruskin who sought
to not just capture the ‘likeness’ of something through drawing it but use
painting/drawing as a way of understanding the atmosphere, the phenomena of
what it actually felt like to be in that place i.e. how do you recreate the
sensation/the likeness of the wetness of water in a painting of a seascape? Where
does water from a mountain stream flow down to, where is it from (he was
interested particularly in geology)? There are also numerous drawings of
architecture, particularly of Venice, where Ruskin wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Stones of Venice’</i> [1851-3] including a huge painting by John
Wharlton Bunney of the Basilica in San Marco square [1877-1882]. Ruskin’s own
work and pieces he collected by other artists were donated to the Museum of
Sheffield, founded by Ruskin in 1875, as a place where metalworkers could see
places such as Venice, that they otherwise would never have been able to see.
It was this kind of philanthropy and criticism of capitalism that prompted
Ghandi to take Ruskin’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Unto this last’</i>
[1860] as one of his text’s for transforming society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvXULG5ZQbbhoguW0nLIVzSFSIvyH07XFIc2Up4y6CGsy_e2fnYVcTBVpGinED9NAJjrbg7KIcWan_3uzTap_lu66rgvJKbiVWeGfVTVetsb7llAM_DBEbbvimUHZRLnRq1_pBrQCzM4/s1600/Study_of_a_Peacock%2527s_Breast_Feather.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1008" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvXULG5ZQbbhoguW0nLIVzSFSIvyH07XFIc2Up4y6CGsy_e2fnYVcTBVpGinED9NAJjrbg7KIcWan_3uzTap_lu66rgvJKbiVWeGfVTVetsb7llAM_DBEbbvimUHZRLnRq1_pBrQCzM4/s400/Study_of_a_Peacock%2527s_Breast_Feather.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
*Study of a Peacock’s Breast Feather (1873)</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Set in a neo-gothic mansion, it is impossible to fail to
notice how glaringly appropriate Two Temple Place is as venue for this
exhibition. It is worth seeing for the outside stonework (complete with
gargoyles) and inside, mahogany-clad walls and stained-glass windows alone.
Upstairs is a wall dedicated to images of birds by the likes of Audubon, Turner,
Edward Lear, Henry Stacey Marks and others including Ruskin himself. Here a
study of a peacock’s breast feather by Ruskin is another painfully beautiful
reminder of how the beauty of the whole can be told in one single feather so
intently and forensically drawn. This drawing is realistic but isn’t about
showing off a technical level of skill, as such but more about the
inquisitiveness that drawing and looking at drawings creates. Many of Ruskin’s
drawings were unfinished because they were working drawings rather than about
creating ‘finished works of art’. A lot of this echoes my own <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/search?q=drawing" target="_blank">thoughts about drawing </a>and how I use it, personally as both a way of observing or better
understanding something more closely but I also use it as a way of escaping and
distancing from myself so that all the thoughts and worries one may have become
lost in all one’s focus and attention being on the ‘thing’ that is being drawn/looked
at. Personally, I am a life-time convert into the benefits of an art education
to provide the ability to see intrigue and beauty in the world which is why I
still have the need to draw.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">In addition to this exhibition I read a succinct new book
to coincide with the bicentenary by Research Curator, Suzanne Fagence Cooper,
who writes an excellent account of the themes, ideas and teachings in Ruskin’s
life have had and continue to have resonance with the present. The following
eight sentences taken from the book, offering an insight into why he is still
relevant <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Cooper, 2019, p8/9)</span>;</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">the ways that ‘hand, head and heart’ can work
together</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">how drawing makes us notice the overlooked</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">what stories the buildings around us can tell us
about the people who made them, and live in them now</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">how we can travel with more care through the
landscape, walking and thinking, observing the clouds, or the earth beneath our
feet</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">our struggles with love, and with the loss of
the people and things we love</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">different responses to our own mental frailty,
and the anxieties of others</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">possibilities for working more effectively, and
more fairly</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">above all, how we can keep learning, whether we
are young or old, in small ways and in great tumultuous revelations</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I think the works by Ruskin in the exhibition at Two Temple
Place compliments Cooper’s observations quite accurately. For all the artistic delights
in this exhibition an unexpected highlight comes in the form of a colourful collection
of minerals from Ruskin’s museum in Sheffield and are a fitting reminder of one
of Ruskin’s more memorable quotes, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“you
will never love art well until you love what she mirrors better.”<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (Pullen, 2019, p37)</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing’ </i>is on
at Two Temple Place (for FREE) until April 22<sup>nd</sup> 2019</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/john-ruskin/"><span style="color: blue;">https://twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/john-ruskin/</span></a></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘To See Clearly: Why Ruskin</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Matters’</i> by Suzanne Fagence Cooper is
available to buy wherever fine books are sold</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: xx-small;">*Images sourced from: <a href="http://ruskin.ashmolean.org/collection/8979/object/14197"><span style="color: blue;">http://ruskin.ashmolean.org/collection/8979/object/14197</span></a>
and <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Study_of_a_Peacock%27s_Breast_Feather.jpg"><span style="color: blue;">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Study_of_a_Peacock%27s_Breast_Feather.jpg</span></a> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">1</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">Cooper, S. F. 2019. To See Clearly: Why Ruskin
Matters. Great Britain. Quercus. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">2</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;">Pullen, L (2019) The Power of Seeing. Great
Britain. Two Temple Place</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-79731017599115099442019-01-27T12:22:00.001-08:002019-01-27T12:22:31.063-08:00A thing of beauty...<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">A thing of beauty
is a joy forever,</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Its loveliness
increases it will never</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Pass into
nothingness...<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-Keats</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Maybe we all need a little joy in our lives every now and
then? That question is largely rhetorical. Maybe I am getting older and am more
conscious about what is happening politically in the world but in my lifetime,
I do not remember a time as wrought as the one we are living in now; for that
reason and the colder, darker winter days, I think that we need things that are
inherently uplifting to compensate. And it is ‘joy’ that is the resonating
theme present in the work and literally in the accompanying text, mentioned not
once but several times, which describes the work of Albert Irvin [1922-2015] whose
epic sized paintings are on display alongside his prints, early paintings and
works by abstract expressionist painters (who influenced him) in an exhibition
on at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRCar2J21SZ0Jd5SqEbZCAYGUyzedZGkFIAroOsh6z_5Ar24drwZTo14tS5kwknHMR-uQBz7Vm3h2vqpUwl0xaOvJiZsErrgAAqf8wfA98cAvHQ-xhspRtYGveXwy0hN-_RaGEOl9vp0/s1600/Irvin+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRCar2J21SZ0Jd5SqEbZCAYGUyzedZGkFIAroOsh6z_5Ar24drwZTo14tS5kwknHMR-uQBz7Vm3h2vqpUwl0xaOvJiZsErrgAAqf8wfA98cAvHQ-xhspRtYGveXwy0hN-_RaGEOl9vp0/s400/Irvin+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Albert Irvin -Northcote (1989) and Rosetta (2012) Acrylic on canvas at the RWA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Text in the catalogue aside, the effect of walking into
the gallery containing large-scale works radiating with colour, huge, clean
sweeping brush-marks in dynamic strokes and patchwork quilt-like shapes, has as an immediate impact on the senses. Oranges, pinks,
reds next to greens; complementary colours zinging and dancing from left to
right in an assortment of shapes, daubs, dots and strokes that, I defy, almost
regardless of one’s personal taste in art, not to widen their eyes in
reaction to confronting a room full of Irvin’s paintings. Colour is incredibly
emotive and perhaps more-so in the winter when we are faced with less of it on
a daily existence. Personally, I found the first room of the RWA exhibition to
be joyous for that reason. Although I am interested at analysing whether it was
a joy because of the colours in the paintings or whether that sense
of joy comes from what Irvin has done with colour? It is probably a combination
of both, but part of me wondered if there was an element of the Duchampian
ready-made to how some of the Abstract Expressionist painters used colour.
Barnett Newman and Rothko weren’t so much creating ‘red’ as though we had never
seen it, as they were presenting ‘red’, a colour, for what it is. Attempting to
give space or volume to something which exists but maybe we never fully notice
or experience (similar to that of Duchamp putting a urinal and calling it art).
Yet, I also appreciate that a Rothko and a Newman are completely different in their treatment of how they applied colour to canvas, that creates different mood
and feeling; I think I am just curious as to where my response to these works
lies, in the colour (doing what colour does naturally) or in what artists, in this instance, Irvin do
with it.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJY-WTB_f3DQIkw9ZyKXumPk_hQtZv97DwCL-waHYJT85y1QxnuVi_zqUKCN7jgDhh5XFNNj_oxzTZuv_tuEhPaTCirhKlLLDcwR2eJsjl0SXEp2wGElAUVZTBr1MJPsNSig61ZNOuc80/s1600/Irvin+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJY-WTB_f3DQIkw9ZyKXumPk_hQtZv97DwCL-waHYJT85y1QxnuVi_zqUKCN7jgDhh5XFNNj_oxzTZuv_tuEhPaTCirhKlLLDcwR2eJsjl0SXEp2wGElAUVZTBr1MJPsNSig61ZNOuc80/s400/Irvin+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The highlights for me are Irvin’s paintings from the 70s
onwards, around about the time he started working with acrylic paint and is
said he, </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">‘took to their [acrylics] properties immediately. Working horizontally
stopped the inevitable run-off of water-thinned paint from top to bottom, and
by placing the canvas stretcher on large cans, he was able to reduce the drying
time of the saturated surface…’ </span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">These paintings are deceptively simple in their cleanness
of how colour is applied in shapes and layered without becoming muddied almost textile-like or reminiscent of Matisse’s paper-cuts, and it is an interesting parallel to see Irvin’s
thought processes displayed in the exhibition as using coloured paper scraps to
build his compositions before he scaled them up into paintings. Incidentally, the
vitrine displaying some of the paper cuttings alongside a pair of Irvin’s paint
splattered shoes, brushes and paint cans was an unexpected highlight. The old
irony ringing true for all artists it seems that the palette used to the mix
the paint is often more interesting than the resulting painting... that unintentional
freshness so difficult to recreate. Though Irvin does retain some of that
sensitivity to knowing when to not overdo a painting and allow certain colours
and shapes space. Arrived as if by magic by anyone who has ever tried to create
an abstract painting and been left with a muddy, chaotic over-worked mess. It
is harder than it looks.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbBcxnuYmTW-dTogsFdZwDsE1f4R7oS-8MpWECjWUzBQPBYRdlLKFCcmGIL7RJzsEEpwt26RJTBdKrq0Kuuf_1kRZvXDF5zk2WVK5JT3-1kE3AmoRPvG7dA0Wg3npLYNdo1WpBpxxEnc/s1600/Irvin+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbBcxnuYmTW-dTogsFdZwDsE1f4R7oS-8MpWECjWUzBQPBYRdlLKFCcmGIL7RJzsEEpwt26RJTBdKrq0Kuuf_1kRZvXDF5zk2WVK5JT3-1kE3AmoRPvG7dA0Wg3npLYNdo1WpBpxxEnc/s400/Irvin+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kestrel (1981) Acrylic on canvas. 213 x 305</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Gesture and the use of movement and action present in
these paintings, such as the sweep of yellow across a pane of blue in ‘Kestrel’
(1981) gives extra dynamism to the use of colour, rendering it less static as
we attempt to imagine the tool, the movement and body it was attached to that
created those marks, Irvin was known for using ‘improvised squeegees’ and
decorating brushes. In the accompanying rooms to this exhibition a collection
of paintings from an exhibition at the Tate titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The New American Painting’ </i>includes a
Pollock, De Kooning and Motherwell whose use of action, volume and bold
confidence in their approaches to painting inspired Irvin when he went to see
the exhibition in 1959. Certainly, the parallels between the Irvin paintings which use
a lot of black in them alongside saturated colour, such as ‘Untitled 3’ (mid
1970s) use a similar colour visual language and use of saturation as some of the works by the American
painters. These rooms included a collage by Grace Hartigan who I’d previously
never heard of and was like a combination of Kurt Schwitters meets Abstract
Expressionism.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0tAIxZfqIrU9LdsxWrnpPnhFvuIDh3GC6imRPmfNW4qefJpHd4ImTAA7weM_0U4K0lNt4-p9AmeYCtt621XKjvzTClyLCrbsw2aMhArsigFGTLYJvd6DrUuE34ewUiyr0dXK6-sua5I/s1600/Irvin+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1175" data-original-width="1600" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0tAIxZfqIrU9LdsxWrnpPnhFvuIDh3GC6imRPmfNW4qefJpHd4ImTAA7weM_0U4K0lNt4-p9AmeYCtt621XKjvzTClyLCrbsw2aMhArsigFGTLYJvd6DrUuE34ewUiyr0dXK6-sua5I/s400/Irvin+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 3 (mid 1970s) Acrylic on canvas. 213 x 305</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Irvin’s early paintings, also on display (before he used
acrylics), done in oils are contrastingly more representational; depicting
street scenes, portraits and still-lives. Though they are still very painterly
and become increasingly abstract with paint as a medium being applied in
different thicknesses, mixed with sand or scrapped and smeared (with influences
of Francis Bacon and even a Futurism-style sense of movement in some) being precursors to what lead to the later treatment of paint in this very physical,
experimental way. The influence from meeting Cornish artist, Peter Lanyon in
Irvin’s early branching out into abstraction are also readily comparable.
Lanyon’s birds-eye view mix of abstraction with landscape elements filtering
into Irvin’s treatment of painting on the canvas horizontally ‘from-above’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVXNtVGnCsMx7owHvehXiQIjJw_bpz_7F4hCoqk9VZHLwgoeLoBx2B5JbTPDsOZW646-GTkE6FgLySLDNvDp9Kp882BqX-GF7H7MLhEEvAaAwAQ4_OIPNDYsoMeKU-mvZktuyVszPN38/s1600/Irvin+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVXNtVGnCsMx7owHvehXiQIjJw_bpz_7F4hCoqk9VZHLwgoeLoBx2B5JbTPDsOZW646-GTkE6FgLySLDNvDp9Kp882BqX-GF7H7MLhEEvAaAwAQ4_OIPNDYsoMeKU-mvZktuyVszPN38/s320/Irvin+5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 6 (1975) Acrylic on canvas. 178 x </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I remember hearing more than once from different tutors
during my art education that, ‘angst is easy’ and that creating art which has
the opposite effect and brings a smile or joy to people’s faces is actually
quite hard to do. I mostly agree with that and in the same sense I think it can
be often easier to criticise art than it can be to see the merit in it or face
the difficulty of attempting to understand it when it is easier to dismiss it
as being ‘rubbish’. Despite this, Irvin’s paintings aren’t angsty enough for
me, personally speaking; they are quite flat and need room to breathe compared
to the sumptuousness and intensity of a Howard Hodgkin or scratchy variation of
marks in a Peter Lanyon. Yet for the use of colour alone I cannot fail to appreciate the joy they bring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Albert Irvin and
Abstract Expressionism is on at the RWA until March 3<sup>rd</sup> 2019</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://shop.rwa.org.uk/collections/events/products/albert-irvin-and-american-abstract-expressionism"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://shop.rwa.org.uk/collections/events/products/albert-irvin-and-american-abstract-expressionism</span></a>
</span></div>
<i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><b></b>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-16944979429747921772019-01-20T07:50:00.000-08:002019-01-20T08:21:36.643-08:00Not the destination<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Describing something is like using it -it destroys; the colours wear
off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what’s been described
begins to fade, to disappear.”</i> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3BP-1feyMB8ZofIv6GIgc3e31O4fUnyyocPqC21LQTAxTmGSbRTqhe3cYeNBossB5ac5A8p_gr7N7kf3Q3WfS7O68mGNkVHonoB35Yk3hyraLQTand75DA5fInE-Htb52uTKPUAphLg/s1600/Flights+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="328" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3BP-1feyMB8ZofIv6GIgc3e31O4fUnyyocPqC21LQTAxTmGSbRTqhe3cYeNBossB5ac5A8p_gr7N7kf3Q3WfS7O68mGNkVHonoB35Yk3hyraLQTand75DA5fInE-Htb52uTKPUAphLg/s400/Flights+Cover.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I love this quote, for reasons that, in a manner rather
paradoxical, will hopefully become clearer as I describe them. The quote is (one
of dozens more that caused me to ponder) from Olga Tokarczuk’s <a href="https://themanbookerprize.com/international" target="_blank">InternationalMan Booker Prize </a>winning novel, <a href="https://themanbookerprize.com/books/flights-by" target="_blank">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flights</i>’</a>.
A book I have tried (and always feeling as though I have failed) to successfully
describe to people on several occasions, each time, explaining that it is a
novel of fragmented parts, fleeting narratives, some of them purely fictional
others rooted in fact, told across different times and by different people with
many of them taking place or being linked by moments in in-between places, such
as airports and train stations. The transitionary spaces we are when nothing is
happening or something is waiting to happen -what do people think and do in
those moments and in those places? Like eating a bag of pick and mix sweets,
each time you reach into the bag you reveal a different flavour, shape or
colour to try. However, as the quote from the book itself explains, it seems futile
to attempt to summarise the diversity of places, thoughts and ideas in which
this book took me. You may totally disagree, no two readers would<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>read this the same, which is plenty reason itself for giving it a try!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">When I am enjoying reading a book, I like to make notes,
notes of quotes I find interesting or ideas which resonate with things I have
spoken to people about, places I’ve been or other anecdotal connections of a
personal nature that mean something. Over the years I have built up a little
library of these quotes, many of them are funny, some could be described as
quite profound and some are purely incidental but in little ways, they reaffirm
what it means to exist, what it means to be me. I found myself doing this a LOT
whilst reading ‘Flights’. From a description of an airport as being like its
own city, a dialogue about Dark Matter to series of facts listed off the
packaging of sanitary pads in which we learn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The word lethologica describes the state of being unable to recall the
word you’re looking for.”</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Afterwards I like
to read reviews of what bits other people picked up upon, wondering if others
were drawn to the same passages of text as me. A review of the book by Tom
McAllister in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/flights-is-a-beautifully-fragmented-look-at-mans-longing-for-permanence/2018/08/13/9d685b94-85db-11e8-8553-a3ce89036c78_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d418cbe99a22" target="_blank">The Washington Post </a>also picked-up on the quote about ‘describing
things’ and I suppose the paradox for me came in the irony of wanting to
describe and share why I liked this book, whilst the book itself drawing
attention to the notion that sometimes describing does not do a thing/place
justice. Ephemerality of the moment or ‘lived experience’ versus the permanence
of ‘description’ being a theme alluded to in many of the stories throughout the
novel; expectation versus reality. Tokarczuk trained as a psychologist and her
experience in this field is drawn-upon in how she captures the thoughts and
inner monologues of her characters with analytical, believable honesty. Part of
the reason I write this blog is because of the challenge posed in trying to
articulate in words, to describe how I feel about art I have seen or
experienced. It continues to be something of personal interest. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">T<span style="font-family: calibri;">he book begins with a narrative about travelling and waiting in airports, in which the narrator's internal monologue recalls a memory about a visit to look at cabinets of curiosities rather than an art gallery. It is a fitting comparison to the construction of the novel's structure (or lack of) being like a cabinet of curiosities; a man searches for
his missing family whilst on holiday in Croatia, a woman walks out on her
family to live life during the day as a beggar, an anatomist in the 17<sup>th</sup>
Century dissects his amputated leg, Chopin’s daughter transports his heart from
Paris back to Warsaw…It is the sort of book that really does not lend itself
well to description as it sounds messy and eclectic. To begin with I wondered
if I was reading it correctly, whether I had missed something and as it progressed,
I wondered whether I was supposed to understand how it all threaded together or
have an inkling to where it may be heading; the fact was I didn’t have a clue!
Though I was enjoying the journey and individual pieces of this patchwork tale
and I had to learn to let go of my anxiety that I did not grasp the bigger
threads or meaning that was happening.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Ropography, we learn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…is
a painting term for the attention the artist pays to trifles and details.”</i>
Another reference within the book that mirrors much of what is happening within
the book itself and in example echoed in a fantastic chapter towards the end of
the book (page 403 in my paperback edition) titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Origin of the Species’</i> in which invading airborne anemones reveals
itself to be plastic bags. As an environmental comment it could easily stand alone from the whole book as a separate piece of prose. It sounds utterly random and banal, which it is, but
is beautifully written and intelligently translated from Polish to English by
Jennifer Croft. The reader is left to chart and make their own connections to
other parts within the book, create their own meanings as they see fit. In this
aspect reading this book reminded me a lot of the process of interpreting art and
for that reason I enjoyed it immensely. Regular visitors or those familiar with my work will also know that the <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2017/09/meh.html" target="_blank">everyday and banal</a> is something of an ongoing obsession of mine. The descriptions of cadavers and
embalming fluids and some of the dark humour of this book may not be to
everyone’s taste but it is counterbalanced by the allure for the sense of the
whimsical and chaotic unknown, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The
things that exist in the shadows of consciousness, and that, when you do take a
look, dart out of your field of vision.”</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">If you only read one book in 2019, make it this!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://themanbookerprize.com/books/flights-by" target="_blank">Flights -Olga
Tokarczuk is available to read and buy now at all good libraries and bookshops.</a></span></b></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-15438250481816078272018-11-18T07:01:00.000-08:002018-11-21T12:22:29.475-08:00Warning! May contain traces of elephant<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A conceptually ambiguous blog post title, for a
conceptually ambiguous art exhibition! </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In writing about Hestercombe’s latest exhibition, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘<a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/exhibition-materiality-provisional-states/" target="_blank">Materiality:Provisional States</a>’</i></b> I felt it would be legitimately wrong to document
my thoughts without first addressing the all-important, but seldom overlooked,
elephant in the room. That is, I was taught by one of the artists in this
exhibition, <a href="http://www.sarahbennett.org.uk/" target="_blank">Sarah Bennett</a>, during my Masters in Fine Art with Plymouth
University and have had the pleasure of knowing, another artist in the show,
<a href="http://www.megancalver.com/" target="_blank">Megan Calver</a>. There is an element of bias, that whilst one would try
analyse the work objectively, I cannot to some extent ignore that my opinions
are influenced by those relationships. It is a scenario that I had never previously given much heed to in any of my writing, how the possible impact of knowing or not knowing
the artist has on my personal interpretation of their work. Where does the writer's responsibility lie, to the integrity of themselves, the artists whose work they write about or that of the reader who possibly deserves the most honest opinion. I think part of the problem is there aren't enough people writing about these sorts of exhibitions so that readers have much choice!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This also relates to a book I have been recently
reading, “What it Means to Write About Art” that documents a series of interviews with art
writers/critics on the practice of art writing/art criticism. It has been
fascinating to learn of different writers’ thoughts on how they address this
same scenario,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“It’s hard. When I write about somebody I don’t know. I almost try to
imagine them. And when I write about somebody I do know, I try to forget
them…When I started out, I didn’t know if nay of it mattered – I couldn’t
imagine that I actually had an audience -so felt completely free to say
whatever I wanted. When you first start writing, you don’t know if people are
reading, and you don’t know if anybody is going to care. And then, after a
while, you realise people do care…Basically, I’ve always felt my job as a
critic is to try and be me and figure out who I am…It’s those basic, immediate
reactions that fuel your thinking and your writing…There’s a danger of over
complicating things.” -Jed Pearl in an interview with Jarrett Earnest “What it
means to Write About Art”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa5ZiJIwhvSc4k0rXYoYBRXjJZp6y8ZD5txpXDNDvQjPYpUGyPUClJcTKrM1EBDInkyRN7WBB8wdqjEZGJxxvc_O6h_ilp1u3OBDIrCpDUqDACzHpRcBu4PddLWx9wXHAjZE1Kz6SI0Y/s1600/Lawrence+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa5ZiJIwhvSc4k0rXYoYBRXjJZp6y8ZD5txpXDNDvQjPYpUGyPUClJcTKrM1EBDInkyRN7WBB8wdqjEZGJxxvc_O6h_ilp1u3OBDIrCpDUqDACzHpRcBu4PddLWx9wXHAjZE1Kz6SI0Y/s400/Lawrence+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philippa Lawrence - Trace (2018)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I have tried to keep some of those sentiments in mind when writing this. It
gets even worse if one considers that I was also taught by the curator and know
some of the technicians that also helped install the show, but that’s Somerset
for you! There is, however, an artist I definitely do not know in the
exhibition, <a href="https://philippalawrence.com/" target="_blank">Philippa Lawrence</a> and it is her work with which we are first
greeted at the top of the stairs in the form of an uprooted
tree stump. The top of the stump, where it was sliced, has been polished to an irresistibly tempting-to
touch by hand, high-sheen. The contrast between the roughness and brutal-act of
sawing presented against the considered care with which the act of
polishing wood has associated with craft or objects intended for consideration/keeping. An idea Lawrence continues in a
similar piece in the form of a log pile, titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Shift’</i> also exhibited. Initially we see a pile of logs
associated with the practical connotations of being a resource for fuel and on closer inspection their polished spec, where each log has been cut makes them objects of consideration or an
implied sense of preciousness. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Lawrence has worked alongside the woodland
management team, as have </span>each of the artists in this exhibition, engaging with the site of Hestercombe House/Gardens, its history and the different skilled people who manage it today. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Trace’</i> brightly
coloured enamel profiles off the tops of tree stumps from around Hestercombe are
displayed together on the (appropriately wooden) floor of one of the gallery spaces. It is visually
quite minimal and could not be more clinically detached in its man-made
fabrication from the original tree from which it was formed (a statement in itself). Each stump becoming
an island or fingerprint-like replica of the original tree and
the trace of the action which led to its current form.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLSHvfKs41EBXesOA2l6Xzh-ie2M_PYPV5qh7CbxueJxfiaXK6H8DRQ8uoyVY6LBgK6oocS0s5bYrbhQodCQyQsrpZovNzCZgoSvXQFI8PYd92jZiUHe-KJzPKx2q_fPCzzmGwU6gsoOM/s1600/Bennett+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLSHvfKs41EBXesOA2l6Xzh-ie2M_PYPV5qh7CbxueJxfiaXK6H8DRQ8uoyVY6LBgK6oocS0s5bYrbhQodCQyQsrpZovNzCZgoSvXQFI8PYd92jZiUHe-KJzPKx2q_fPCzzmGwU6gsoOM/s400/Bennett+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sarah Bennett - Cultivatar (2018) 35mm slides of 21 silverpoint drawings, slide viewers</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Another artist who likes capturing traces of human
encounters and actions within her work is Sarah Bennett, who for Hestercombe has
created a series of responses, the majority of which are linked in using the
material of silver. Multiple reflection points inspired by Bampfylde’s pear
pond are drawn with photography and silver nitrate, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Cultivatar’</i> (2018) silverpoint is used to recreate meticulous drawings
of seeds presented in viewfinders strategically placed to great effect in the
windows overlooking the gardens themselves (so that seed and plant can be seen
simultaneously) and again in embellishing a row of handheld garden
tools. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Now partially rendered in silver the tools are in <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">affect
useless for their original purpose but take on a preserved sense of status that
the quality of silver brings elevating the tools from their more humble
connotations in being originally used for the</span></span> maintenance of the estate. The cheeky part of me cannot omit that I take some small nugget
of narcissistic delight in that my own tool-related work may have had some
influence on the use of tools here?! Whilst I have long accepted that I clearly cannot
monopolise the use of tools in anyone’s art, I equally in this instance cannot deny myself a wry smile of amusement. If Hestercombe ever wants a more expressive response to gardening
tools then you know where to find me! </span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZmkk53o8-u68riVxcSxa4qAfPR9VQZX6ciY0k-I9RBD06p5iAe_6v1I6QwHgrxtr2IdfC19vxK90wBN0oTlO-MK_L0zBNPha5ppIZoRs5V2xSkS2OG4y0ispjIotdXd-cUwtMLrtBbGQ/s1600/Bennett+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1193" data-original-width="1600" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZmkk53o8-u68riVxcSxa4qAfPR9VQZX6ciY0k-I9RBD06p5iAe_6v1I6QwHgrxtr2IdfC19vxK90wBN0oTlO-MK_L0zBNPha5ppIZoRs5V2xSkS2OG4y0ispjIotdXd-cUwtMLrtBbGQ/s400/Bennett+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Sarah Bennett -Siolfur (2018) Silver plating on found tools</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span>Continuing with ideas she first started exploring in
2015’s exhibition, ‘Second Site’ Megan Calver works with notions of taste in
particular to, one of Hestercombe’s founding gardeners, Gertrude Jekyll’s <i>‘exacting
attitude towards colour and language’ </i>presented through scans of scorched
blooms (flowers grown at Hestercombe, picked and pressed by an image-scanner) viewed
on tables from above like botanical specimens. The invigilators of the
exhibition having the licence to routinely edit which ones are seen and not but
covering them, their own ‘tastes’ becoming a part of the work. The use of language
and description of colour, in particular to fire/flame links well to a previous
work by Calver about Salvia seeds described on their packaging as ‘Blaze of
Fire’ (and incidentally loathed by Jekyll if we are to relate it back to ideas
of ‘taste’). Calver’s other interventions such as additions to the light-box signage in the house's former fire brigade control-room and coals in the fireplaces in
each of the galleries are subtle enough to go unnoticed by many but are quiet
statements in keeping with ideas around fire and the context that Hestercombe
House was formally the call-centre to the fire brigade. It is rewarding when one spots them and for want of a better phrase, ‘gets it’ but I am unsure how hard many visitors may be
willing to work to reach that point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For me it really highlights my reservation with the exhibition as a whole, that
it feels a bit too cerebral. When one compares it to what one reads about each
artist having individually undergone very investigative inquiries in talking to
people, looking through archives and working on site around Hestercombe; a
process which I imagine as being very 'warm', human, interactive and enriching to then each produce work which is largely quite detached
from the reality of those experiences/engagement and make work that is by comparison cold
and sterile to the point of being so considered and laboured in its though
processes that something of those original encounters with which we as the
audience can identify with is lost. In example, I do not personally get a sense
of the encounter of reflections on a pond in Bennett's <i>'Pear Pond 1'</i> from what appears to be an overly
process-engineered oval photograph, for me it does not offer anything different
that I would not better obtain from looking at the real thing or offer a different
insight that photography can allow. There is a point to be made here perhaps
about how close or far does an artist’s relation to their original subject/source
matter in how the work is received and understood by their audience? I expect it is subjective. For the
purposes of this exhibition however, I would have liked to have seen some more emotive/expressive
responses to counterbalance the largely conceptual nature of the show. I am often concerned that as artists we tend to over-think or complicate things, so ideas become so refined and detached from where they originally started that we loose the sense of what it actually is to be a embodied, thinking, feeling human responding to a subject and have yet to see an exhibition by a contemporary artist at Hestercombe that really celebrates that. Addressing the elephant in the room, what it says on the tin -in my opinion stating the obvious isn't always a bad thing.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Materiality: provisional states’</i> is on
until 24<sup>th</sup> February 2019</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/exhibition-materiality-provisional-states/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.hestercombe.com/event/exhibition-materiality-provisional-states/</span></a></span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-43473968401893308372018-10-26T14:17:00.000-07:002018-10-28T12:44:06.777-07:00Do you see what I sea?<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In her latest exhibition at Exeter Phoenix, Tania Kovats
dives into the socio-political and environmental concerns of mankind’s
relationship with the sea. Influenced by her ongoing exploration of water and by
marine biologist Rachel Carson’s 1953 book ‘The Sea Around Us’, the exhibition
focuses on themes such as coral reefs, the horizon line and maritime culture
exhibited through sculptures, drawings and installed works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxhmo5isw6VqJx0Y6guP59BLAHf2ySjwoU3N2f-zVDF5dgin88NmeCkRYlrhvwJZmiaziCfKgz6lOyYqkX-GNPTGa8Wyg53I1zBk8lXqnhap2f6UrMHnWxvrRZ1pV0Gu_gkZAFjzdYj_Y/s1600/IMG_20181006_123905090.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxhmo5isw6VqJx0Y6guP59BLAHf2ySjwoU3N2f-zVDF5dgin88NmeCkRYlrhvwJZmiaziCfKgz6lOyYqkX-GNPTGa8Wyg53I1zBk8lXqnhap2f6UrMHnWxvrRZ1pV0Gu_gkZAFjzdYj_Y/s400/IMG_20181006_123905090.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bleached (2017) mixed media</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Carson’s influence is quite literally and immediately
present in a series of drawn book covers forensically represented and taken from
different versions of ‘The Sea Around Us’, each meticulously rendered and
observed so as to capture every wrinkle and fold from their wear and tear. My
own personal interests in all things book-related leads me to wonder if these
books all belong to Kovats or whether they were loaned, found or borrowed from
their original readers? They all look like books which have been read and
travelled, where have they been, how many people had read them, had the ideas
they contain affected someone’s life? Books like weathered skin show the
passing of time and age, a thought that I have never really previously given
much contemplation to until I thought about how drawing a book cover must be
like drawing a portrait, the book design itself may be mass produced but the
wear of the book is individual and something of a pleasing mystery in its uniqueness. I like the
idea that the physical object of the book itself can hold a relevance as much
as the ideas with which it contains. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>For
the purposes of this exhibition however, the temporal nature of these book
covers perhaps a reminder of the ever-changing sea itself, as Carson’s book
reiterates, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHyZlswbKvuHfz4MgFj7UDEw5ckiAXfiybTGHjhdQjnyrdJpfXFdUVs5WreX7T1R2ejEvIWDBgjJfKzW9NzdauyQvHnlnnWXDlmOUxASnz30DTlkuKRCrkSRx8DuH_VDUbAhKZ7UGrsg/s1600/IMG_20181006_124153080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHyZlswbKvuHfz4MgFj7UDEw5ckiAXfiybTGHjhdQjnyrdJpfXFdUVs5WreX7T1R2ejEvIWDBgjJfKzW9NzdauyQvHnlnnWXDlmOUxASnz30DTlkuKRCrkSRx8DuH_VDUbAhKZ7UGrsg/s400/IMG_20181006_124153080.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sea Around Us (nine spines) 2018, pencil on paper</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #181818; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">‘It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first
arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But
the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat
is rather to life itself.’ -Rachel Carson</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Continuing with my book theme, in
2014 Kovats’ produced a book about drawing titled, ‘Drawing Water’ to accompany
an exhibition the she had at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. I never saw
this exhibition but found the book and remember how it reinforced my own
feelings about drawing can be a ‘way of thinking’ or a means in which to lose
oneself and ponder new ideas. </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">'I draw
to find my way out. Drawing fills the space when I'm not sure what I am doing.
It's my mechanism for map-making and my search engine, even when I don't
know what I am looking for.'-Tania Kovats</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Therefore, one could argue what better way to understand
the sea or contemplate it than to draw it? A large installed drawing titled
‘Sea Mark (Prussian Blue)’ 2018 created via a series of blue watercolour dashes or
horizontal pools conjure comparisons to abstract puddles or the shapes of light
hitting the surface of the sea going out towards the horizon. It is no coincidence that the medium with which to draw is connected with water and only reinforces its connection to the sea it represents (a similar piece
was created in a solo show at Hestercombe in Taunton during <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2014/10/oceans-of-intrigue.html" target="_blank">2014-15</a>). Displayed
across a series of sheets pinned together on a wall being both a scaling-up
process and a compartmentalising of elements that make up the greater whole. It
is as if Kovats is saying that the sea is too vast to contemplate or depict in
its entirety so it must be broken down into a series of repeated shapes until
its scale can be installed rather than preconceived. It also puts the viewer directly into the work, making us contemplate our own situ and scale in relation to 'the sea' or something much bigger than ourselves.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobbR9JbsKHSzFfl2x4jsLXKjZjY1dxB2-TGy5jTYmmDiGbmB-txrbQ_ZuvWJ-2AvLxsSst9pcAhgPz7IccXiMO43NRuYNVp23PCDtaonD4QQQ3CxGtwaXbEWiExKAGpVoHVcp45ipH8g/s1600/IMG_20181006_124159186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobbR9JbsKHSzFfl2x4jsLXKjZjY1dxB2-TGy5jTYmmDiGbmB-txrbQ_ZuvWJ-2AvLxsSst9pcAhgPz7IccXiMO43NRuYNVp23PCDtaonD4QQQ3CxGtwaXbEWiExKAGpVoHVcp45ipH8g/s400/IMG_20181006_124159186.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sea Mark (Prussian Blue) 2018, watercolour on paper</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Somewhat bias of me, I have so far only focused on the
drawings of what will strike many people as a very sculptural exhibition (debatably
the work ‘Sea Mark (Prussian Blue)’ is almost quite sculptural in its installation).
A series of vitrines titled, ‘Bleached’ 2017 containing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘an imagined bleached coral reef’</i> represent a bleak and sterile
view of the impact humans have on the health of such habitats. Like a beautiful, yet
fragile petrified forest and a warning told in museum-form, conveys the message that these reefs
are a dying and precious ecosystem that must be protected lest they become
museum relics of the future. Part of me wonders if it is all too obvious in how
it is meant to be read and that this work leaves less to the imagination, but
then maybe it is more important that the message is clear? In a second room
adjacent to ‘Bleached’ two more sculptural works titled, ‘REEF’ 2018 are more
experimental. A bit like the premise of drawing as a way of ‘figuring out’
these hand-maquette sculptures made from concrete and neoprene (ironically the
same stuff used to make wetsuits) are prototypes for a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘functional coral reef restoration structure’</i>.
They are less polished and sort-of awkward if a little clumsy looking in comparison
to the vitrines but as consequence have more potential in what they could be interpreted as. Potential,
that could be believed as being a 'new imagined coral reef' or for those more sceptical, like me, at the very least something
that is more multi-faceted in its abstraction than its linear-ness in being
representational. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdkg8xs2uUqTA2ZbjRHeWXj4_bNKuKybnjjhTnlWXudnl-MNdDNzCpmj-3UWbmwnzwiZXGGsircHPI23auGo43N0NW-JBgkBeknaTlQKVccdCecsoKQnS3hACYiqwA8lVy0UnKH1jp8Q/s1600/IMG_20181006_124205580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1600" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdkg8xs2uUqTA2ZbjRHeWXj4_bNKuKybnjjhTnlWXudnl-MNdDNzCpmj-3UWbmwnzwiZXGGsircHPI23auGo43N0NW-JBgkBeknaTlQKVccdCecsoKQnS3hACYiqwA8lVy0UnKH1jp8Q/s400/IMG_20181006_124205580.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">REEF (2018) concrete, neoprene</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The overriding ambition that the work Kovats makes intends to, <i>‘reflect
on our relationship with the sea, and encourage more connection and agency in
how we connect to the natural world’</i> is quite a bold statement. I do not know
if I personally feel a greater connection or understanding after seeing the
exhibition than I had previously, but discovering more about Rachel Carson is
certainly something I am keen to pursue, particularly how what
she wrote in the 50s still feeling very relevant today. Having seen other work
by Kovats previously at Hestercombe, I am excited by her methods and inventive enquiries into water, the ocean and creative processes as a means of
understanding and getting audiences to engage with work. I think ‘Troubled
Waters’ is just that, where it achieves is that it is intriguing and unusual enough to want to
contemplate but readable enough to be able to take away a sense of meaning from
it. Whilst the drawn elements are important, to me at least, in stopping the whole exhibition becoming too ‘cold’
and emotionally bleak, bringing back something of the human-hand and presence to make us connect to the work more.
The waters Kovats foretells may be troubled but there is hope too, perhaps, is we do not loose a sense of humanity.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Troubled Waters –
Tania Kovats is on at the Exeter Phoenix until 11<sup>th</sup> November 2018</span></b></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/tania-kovats-troubled-waters/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/tania-kovats-troubled-waters/</span></a></span></b></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-13102849703306356452018-10-17T13:15:00.000-07:002018-10-17T13:15:09.202-07:00Bookbinding Anatomy 101<span style="font-family: calibri;">Pass me the scalpel whilst I
make an incision across the spine…through which to insert the needle…keep the
bone folder on standby to ensure nice clean precision along the joints….</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">Bookbinding, I have come to
appreciate, is a delicate operation. What better place perhaps, to learn about
this skill for first time within the context of a medical library in a
hospital?!</span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>During two-hour sessions over a period of four consecutive Tuesday
evenings, staff at Musgrove Park Hospital participated in making four different
books under the tuition of professional bookbinder, <a href="http://www.perfectbindings.co.uk/" target="_blank">Megan Stallworthy</a>. The
workshop, programmed by Emma Quick for <a href="http://www.artforlife.nhs.uk/" target="_blank">Art for Life</a> (the Trust’s art and
wellbeing initiative), was part of a series of artist-led workshops for NHS
staff taking place at Musgrove Park Hospital.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix47GCTvftra-yWZYkktIP5zNQNXqo2jOTiMC9SdsPnvP3mqWKaZ2d40OyLFjqBjz6Mhh3W454yrvCE6rSZM9xBDgjTMMzZQ8D2iIkxXqgbH6n2UoF5GZTXZqu-Ue3GMc1F_4zo6X5nfc/s1600/Oct+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1600" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix47GCTvftra-yWZYkktIP5zNQNXqo2jOTiMC9SdsPnvP3mqWKaZ2d40OyLFjqBjz6Mhh3W454yrvCE6rSZM9xBDgjTMMzZQ8D2iIkxXqgbH6n2UoF5GZTXZqu-Ue3GMc1F_4zo6X5nfc/s400/Oct+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">As a member of the Library
Service team and a complete novice bookbinder it was my pleasure to help
facilitate and attend these evenings! We were keen for the workshop to take
place within the library as a way of promoting and encouraging the space as a
place for wellbeing-based activities and thinking that learning book-binding in
the context of books themselves was an appealingly romanticised place to do so.
This was a context that had previously worked well in the bookshop from my
prior experiences as a bookseller. By necessity the hospital site is largely a
functional, sterilised or clerical-based place, so I would like to think for
many staff that there is something contrastingly comforting about being in an
environment surrounded by books. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWETgQnJbpIxda4ncQAJnpujE2FsficC-6ZLCk3j77elvPGiBYHUzSIVn4c4KwqLHtYM3B5MuaBvToVhnIe8XBjFdzjCVrpYw78RMGKVbcESLJP6Heb_yqu5L8-x7BiH9zHwPqrCuJQYk/s1600/Oct+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWETgQnJbpIxda4ncQAJnpujE2FsficC-6ZLCk3j77elvPGiBYHUzSIVn4c4KwqLHtYM3B5MuaBvToVhnIe8XBjFdzjCVrpYw78RMGKVbcESLJP6Heb_yqu5L8-x7BiH9zHwPqrCuJQYk/s400/Oct+7.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Despite my art background and
years spent stacking, selling, displaying and shelving books, I confess to having
never attempted making one. I know very little about the origins of how the
physical part of a book is produced; like many perhaps, knowing slightly more
about what is involved in writing the words and content. Fortunately for me, I
was not alone! The nine of us taking part also had no prior or limited
experience and Megan, the ever-patient tutor was highly organised in breaking
down the steps needed to make each book so what at first felt like it could be
a complicated task became manageably enjoyable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">Over the sessions we managed
to make four books: <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>two variations of an
accordion book, a single section case binding and a long stitch binding. All
four involved various different techniques, each new skill demonstrated under
Megan’s precision and expertise along with being equipped with the proper tools
like the bone-fold, bradawl, waxed-thread, grey board, glue and papers that
make a significant difference from being shown how to make something and
actually producing an object that is something one will keep and is proud of.
It was the opportunity to learn the meaning of terms such as ‘creep’ and which
direction to cut/fold based on the grain of the paper to how to measure cover
paper and spine widths, different techniques to apply glue (who knew?) and how
to make a sewing template for stitching pages together. For the second time
this year, I the reluctant sewer attempted to thread needles as I stitched the
cartridge paper into my pre-measured casing holes. My resulting long stitch
binding was rather shaky, but I had still managed to produce something that
held itself together. My favourite to make though were the accordion books as
these involved no stitching whatsoever and were more involved with gluing and
folding techniques. With these books in particular I found myself planning what
might go inside them and ideas for things I could write or draw.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggJBc14OnAasODgHOdVxaPlNxLynt0lCJs4nCsAimvTWCqp7ItjdsrOu-LHMmU-4n7IM5UL-G6D4QrpLXfQgwLB9Y3xy097RA_RYzGyiwBkK4PlDcRcbRsyx4jBVTOAWj2f-YQoQiJtcg/s1600/Oct+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggJBc14OnAasODgHOdVxaPlNxLynt0lCJs4nCsAimvTWCqp7ItjdsrOu-LHMmU-4n7IM5UL-G6D4QrpLXfQgwLB9Y3xy097RA_RYzGyiwBkK4PlDcRcbRsyx4jBVTOAWj2f-YQoQiJtcg/s400/Oct+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;">I enjoyed conversations about
the ‘hand of the maker’ involved in each of the individual books that we were
making; how our own ‘imperfections’ of how we may have cut the paper or bound
the pages together are not necessarily faults but characteristics or quirks of
their handmade origins. Something of an anti-perfectionist myself, I like to
celebrate those traces of hand and uniqueness that come from the handmade
object that can never be recreated in the mass produced. I think there is a
Japanese word, ‘wabi sabi’, which succinctly encapsulates what I am referring
to here- an ‘acceptance of imperfection’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEQ7g4eS-7Z-TDEJGxhz9LPbAbh0IAPYOtkEi71RGirhM69HW7tgAcubUICj6yOBjahr3nEj1rDVQmXpj_y0Ueudp7LTb6sFV7KrI_OWMqwwx0ywFTgRYlhL5wsnLT4Z9cCchKdbn24c/s1600/Tues+18th+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEQ7g4eS-7Z-TDEJGxhz9LPbAbh0IAPYOtkEi71RGirhM69HW7tgAcubUICj6yOBjahr3nEj1rDVQmXpj_y0Ueudp7LTb6sFV7KrI_OWMqwwx0ywFTgRYlhL5wsnLT4Z9cCchKdbn24c/s320/Tues+18th+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Apart from learning a new
skill, these sessions were also a chance to talk and meet new people, all of
whom have different roles/responsibilities throughout the hospital from nursing
to managerial and clerical. It was good to come together for a shared
experience at the end of the busy working day as a group of people who were all
eager to learn something new. We all had four books to show for our efforts and
I for one can now say I’ve made my own book -in a library! Though I do not
expect to be something of an expert when it comes to any future book repairs…</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">More information about
Megan Stallworthy's workshops and beautiful handmade books can be found
here: <a href="http://www.perfectbindings.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.perfectbindings.co.uk/</span></a></span></b><br />
<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-13495488396421768142018-09-29T11:52:00.000-07:002018-09-29T11:52:03.350-07:00Something Beautiful Remains<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">With less than a month to go, here is the ‘long-awaited’ Spanner
in the Workz highlights of the Liverpool Biennial 2018!</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">The
Biennial 2018 celebrates its 10<sup>th</sup> programme of what is overall
twenty years of arts across the city and region. It also personally marks my
fifth Biennial from when I first visited Liverpool as an art student in 2008.
It has become a tradition to visit and feel quite sentimental about loyally
making the pilgrimage to the north every two years via a series of (increasingly
unreliable) trains searching for what new contemporary national and
international art in some of Liverpool’s most remarkable buildings, galleries
and spaces has in store. There is also a case for the Liverpool bar that sells
triple gins for £3, but perhaps the less said of that the better....!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-Bkqc5brjf5wj90YNwDtIbdsHM36pVgjWfqGwlk-aajJxLBkSmiRJWzMFJ5pfVBNGAUkt0qaQI8TQ1zTtTd0fL5gTNegl8-CTsd1T0j-O1WojZC8k_yAT6atV_k3cA4EBWxL0gDZFEk/s1600/LB2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-Bkqc5brjf5wj90YNwDtIbdsHM36pVgjWfqGwlk-aajJxLBkSmiRJWzMFJ5pfVBNGAUkt0qaQI8TQ1zTtTd0fL5gTNegl8-CTsd1T0j-O1WojZC8k_yAT6atV_k3cA4EBWxL0gDZFEk/s400/LB2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(detail) Mae-ling Lokko's installation 'Hack the Root' 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">In
response to the collective theme, ‘<i>Beautiful World Where Are You?</i>’
artists and audiences are invited <i>‘to reflect on a world in turmoil’</i>. It
sounds serious and whilst I do not question that the world, politically,
environmentally, socially and economically is in a tumultuous and uncertain
period, I found much of what resonated with me in this year’s Biennial to be
conscientiously uplifting and more hopeful or engagingly activist in the face
of such challenges. Works such as Mae-ling Lokko’s <i>‘Hack the Root’</i>,
presented at RIBA North Architectural Centre deals with the turmoil of
food-waste and unsustainability of materials for building by proposing a
creative solution whereby agrowaste-fed mycelium (mushroom) have been
cultivated into modular biomaterial building panels. Shown is a video that
explains this process alongside the tiles themselves, a growing chamber and
prototypes of structures which could be built from this material. I had no idea
mushrooms could be used in this way and am excited that work artists are still using science to creatively problem solve and generate new ideas. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL1A5ZEgmL7Y24JMY3_bCdzMoA6fKiHleUcoMC3mnXutLATgy4b3qjVceJJBFMmB5xDhTZ9Ang-hA8bVAc73ITAAYVZRZQyU5i1F6OiE3hm31Ie2D4wo7EZ0_4z2W7xXufLUZRhyphenhyphenxMnI/s1600/LB1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1534" data-original-width="1600" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL1A5ZEgmL7Y24JMY3_bCdzMoA6fKiHleUcoMC3mnXutLATgy4b3qjVceJJBFMmB5xDhTZ9Ang-hA8bVAc73ITAAYVZRZQyU5i1F6OiE3hm31Ie2D4wo7EZ0_4z2W7xXufLUZRhyphenhyphenxMnI/s400/LB1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(still) Madiha Aijaz 'These Silences Are All The Words' 2017-18</td></tr>
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Equally
heartening and possibly my favourite piece from this year’s Biennial is a film
at the Open Eye Gallery titled ‘<i>These Silences Are All The Words</i>’ by
Madiha Aijaz. Filmed in Karachi, Pakistan, the film documents librarians
working in public libraries and their library users as they reflect on the
shift of language from Urdu to English. The libraries in this film (and
libraries in general) come to symbolise these sort-of barometers for changes in
culture, language, need and understanding in our communities and societies; the
poetic and literary history of Urdu versus the historical and political
complexity of the English language (the legacy of the Raj). Aijaz explains that
the books themselves in these libraries, written in Urdu speak of, <i>‘the
struggle for freedom and the formation of Muslim identity in undivided India’</i>
and yet in some ways things have not changed, the library itself is now in conflict
with the language of the texts it holds and modernisation of the world and its users today. There is a need to preserve the past whilst making it accessible to those in the future. Though the film itself is not angry in its tone and at only approx. twelve
minutes long acts more of a documentary of the reality of these libraries and
for the viewer to come to their own conclusions. The shots of the libraries,
the light hitting the dusty books are in themselves beautiful! As shelves of
books, tomes and texts almost inherently are, surely? I am utterly bias, having
worked in a library for the best part of nine months, but am curiously
fascinated by the foreign yet-familiarity of the libraries in this film and
humbled by the reverence with which they are spoken of, “<i>When I enter the
library, I leave my ego and shoes at the door.</i>” It makes me speculate the
idea of sacredness in today’s society, what is sacred? Is it important? Is
religion sacred anymore, is it knowledge; perhaps a combination of both/neither?
Is sacredness subjective and does that led to decline in the value that a
shared sense of sacredness brings to uniting people. Where do public places,
such as libraries still fit in being custodians of values, freedom of speech
and community?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaw9bsIzHPrmQoYDbTFjt8hbnAWuxNvPa1aPXdFEOpUPwfQmapFEKrVgGezK5okLwVt3CZ_jbEtWtluQS0pMJ3FROVYVi7ZLGJxE7quuM1CoN0LifKiPMvAoJznNFMptxZFOfZQX0ogUQ/s1600/LB5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1195" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaw9bsIzHPrmQoYDbTFjt8hbnAWuxNvPa1aPXdFEOpUPwfQmapFEKrVgGezK5okLwVt3CZ_jbEtWtluQS0pMJ3FROVYVi7ZLGJxE7quuM1CoN0LifKiPMvAoJznNFMptxZFOfZQX0ogUQ/s400/LB5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Francis Alys, 'Outskirts of Mosul' 2016 - part of 'Age Piece' 2018</td></tr>
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">One
of the best venues for art has to be the Victoria Gallery & Museum where
Francis Alӱs’ small but beautiful postcard paintings from 1980s to the present
are exhibited under the title ‘<i>Age Piece</i>’. They have an immediate
painterly quality but are compositionally highly cinematic, painted in <i>plein
air</i> in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq whilst looking for new locations for
his film projects. Apart from the John Moores Painting Prize, which is also on
during the Biennial at the Walker Gallery, there is a famine of painting
throughout the Biennial as a whole. These little works really shine as being
amongst the most honest, intimate and captivating paintings throughout. The
gallery itself is also an eclectically stunning location to house these
paintings amongst dentistry tools, plastic botanical plant models, fossils and
taxidermy all housed in a spectacularly tiled Victorian red brick building.
Other Biennial highlights here include Taus Makhacheva’s fun, mesmerizing and
death-defying film, ‘Tightrope’ which I first came across last year at the
Venice Biennial; <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2017/07/viva-venezia.html"><span style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2017/07/viva-venezia.html</span></a> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeBVhTek6AyEZMC6zLydhTvlrkzKUkYT4GjhFSscg8GxUN3S_SWgs9BlmRT3Q5T47RkEQkZLZ77z9xtxpDffqeeBG9Hwa5LeBX2a2nGKLkveTzx4L14U_4HHGndukstVZ-bOT9jZx_oA/s1600/LB6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeBVhTek6AyEZMC6zLydhTvlrkzKUkYT4GjhFSscg8GxUN3S_SWgs9BlmRT3Q5T47RkEQkZLZ77z9xtxpDffqeeBG9Hwa5LeBX2a2nGKLkveTzx4L14U_4HHGndukstVZ-bOT9jZx_oA/s400/LB6.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Botanical Plant models at the Victoria Gallery & Museum</td></tr>
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">If
viewing art in unusual spaces and contexts is for you then the Biennial almost
always delivers in showing art in a host of disused and/or period buildings
(many of them over the years have since been developed, for better or worse).
For 2018 St George’s Hall situated directly outside Liverpool Lime Street
Station is a Grade 1 listed building dated back to 1854 and is used for concert halls
and law courts; inside several films are shown within the underground spaces,
prison cells and courtroom. The context for these films by Joyce
Wieland, Inci Eviner, Aslan Gaisumov, Lamia Joreige, Brian Jungen & Dunane
Linklater and Naeem Mohaiemen creates a heightened sense of awareness that is
different to the more familiar context of the gallery and leads me to
pay more attention than I perhaps normally would. It is not everyday you see a three-screened film in a courtroom or boat sailing across a prison cell wall....! Across the Biennial there are more films being shown than there are hours in
the day, which is a bit disappointing if you are limited in time. The Playhouse
Theatre in the heart of the city centre features yet more films, Reetu Sattar’s
<i>‘Harano Sur’ (Lost Tune)</i> documents a performance in Bangladesh in
which people played one of seven sustained notes on the harmonium. It is worth
hearing as much (if not more) as it is worth seeing.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St George's Hall Steps from the Courtroom down to the prison cells</td></tr>
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Possibly the
most talked about piece from this year’s Biennial is Banu Cennetoğlu’s
list tracing the information of more than 34,000 refugees and migrants who have
lost their lives within or on the borders of Europe since 1993; displayed in
the Biennial on billboards along Great George Street. A work that has been
vandalised, restored and eventually left in its now semi-vandalised appearance (as a statement of the political unease that this work generated). The list
compiled by UNITED for Intercultural Action has been facilitated by Banu who
translated the list and placed it in public spaces such as billboards and
newspapers. It is a powerful, if depressing (made slightly even more depressing
work for being sabotaged) graphic reminder of the scale of
lives lost. Ironically for those who sought to destroy this work it has
actually gained more poignancy in the traces of marks made by the glue that
once held these posters the billboard than in the physical presence of the
names themselves. The glue marks becoming a tally of the violent act in attempting
to remove them, the resilience of human endurance and consequence that these
names, these people cannot be forgotten; that actions and history have
consequence.</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmIIo7wKl-ycfs4Szo-4usfKOorTfWR4jbZvKfjQv2uVKDn8O3p7qd4y81OJNvx3AZmeYr7U1Rp4wbymKGB7JM31RKMw45JkEVJtRUu9kd_GH0Sou2PDHtxT1RXpoe9qjO85VEPUxNp0/s1600/LB4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmIIo7wKl-ycfs4Szo-4usfKOorTfWR4jbZvKfjQv2uVKDn8O3p7qd4y81OJNvx3AZmeYr7U1Rp4wbymKGB7JM31RKMw45JkEVJtRUu9kd_GH0Sou2PDHtxT1RXpoe9qjO85VEPUxNp0/s400/LB4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glue residue left from the 'destruction' of Banu Cennetoglu's list of Refugee names</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">There
is far more to see besides what I have mentioned here and these are my own personal
highlights. I feel that out of all the apparent doom and gloom of cuts within
art education, austerity, Brexit and Trump that the Biennial has continued to
look outwards to what is happening within the arts globally, showing work at a time when it is all too easy to be pessimistic, that there is more that
unites us than divides us. Art that calls for more action, more participation
through questioning, thinking, speaking/listening, engaging, creating, building, planting
and maybe even blogging! Nothing is not an option.</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Liverpool
Biennial 2018, can be seen at selected venues across the city until October 28<sup>th</sup>.
For more information visit: <a href="http://www.biennial.com/2018"><span style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">http://www.biennial.com/2018</span></a></span></b><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-18278565976571280162018-09-02T07:43:00.002-07:002018-09-02T07:43:35.567-07:00I have often walked down this street before...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4SoG2BqkfIaD1p7pjTPCZb2tvA27Cy9zqwu5QuUhREblvAtJB2TliY-8WIeb5zEzYzdLW-jxZRtr30rYtmfTMbdzoxJ0_uMRxFdBa1Wwuu-wALj8dSVoaY-kS6JowiOtyZrbeQjflRE/s1600/Map4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1042" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4SoG2BqkfIaD1p7pjTPCZb2tvA27Cy9zqwu5QuUhREblvAtJB2TliY-8WIeb5zEzYzdLW-jxZRtr30rYtmfTMbdzoxJ0_uMRxFdBa1Wwuu-wALj8dSVoaY-kS6JowiOtyZrbeQjflRE/s400/Map4.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">H</span><span style="font-family: calibri;">o illustrious passers-by and greetings from the windward
side of town! A veritable map of discovery was last week found amongst the
library shelves, who knows for how long it had been there? Never before has an
A1 folded sheet of paper probably brought more unexpected joy to a normal
working day in providing a treasure map of sorts offering an insight into the
architectural history of Taunton, Somerset.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ewJeY5fc9BQFw5TUguMsbaPi9uX3Yb-8hv5ETwQ-BlzoZDsr2srGrPi42w5xSopL5enquVxv6GnRe5AXWyc1t4zRte2tWVs-VVaz8crX5UtBnCxmLj0Ck9A7Tr04gn2ZH0lPGXrOZi4/s1600/Map1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="773" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ewJeY5fc9BQFw5TUguMsbaPi9uX3Yb-8hv5ETwQ-BlzoZDsr2srGrPi42w5xSopL5enquVxv6GnRe5AXWyc1t4zRte2tWVs-VVaz8crX5UtBnCxmLj0Ck9A7Tr04gn2ZH0lPGXrOZi4/s320/Map1.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Printed in 1975, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Taunton:
A look around the centre</i> is an illustrated and annotated map designed by
Richard Guise with historical advice from Mick Aston and John Hunt produced for
the European Architectural Heritage Year. It was amazing to see just what has
changed in the last 43 years (this map was made prior to The Brewhouse Theatre
being built, being one such example) and what has largely remained the same.
Particularly when it comes to some of Guise’s opinions about the potential uses
for space in the town, development of the river and ambition/opportunities
present which he has annotated on this map. I wonder how many of them were his
own opinions or those gathered from his experiences working with the Civic
Society (which now doesn’t even exist!)? Some of them are a little cynical,
which makes it even more interesting that it was printed at all when one thinks
of similar ‘historical’ maps for the public that are almost lacking in
personality for fear of unsettling things. For me, this is interesting as many
of the ideas he presented over forty years ago echo the sort of comments
collected during a public art consultation project I worked on with Taunton
Deane Borough Council and Somerset Art Works in 2010 called, ‘Routes, river,
rail’. </span><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">The aim of ‘Routes, river, rail’ was broadly speaking to
come up with creative ways of consulting different groups of people in the
community and put forward ideas and proposals for how the routes between the
train station, river and public spaces such as Firepool, Goodlands Gardens and
Tangier within the town could be connected. It was to look at things such as
lighting, surfaces, pathways, land-markers, signage, bridges and how different
groups have different needs or aspirations of these spaces. Artistic practice
was a way of collecting those ideas and proposing ones that could be made reality,
it included things from gorilla gardening, painting bridges and creating
literally easier to navigate pathways through urban areas (this led to the
removal of a part of fencing where Goodlands Gardens meets the bridge on North
Street). The ‘could be made’ and ‘proposed’ being the two difficult parts of
that sentence. I do not like to dwell too much on past projects, but this one
probably had the most significant impact on my understanding of art outside of
the academic world, I had graduated a few months before, and into the politics
and reality of what art means to people outside that protective art bubble I
was so used to. It was when I first discovered blogging and it was a big
eye-opener, not all for the better or for worse but made me aware of the
attitudes and values that different groups had towards art; some resistant,
some open, some hesitant, some confused. I think I was confused too, that
suddenly art wasn’t about me, ‘the artist’ and something I was actively making/doing
but could be something that we as groups were doing, through walks, talking,
making maps, postcards and listening. It put me in touch with some amazing
people, Transition Town (who still do a lot of Green activities that included
Gorilla gardening), Stefan Jennings (who was commissioned to build the Willow
Cathedral in Longrun Meadows) and furthered my links with The Brewhouse Theatre
and working with people like Tim Hill on projects such as ‘Sounding out
Somerset’ during the Olympics in 2012. </span><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FSACKv5Le1Tye10MA_5RzuULC0rfwqRaZOxbxD5Thrp7T_DMADRPDo95oSC4bM89_ruiQaW0rgUEDeFjK6a1UmG-W8A6WC9RPdo9HF7Cp4mfuDnVSuCOkzV9soD1H_A0Qca0SXIJ114/s1600/Map5+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="1489" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FSACKv5Le1Tye10MA_5RzuULC0rfwqRaZOxbxD5Thrp7T_DMADRPDo95oSC4bM89_ruiQaW0rgUEDeFjK6a1UmG-W8A6WC9RPdo9HF7Cp4mfuDnVSuCOkzV9soD1H_A0Qca0SXIJ114/s400/Map5+-+Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">And though this is all long over the affects of it remain
and I am still interested because I still read and see and am party to the
impact of developments and changes happening within the town I live in. Finding
this map is like finding a missing piece of the puzzle and could have only
helped what we were trying to do then and undoubtedly what other groups of
people are still trying to do now. It seems to take a lot of repetition before
any progress can be made or in order to be listened to. A list of statements
from this 1975 map that still hold relevance as follows, </span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“It’s sad that we so often turn our backs onto rivers in towns.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Important skyline”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Views out over the town to the Quantocks.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Two important trees form an effective end to the view down middle
street.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Blank expanse of wall…ideal for a mural.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Why does the highest point in the old town strangely lack drama or a
significant building?”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“If we’ve got to have Gasometers why not paint them in good strong
colours and designs …they won’t go away because we paint them sky blue.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Goodland Gardens -an attempt to attract people back to the neglected
river.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGexyV99_hj6d4aLsDPQCpLufoCH6u2f7PCOzJ5UxIEg32T8lfLrEvP2ZwZHf0f3MEQ-MTPkNie1D2PV305iHH9Kr5dhLa3r-pHgXEBLHv_SMsH_y97BQuxDfKzh1l1KtIJUepC1nwF0/s1600/Map8+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1004" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGexyV99_hj6d4aLsDPQCpLufoCH6u2f7PCOzJ5UxIEg32T8lfLrEvP2ZwZHf0f3MEQ-MTPkNie1D2PV305iHH9Kr5dhLa3r-pHgXEBLHv_SMsH_y97BQuxDfKzh1l1KtIJUepC1nwF0/s400/Map8+-+Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I wish we had had this map in 2010! The politics of this
aside the discovery of this map still presents an inspiring example of creative
map-making as a way of understanding and learning about place. Maps put facts
into context and present snippets of information without overloading people. I
learnt several new things such as;</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">St Johns Church on Park Street was designed by Sir George Gilbert
Scott.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">In Victorian times there used to be a workhouse somewhere behind the
hospital on East Street.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Musgrove, Galmington, Trull Road and Sherford were sites for the
‘Well-to-do villas built on the windward side of town away from factory smells
and fall-out.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">In Medieval Taunton the Bishop’s Vivarium later to became Vivary Park.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Taunton was one of the first towns to have street lighting in 1886</span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8lOnOyvLagYM3uXt125Vijhyu-xCbo5BL-FoSIE8aMVwSijS7dJ_35J8JDDYpaOdkPSSA0rECPkzKhDMjwvkZ4q-njA-naDgGuahG0eawn5kebmf0df1FRMSf0r13Q1VFl2Xp6rysao/s1600/Map3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1277" data-original-width="769" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8lOnOyvLagYM3uXt125Vijhyu-xCbo5BL-FoSIE8aMVwSijS7dJ_35J8JDDYpaOdkPSSA0rECPkzKhDMjwvkZ4q-njA-naDgGuahG0eawn5kebmf0df1FRMSf0r13Q1VFl2Xp6rysao/s400/Map3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I am interested in ways people process information and ways
we learn a sense of place, why (for example) this map was more appealing and
interesting to me than reading a book on the history of Taunton or visiting the
museum? How many other people think the same? This is a very visual way of communicating information and offers locations or vantage points where people might go to see these things first-hand. There were little bits of
personal history within this map in particular that appealed to me, from the fact it was
printed by Barnicotts of Taunton (where two members of my family worked) to its
statement of Crown Walk as being a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Potential
for events, kiosks, exhibitions -at present a bit sad, wide and empty’</i>
which was before the in-shops were built and my family had a fruit business
based there (ironically, I feel it is in danger of becoming a ‘bit sad’ again) and
the reference to Taunton having the largest Industry for shirts and Collars in
1896 being the collar factory, where Fine Art students at Somerset College
(where I studied) had an art exhibition in 2012. I appreciate this will be
irrelevant to most people but I mention because it highlights a more universal
truth about how places have resonance, you unfold a map out of a place people
know and recognise and automatically they are looking for connections, things
they recognise, where they live, where their grandparents lived, where they
went to school. It is an opener to a host of other conversations. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNz0wsNJMvpaPVBQfSSzl7r78XRF9SQaPC-iLiTXH29Kudqx-kLdVcpScg0FAP6Po7kzLU_DxdnpoGcZ81A0n2P1QYEXHFdMwjS2VSWArni_rBwbYcD2gs8x46dSs9TlZM8UJ5ZYjGa9A/s1600/Map7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNz0wsNJMvpaPVBQfSSzl7r78XRF9SQaPC-iLiTXH29Kudqx-kLdVcpScg0FAP6Po7kzLU_DxdnpoGcZ81A0n2P1QYEXHFdMwjS2VSWArni_rBwbYcD2gs8x46dSs9TlZM8UJ5ZYjGa9A/s400/Map7.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">In 1975 the purpose of this map was made as a way of
presenting current thoughts of the time, ideas for the future as well as
illustrating the evolution of the town throughout history. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Forty-three years later and it is still a
presentation of the history of the town but has also become a form of
social-history in itself. It is not just a map of architectural history, it is
a map of the thoughts and values of the people (the civic society) who made it
at the time. Attitudes will have changed, things listed on this map as
‘Taunton’s Top 10’ may no longer be the same. The history is still there but to
someone like me in their early thirties or younger this map is now also history
in itself. I like the idea that one-day maybe an updated map could be made, an
unvetted one that did not have to conform to a council-led directive, but one
that reflects the current values, opinions, stories and aspirations of people living
in Taunton today.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Maybe? It is something to think on. If anyone has
any thoughts on this or knows more about this map then please do get in touch
via my <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/p/news.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">contact page</span></a>. I would be interested in hearing from you.</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-16525955615144440472018-07-22T07:15:00.000-07:002018-07-22T07:15:39.022-07:00Divine<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl39O4pkB-SCEzx2IB24-Xg7yBNef_kBwZdjGNh9UO5kOXIZAzftwS4VG59XEw-QPSh_H6-uWgl-8ijcfxIUs9wurpq3WSG8eZlEn1zoORDI5Qj7K0Dro2AkWfuP6dIbxRO0SdIjUBHDo/s1600/SEAR+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl39O4pkB-SCEzx2IB24-Xg7yBNef_kBwZdjGNh9UO5kOXIZAzftwS4VG59XEw-QPSh_H6-uWgl-8ijcfxIUs9wurpq3WSG8eZlEn1zoORDI5Qj7K0Dro2AkWfuP6dIbxRO0SdIjUBHDo/s400/SEAR+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'the diviner' 2018</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In every sense of the word (and for reasons that will
also hopefully become clear) Helen Sear’s exhibition which opened last Friday
at Hestercombe Gallery, is divine. Least alone because the show opens with her
most recent photographic work, titled ‘The Diviner’ (2018) spectacularly displayed on the gallery’s nineteenth century staircase [pictured]. An epically-sized series of three prints of willow trees taken over
two years chronicled as their roots grew and dried with the rising and falling
of the water where they grew. Their roots adorned by the artist, with
flowers to denote their likeness to skirts; a fitting tribute, in the absence
of any actual period-dressed skirted ladies, to the grandeur of Hestercombe’s
ballroom-like setting. Many proms, in-fact my own having taken place here some
years ago (though I never recall myself or anyone else wearing anything that
quite matches the scale that Sear’s tree-skirts convey)! The trees divine water
through their roots and mirror-image both their workings above
as below, intentionally or not, allude an interesting insight into the dual-nature of Sear’s work
depicting her subject matter through multiple viewpoints, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the known and the unknown, both here rendered
visible. Its subject matter, scale and situ within the gallery, along with its
use of colour and play of illusion through mirror-imagery really set the tone for
the other visually intriguing and intellectually beguiling works exhibited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“Sear has always, it seems, been interested in looking with, looking
round and looking through as she is in looking at.”</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtw6hDn-Q4B-LYkFHHatzBfRhyphenhyphen3LH1e125NUUHNxPCXb9ETJ4U3EsSe_PmHnxmVUA27NoNOUqU3WVmqYH_9kbkjWLMeGdQIoBNdiuWcyV3kVl8h_ksjcPiMlW707n3eros8lZ-yBdjBHM/s1600/SEAR+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtw6hDn-Q4B-LYkFHHatzBfRhyphenhyphen3LH1e125NUUHNxPCXb9ETJ4U3EsSe_PmHnxmVUA27NoNOUqU3WVmqYH_9kbkjWLMeGdQIoBNdiuWcyV3kVl8h_ksjcPiMlW707n3eros8lZ-yBdjBHM/s400/SEAR+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'stack' 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sitting on the periphery between photography and fine art
the works on show in ‘prospect refuge’ are united in being influenced by Sear’s
interest in nature and our 'human/animal relationships within it'. The title of
the show influenced by a concept from natural history writer, Jay Appleton whose
concept of ‘prospect refuge’ states, ‘the perceived beauty of a landscape is
directly linked to human survival’. Personally speaking, I am unsure if the
images I see consciously trigger thoughts of survival, though I do find
many of the stills from Sear’s film-based pieces, with their strong use of
colour and focus on textures (a curtain, a net, light through trees) to be
beautiful in an aesthetic sense. Maybe much of what we know of 'survival' in relation to the natural landscape has been lost or is now only ingrained in our subconscious? I am unsure, but this psychological-edge to the work creates a double-take in how it is perceived by the viewer. The
film/sound piece ‘wahaha biota’ (2018) made for The Forestry Commission England
that shows the planting and processing of trees is an example of how Sear’s
work creates a sense of intrigue and beauty through green-filtered scenes of
meadows and dappled forests in contrast to the isolation and strange sounds
that also give these places an edge of being dark, primal and slightly
foreboding. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Though the overall impression I get is that f<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">or what is mostly an exhibition using photography it is
surprising just how painterly, immersive and in some cases sculptural the images are. </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The exhibition features photographic and film-based works
from 2015 onwards with the implied cross-over between sculpture and photography
being an idea that the artist herself acknowledges within one of the first pieces
you encounter in the gallery. Titled ‘Stack’, [pictured above] a pile of stacked
logs is displayed on a large scale, which in-turn is also physically sliced and stacked vertically as an image along the gallery wall forming a visual blockade that is physically felt as well as seen,</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">‘a meeting of photography and sculpture, or treating the photographic
image as sculptural,...’</span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">In a visual-sense these logs are a series of cylinders piled onto one another, but it also raises feelings of deforestation, man's relationship with the forest, ideas of the homestead and stacking logs used for fires and so on. </span>The doubling-up of the captured-moment of an image of
stacked logs versus the stacking of the physical image itself calls into
question the visual play between illusion and perception. A theme explored
across a number of Sear’s works from when she exhibited in the Welsh pavilion
in the Venice Biennale in 2015. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3SOnbDVMnAIuJk3uxVNeI49eRVSUUhpWasF13MMeAVcQV5KcZWkuMuBMvccUt2YoYekXSBRQgwhq-9JB7ZcKJxnZubigq9DUVcZrLb-6q4F7AdZju5mrF7Ve8wwwnZjLETiZ14KYVmoc/s1600/SEAR+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3SOnbDVMnAIuJk3uxVNeI49eRVSUUhpWasF13MMeAVcQV5KcZWkuMuBMvccUt2YoYekXSBRQgwhq-9JB7ZcKJxnZubigq9DUVcZrLb-6q4F7AdZju5mrF7Ve8wwwnZjLETiZ14KYVmoc/s400/SEAR+4.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'...caetera fumus' 2015 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">One of several pieces from the Venice Biennale exhibited
at Hestercombe, titled ‘...caetera fumus’ reads almost like a transcription of
the original painting of St Sebastian [1490] it was inspired from by Andrea
Mantegna.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of a figure the landscape
becomes the protagonist, a bright yellow field in contrast to red
twigs become symbols for blooded arrows and a light-box becomes a modern-day
interpretation of creating a glaze in paint and almost celestial-like
luminosity associated with religious imagery. In the same room, the curation of
the quote, ‘Nihil nisi divinum stabile est. Caetera fumus’ [which translates as
‘Nothing is stable if not divine, the rest is smoke’] displayed, in my mind
rather wittily, above the fireplace and refers to the impermanence of all things.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am fortunate to have seen these works before in Venice where the context of this work was closely tied to the building it was shown in, however, I feel that the work has more autonomy in the context of Hestercombe away from the heat and saturation of art in Venice where it can be contemplated quietly and more fully than I allowed time for previously. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Colour and the reference to painting (as we have already
had with sculpture) are also present in another series of photographs called
‘brand 1’ and ‘brand 2’. You could almost take these images on first glance to
be paintings, stains or rubbings. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“My use of colour is also to do with a convergence of the synthetic and
the natural, using heightened colour to explore relationships between light and
pigment, painting and photography.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I think they are a photograph of a marking on a tree, but
for me the uncertainty and place it fits between being photo and non-photo, is
it a documentation of a moment in time or is it merely an image? Are these
colours natural or manmade, real or unreal? Are questions what make these and
many of Sear’s images worth revisiting.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“Her process of production often suggest a series of veils or membranes
that may be alternately piled up and peeled away...Rather than merely giving us
the world, or giving us to it, the photographic act is an overlayering , of
times and places, signs and sensations.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBItyZboC3npedHf2jKLOdII68kSvNdtyeXcy9scKXyOka6CgaX37jhC3dEdejsM-vOLQCudLJgD6hXHhSmRjmKQFoY0LndOYznD2B-Bcu2tlGOO2aYH18MLFZsg0KkfD3Hk-8l533Dk/s1600/SEAR+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBItyZboC3npedHf2jKLOdII68kSvNdtyeXcy9scKXyOka6CgaX37jhC3dEdejsM-vOLQCudLJgD6hXHhSmRjmKQFoY0LndOYznD2B-Bcu2tlGOO2aYH18MLFZsg0KkfD3Hk-8l533Dk/s400/SEAR+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'the beginning and the end of things' 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The projection piece, shown on the floor ‘the beginning
and the end of things’ (2015) is another example where our sense of perception is skewed
and how Sear adapts her medium of film and photography to create something that
(like ‘Stack’) her audience almost 'physically' encounters rather than merely 'looks-at', as one tries to work out what this unfamiliar amoeba-like changing
coloured thing is. Her work has been linked to ideas within Surrealism and I can
see why within this work particularly as it conveys an
ever-changing puddle within which the trees and sky are reflected but at the
same time are an illusion of the real-thing, an Alice in Wonderland-like portal to another world... It is real and unreal at the same time, uncanny,
slightly trippy and strange but oddly also more engaging because of those
things than had it been static or on the wall. Once again there is also something very painterly/impressionistic in its fluidity. It is not the only piece in the exhibition either where Sear combines new technology along with nature/natural images drones are used in the film piece,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> '</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">m</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">oments of capture' (2016).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is more to be seen in this exhibition than I have referred to here in what is also worth noting is Sear's first solo show but second time exhibiting at Hestercombe, having shown work in 2015's <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.com/2015/07/make-mine-double.html" target="_blank">'Double Take'</a>. Then as now, I feel that her use of colour, modes of display and references to painting/fine art is more exciting, inventive and engaging than I have felt about a lot of photography as a medium previously. It is great to have that perception challenged as it is also worth reiterating how great it is to see these works on my doorstep and I would encourage others to do the same. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span>Helen Sear’s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> 'prospect refuge hazard 2'</i> is on at
Hestercombe Gallery until October 28<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/prospect-refuge-hazard-2-by-helen-sear/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.hestercombe.com/event/prospect-refuge-hazard-2-by-helen-sear/</span></a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Quotes sourced from: Drake, D (2015) Helen Sear: ...the rest is smoke, Ffotogallery Wales Limited: Cardiff<b> </b></span></span></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-6617165706972077002018-07-01T12:38:00.000-07:002018-07-01T12:38:50.463-07:00Not so shocking pink, but still relevant!
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhCrGF8T8ZktGMF1V9mzRHdFJY6QXVNVbqEn4UvucvHKtJ2j0dP2M6WgGIHEYHJccYkyQ_fNNwNEQPKtCUPagrGPDY3ztJNySO45NRFrIJXo_T2D4o_l6EWb4-O5GZ07SZUqQGHDlXlc/s1600/creativity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1002" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhCrGF8T8ZktGMF1V9mzRHdFJY6QXVNVbqEn4UvucvHKtJ2j0dP2M6WgGIHEYHJccYkyQ_fNNwNEQPKtCUPagrGPDY3ztJNySO45NRFrIJXo_T2D4o_l6EWb4-O5GZ07SZUqQGHDlXlc/s400/creativity.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This less than conspicuous fluorescent pink book, titled,
‘Creativity: Why it matters’ from chief executive of Arts Council England,
Darren Henley was published last week on the 28<sup>th</sup> June and is the
sort of book that, if I still worked in a bookshop, I would most definitely have
on display till-side. It’s small enough to read quickly and gives a convincing
polemic for why creativity in all its forms generates a significant impact on
the economy, in our communities, in our lives and education that leaves a
lasting impression long after reading. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Somewhat bias of me but much of what Henley’s book covers
will ring true with what those already in the art world know/believe about
the labours and importance of their undertaking already, but is heartening nonetheless to
have the message, along with some impressive stats and examples (such as Hull’s
experiences being capital of culture) to demonstrate how creativity drives
innovation, boosts our economy and enables individuals and communities to shape
and define their futures. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The creative industries contributed £91.8 billion to the UK economy in
2016 –that’s 5.3 percent of the UK economy (bigger than the combined totals of
the automotive, life sciences, aerospace and oil and gas industries).”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is exactly the sort of manifesto that one would want
to come out from someone at the helm of Arts Council England and though he
states that it is ‘his’ words rather than an official publication of the
organisation, it is still reinforcing much of what must be some of the values
and ambitions of Arts Council England? I assume! Henley also talks about the value of
creativity (broadly speaking) rather than being pigeon-holed as being something only relevant to the arts
and how its capacity for inducing curiosity, problem solving and analytical
skills are essential in many industries as well as helping tackle rising
problems of loneliness and issues surrounding mental-health. One such example
cited by Professor Roger Kneebone is to use arts within sciences to teach
medical staff,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The expertise of the scientists and medics informs the creativity of
the artists; and the expertise of the artists helps the scientists and medics
to think and act more creatively.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, again my own personal bias is coming across
here (having quite recently started working in a medical library) but in an era
when arts are being increasingly cut in education and undervalued in the
academic jobs market this little book is an important voice in the need to
remind, inspire and nurture the provision of creativity. It isn’t simply a call
for more money to be thrown at it, but a sort of recognition and investment
that must first come from time and understanding. Some of the most successful musicians, artists and performers etc. often come out of places with little or no opportunity
because there is a need or desire for expression and the arts in these areas of
our communities. It also highlights the diversity of places and means by which
people are ‘creative’ from cooking, to gardening, walking, writing and even fishing! However, the
argument of when and where people learn and retain their creativity is something of
contention but must still be encouraged. One such example cited that was of personal
interest, being libraries, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Libraries consistently emerge from surveys as being especially trusted
institutions, safe spaces and resources of integrity. They are also making an
evolutionary journey towards being communal, creative hubs, where you would be
likely to access a 3D printer as a novel. Maybe we should develop these trusted
community resources so that they become miniature local universities –centres
for life-long learning and bases for new kinds of co-operative creative work.
Centres of citizenship.” </span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interesting and I haven’t really given too much thought
into the practicalities of such a proposition, but I know that from working in a
bookshop retail environment that what bookshops offer goes farther than being
merely ‘just a place to shop’ yet, it seems, they are seldom by government or
otherwise supported as being anything other. Yet they, libraries and other places people go to learn, socialise, have fun, connect and discover could continue and even
be much more than they already offer. A thread that continues into Henley’s final chapter which
addresses creativity and education and is critical of how it is being cut-back
at the peril of failing to invest in human progress.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Art education is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Though its not all doom and gloom, he makes several resonate observations of why creativity is important in the development of a person's sense of self and potential to make positive change, in-fact the overriding
feeling is one that this book is small and punchy enough to have an impact that
could instigate long-lasting change, as long as the right people are (reading) listening. I hope so.</span></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-27124362119334752762018-06-20T03:19:00.001-07:002018-06-20T03:19:55.273-07:00Lost in Translation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">“Wiederentdeckung eines
grossen zeichners.”</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Not
the first time I have bought an art book in another language. I’ve several, in
fact, unless I learn Italian, German, French and Chinese have very little
chance of ever interpreting in full. I have made some effort, “Wiederentdeckung
eines grossen zeichners” translates as ‘rediscovery of a great draughtsman’
which I could not have put more succinctly as a way of describing the art of
Austrian born artist, Kelmens Brosch, the ‘draughtsman’ in question and worthy
protagonist of this week’s blog post. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXR3xsxmMwFDjVyEm7xZ0bGD-nMS7BxifYg1ZCQGc4n-wi0lM9xyNskTXvF6FA1MiTteT10ivm5fvJVTbD3ykbGk5GVeSZU6gVPGBEInox9-WjZdTs4Jbj8ItqO4e5izF1wANxpYmnEk/s1600/meadow+enters+the+forest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1530" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXR3xsxmMwFDjVyEm7xZ0bGD-nMS7BxifYg1ZCQGc4n-wi0lM9xyNskTXvF6FA1MiTteT10ivm5fvJVTbD3ykbGk5GVeSZU6gVPGBEInox9-WjZdTs4Jbj8ItqO4e5izF1wANxpYmnEk/s400/meadow+enters+the+forest.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Meadow enters the forest' 1913 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Whilst
I would love to be able to read more about Brosch’s life and work, I cannot read Austrian-German so am having to rely solely on my own
interpretations and limited findings from the visuals of the work itself! Sometimes
not a bad thing and this should prove an interesting exercise. I really wanted to write a post
about Klemens Brosch. After seeing his work, in particular his drawings, for
the first time in an exhibition at the Belvedere in Vienna, I am convinced that
(as the title of the book suggests) more people need to not only rediscover,
but perhaps like myself discover his work for the first time!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinp8_TL_II6bkynTWbBNnc82hrUVrwxfuptOgnL5FXVqVLVH9mILus1Jb4DvPDXIpasbRFftU6nCQRHy0t_uprGQpdU3tNNzqFnkKaeTsFbVk-e-MhB-m4bieEuUWzC8Nf5j02-XJHN-s/s1600/Klemens_Brosch_Einsiedler_im_Wald_78355e29e4c47dc15c15de60c46c6069%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1140" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinp8_TL_II6bkynTWbBNnc82hrUVrwxfuptOgnL5FXVqVLVH9mILus1Jb4DvPDXIpasbRFftU6nCQRHy0t_uprGQpdU3tNNzqFnkKaeTsFbVk-e-MhB-m4bieEuUWzC8Nf5j02-XJHN-s/s400/Klemens_Brosch_Einsiedler_im_Wald_78355e29e4c47dc15c15de60c46c6069%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Hermit in a deep snow hut' 1919 *</td></tr>
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<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">I
think I enjoy writing about drawing as much as doing it and remain something of
a cheerleader for the joys that come from the meditative, immersive, emotive,
expressive and intense practice of connecting hand/body to eye and lived
experience of putting pencil/pen/silverpoint/charcoal to paper or surface. If I
am really intrigued or obsessed by something then one of the best ways to
really and truly capture what it is (in every sense of the word), in my opinion, is with a drawing. Though I am no
way near as committed to this as what Brosch obviously was. In his few sixteen
years working as an artist Brosch created 1000 drawings, watercolours, prints
and paintings! Born in Linz in 1894 he was only thirty-two years old when he
died in 1926 and leaving a copious legacy of drawings on themes of landscape,
nature, fantasy and the first world war. What makes them so special is that
they are incredibly, almost painstakingly detailed. Tone in each drawing made
of hundreds upon thousands of lines, almost like an etching-rendered so
carefully they are almost invisible unless looked at closely (and I mean
magnifying glass closely!). None of the images (scans) from the catalogue here
will quite do them justice, but in works such as ‘Meadow enters the forest’
every blade of grass, flora and fauna is meticulously and exquisitely captured
as it fades off into the distance of, what is an almost eerie looking horizon
of the forest. There are dozens of works of forests in general, all of which
are suspenseful in their quietness and have that almost Brothers Grimm,
fairy-tale or children’s illustration-like quality of narrating a scene in
which some creature or threat is about to take place whilst being almost
melancholic at the same time. I did read somewhere (in English) that many of
his images were inspired by German literature which seems to fit my assumptions
here.</span></div>
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<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">There
is a feeling of nostalgia too present in Brosch’s drawings, ‘Hermit in a deep
snow hut’, even though I think I have never seen it before, feels so
reminiscent to me of something from a children’s book that it is almost
uncanny. ‘The Crocodile on the Moon-disc’ depicting exactly what it says is
another example of the varied and sometimes fantasy or surreal places that
Brosch's drawings went. These figures in trapped in the snow or fantastical
creatures on the moon are reoccurring themes of isolation in Brosch's drawings
that one could read a lot into about him as a person, but without knowing,
would be purely guess-work.</span></div>
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What
little I know of Brosch includes that he served in the First World War and
after the death of his brother was discharged on grounds of being a malingerer.
Brosch’s drawings from combat scenes during the war are harrowing and for me
reminiscent in many ways of Goya’s ‘The Disasters of War’ due to their
nightmarish, uncensored brutality. I can only speculate that the increase in
the amount of work produced during this time came from the need to process what
he had seen and experienced mixed with, what I do know, to be an addiction to
morphine as a result of respiratory illness he had since birth. Many of these
drawings are almost realer than real, so detailed they become almost
photographic but are always pulled back into the subjective and human qualities
of drawing that make them more accountable through the sheer time and
commitment it must take to depict the image by hand rather than with the click
of a button. Unlike photography (of the time) however, they can be edited and composed to heighten and emphasise in ways that make them all the more troubling in what they depict. </div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">For me, it is Brosch’s
pencil studies of what are on face-value, arbitrary objects that really
excites. In ‘Detailed study if a coat and hat’ that’s exactly what we get and
alludes to the classic art school discipline of drawing drapery but on a much
more everyday level. In terms of looking at form, shape, texture and tone,
there is a lot going on in this drawing which at the same time is essentially
of nothing of any consequence. Similarly, there are drawings of empty gloves,
hands and bizarrely dead frogs which may all be drawing exercises but are
beautifully observed nonetheless. Why I like drawing in the same way that
others may like photography, is that it is that both are about being obsessed
with looking. The noticing of something you may have never seen had you not
been attempting to draw it. Technically speaking, I am never going to be like
Brosch but I can relate to the desire to capture a variety of subjects through
drawing and want to try drawing new things. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">And if you never want to see a more beautiful set of drawings of old pairs of shoes then look away now!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQxvrYlpGH-nM8Y7oQw_x6vmpyv9PAgRjd2JfNw9-IgIsttyWccTQrfuLLtTwhb-P0snIrcJKyuxnWbzgdyfFyNkOt9OBpkJ1-8aARF2UnwLCBN0nb_xnMe7KpI1kjIcqSA1ATmVeLwk/s1600/thank+the+invalids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1233" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQxvrYlpGH-nM8Y7oQw_x6vmpyv9PAgRjd2JfNw9-IgIsttyWccTQrfuLLtTwhb-P0snIrcJKyuxnWbzgdyfFyNkOt9OBpkJ1-8aARF2UnwLCBN0nb_xnMe7KpI1kjIcqSA1ATmVeLwk/s640/thank+the+invalids.jpg" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Thank the Invalids' 1915 (also below*)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">In the exhibition there was a wall of what must have been
at least forty drawings of old, extremely worn-out shoes drawn from a variety
of different and very technically challenging angles that boggles my mind at
the skilfulness involved in their making. The absence of the human form to
these shoes, as with the coat, always tells a lot more about the use and
character of them and their relationship with their wearer than had they been
drawn with someone wearing them. If that makes sense to you as it does me! The
collective title of these works translated as ‘Thank the invalids’ only raises
more questions that unfortunately I do not have answers to but again conjures
more associations these shoes had with their owners and just why Brosch chose
to draw so many may remain a mystery to me...at least until I learn German!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">I
hope you can forgive that much of what I could know about Brosch is lost in
translation but there is hopefully, what this post goes some way to prove is
that there is as much to be gained from visually reading the work, that I could
never get from reading about it anyway. They make me want to draw! If you ever get a chance to see these
works up-close in person then I thoroughly recommend a visit!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: calibri;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: calibri;"><b>Klemens Brosch was on at the Belvedere in Vienna from 9th
March - 3rd June 2018</b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://www.belvedere.at/Klemens_Brosch_en" target="_blank">https://www.belvedere.at/Klemens_Brosch_en </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">Images marked with * sourced from: <a href="https://diepresse.com/home/kultur/kunst/5385220/Shootingstar-der-Zwischenkriegszeit_Gezeichnet-von-Krieg-und-Drogen"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">https://diepresse.com/home/kultur/kunst/5385220/Shootingstar-der-Zwischenkriegszeit_Gezeichnet-von-Krieg-und-Drogen</span></a>
; <a href="http://www.mickmorley.at/Progress/Aha-Ok/811-Einsiedler-im-Wald"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">http://www.mickmorley.at/Progress/Aha-Ok/811-Einsiedler-im-Wald</span></a></span></div>
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-9128100314785078562018-05-19T07:04:00.001-07:002018-05-19T07:04:23.904-07:00Black and Gold
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Not all that glitters is gold, but you may be fooled by
Hestercombe Gallery’s latest exhibition, ‘Cultivation: Points of vantage’ that
features a surprising array of deceptively dazzling (albeit monochromatic) surfaces. From the glossy
sheen of George Shaw’s enamel painted depictions of haunting urban places, John
Newling’s gold-leafed plant specimens, Mary Griffiths’ iridescent, meticulously
and intrinsically worked graphite drawings that sparkle and shimmer, Anna
Barriball’s pencil rubbing of a stained-glass window rendered surprisingly
light, to the reflective gloss of Mary McIntyre’s misty landscape photography. It is not a colourful exhibition whose slightly sombre tones provide a stark contrast to the seasonal colours outside in the gardens, but it will make you think; about the places, the vantage points from which we view and interact with landscape through our windows, the things we grow, the towns we live in, the places we leave behind....</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaxuw3kKcggSmAL_BgFid4avjqO_cG7N29dJHsQ3LCuojUS0Q2f5a3eUu_f12zqv02w7hA_OpXWwuPm3Ru5VscThGq0N2op6mr08F3qC96iRsBSiWyTW8_me0Nxy1-qlqLX3c_zU9vfc/s1600/ab-_0901frit26_-_sunset_-_sunrise_v%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="630" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaxuw3kKcggSmAL_BgFid4avjqO_cG7N29dJHsQ3LCuojUS0Q2f5a3eUu_f12zqv02w7hA_OpXWwuPm3Ru5VscThGq0N2op6mr08F3qC96iRsBSiWyTW8_me0Nxy1-qlqLX3c_zU9vfc/s400/ab-_0901frit26_-_sunset_-_sunrise_v%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anna Barriball <i>Sunrise/Sunset </i>(2008) Pencil on paper.*</td></tr>
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Things <i>are</i> what they first appear <i>and not</i>, forcing us to look
beyond the surface of these works and investigate more closely so that new
meanings are revealed. Griffiths’ and Barriball’s drawings both reflect the
light, yet when viewed from different angles and in different light levels reveal
their very grey, dark surfaces. Properties created due to the graphite from
which they are made. I have a lot of time for Barriball’s work*, they have a
pleasing trompe l’oeil affect in being both a life-size rendering (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Sunrise/Sunset’</i> 2008 it is in fact a
rubbing) of the original object, a window, a fireplace, a door; but in a
material that makes them useless or a trace of what they once were. The
stained-glass window’s main function to allow the emitting of light through its
coloured glass pannels is now blackened-out as a grey, lead-like replica. It is
now functionless, but reveals something new about its surface, its design and
as already mentioned, the duality of its now opaque but still shiny surface
that retains some of its connection to its original purpose.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQw-msLd_lqnPMYQp95ebq3z_MbEBcsghfEI6wo14GEGBewUSSfAkguyi0WeLHqS41g4FCTFsZvPtUC6EHY46C1nCA1xq5tbO1R_-_3oVYSVNUEz73JcV0lvMmkSNaDDP16X_TQgBDan0/s1600/Cultivation+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQw-msLd_lqnPMYQp95ebq3z_MbEBcsghfEI6wo14GEGBewUSSfAkguyi0WeLHqS41g4FCTFsZvPtUC6EHY46C1nCA1xq5tbO1R_-_3oVYSVNUEz73JcV0lvMmkSNaDDP16X_TQgBDan0/s400/Cultivation+1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Mariele Neudecker <i>Everything is Important and Nothing Matters at All</i> </div>
<div>
(2009) Mixed media.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="color: #2b2b2b; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Similarly, Mariele Neudecker’s sculpture, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Everything is Important and Nothing Matters
at All’</i> (2009), blurs with the distortion between reality and fiction
through a miniaturised maquette of an abandoned dwelling through which a video
of the natural world can be glimpsed (when viewing through the sculpture from
different angles). It is an almost movie-like fabrication but one so accurate
that it forces your eyes to become the camera; whether we chose to focus on the
details in the scene that transports us in our mind’s-eye into thinking that it
could be real or look beyond the sculpture and its presentation on a table
within a gallery that breaks the illusion turning it back into the realms of
fiction. This piece sits well alongside Mary McIntrye’s ‘Romanticism’ evoking,
misty veiled landscapes which have something equally cinematic and suspenseful about
them; scenes which are animated by the absence or anticipation of missing their
actors. </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXXzeJ12BDgYWIUVmSEpTKmAor7pqGcO3gnQOE1sflZjjnmSutnIcnUWINXcAbpLq1FXxIimuFNF-OdzEXJMFlEQWo1uzrbvnWLXcHZGMEHGrvdhEEtsajc2aU9RZ6UZpVtC2dPA5pu4/s1600/Cultivation+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXXzeJ12BDgYWIUVmSEpTKmAor7pqGcO3gnQOE1sflZjjnmSutnIcnUWINXcAbpLq1FXxIimuFNF-OdzEXJMFlEQWo1uzrbvnWLXcHZGMEHGrvdhEEtsajc2aU9RZ6UZpVtC2dPA5pu4/s400/Cultivation+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
John Newling <i>Value, Coin, Note and Eclipse</i> (2006) Pressed and guilded</div>
<div>
Jersey Kale plants</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">John Newling’s work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Value,
Coin, Note and Eclipse’</i> (2006) uses gold-leaf applied to,…well, leaves! The
irony is not wasted on me and speaking from a purely aesthetic point of view is
a visual treat for the eyes! Their museum-style mode of presentation is of
great appeal to me. Made from Jersey Kale, planted and grown by the artist
himself, whose leaves were removed at different stages of growth to create a
horticultural wall that documents time. The gold-leaf was used to explore ideas
of value and currency in relation to natural processes and, for me, becomes
symbolic of the time we choose to invest/or not into our relationship with
nature and challenges our perceptions of the preservation of life versus decay.
Which do we value more, the plant whilst it is alive, the resource it gives us
in death or the reminder of life it gives in being preserved in death? The idea
of the land as a resource is also explored in film by <span style="color: #2b2b2b; margin: 0px;">Mikhail
Karikis. In, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Children of Unquiet’ </i>(2013-14)
Karikis uses the sound of whistles and whispers performed by children with
imagery of the volcanic landscape, to tell the story of the first geothermic
power station to be built in Italy during the 1970s and its effect on the
people who live there.</span></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTTKoWsM7led4T2il3cjP-7n72FKc38NXuxHhX6Oz7r05stHPT_y8kaaqebmE0dREgwedwiTyTcQxvjMvqqMQucrpC5SczvtStr5QJooRKejK37H9hVdahU6DfgHgOikrlCBoSTwRziI/s1600/Cultivation+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTTKoWsM7led4T2il3cjP-7n72FKc38NXuxHhX6Oz7r05stHPT_y8kaaqebmE0dREgwedwiTyTcQxvjMvqqMQucrpC5SczvtStr5QJooRKejK37H9hVdahU6DfgHgOikrlCBoSTwRziI/s400/Cultivation+3.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mikhail Karikis <i>Children of the Unquiet </i>(2013-14) Video</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">All the exhibitions at Hestercombe, as we have come to expect (and
perhaps rightly so) have some sort of connection to the natural world, land or
the history/grounds context in which the gallery is situated. The connection
the works in this exhibition have with land is relatively clear. If we were
instead to take the title of this exhibition, to mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘cultivation’</i> in the sense of the none land-based definition of a,<span style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;"> ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">process of trying
to acquire or develop a quality or skill’</i> it rather nicely fits with what
the role of the artist is, as a sort-of cultivator of ideas, processes or
techniques which is none more than present in John Brown’s photographed
grasses, sparsely, carefully and meticulously placed to create a natural quality
of Chinese calligraphy without the ink. They are even more subtle and quiet
compared to much of the other relatively minimal pieces in the exhibition but
have a contemplative honesty reminiscent for anyone who has ever picked a stalk
of grass and pressed it between two sheets of paper in an attempt to capture
its shape and beauty. Proof if were needed that less is often more and a
process a means from which the artist explores transcendentalism. Elsewhere,
George Shaw’s almost photographic-like quality of painting in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Next Big Thing’</i> (2010) is an exact
testimony to the art of acquiring a skill and using it to capture a moment in
time, in Shaw’s paintings often of semi-urban abandoned-looking places that might no longer exist.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">In an exhibition that does not require laborious
contemplation to be enjoyed but whose works quietly invite the tilling over of
ideas through their seductive surfaces or use of the double-take; those who
take the time to look, think and look again may reap the rewards of the ideas these artists have sown. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Cultivation: Points
of vantage’ can be seen at Hestercombe Gallery until July 1<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>. </b><a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/cultivation-points-vantage/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.hestercombe.com/event/cultivation-points-vantage/</span></span></b></a> </div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Find out about the
Seminar happening around this exhibition on June 5th here:</b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/seminar-points-vantage/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.hestercombe.com/event/seminar-points-vantage/</span></b></a>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/"><span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">*Image sourced from: </span><a href="https://frieze.com/tags/anna-barriball"><span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://frieze.com/tags/anna-barriball</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">*See a post I wrote about
Barriball’s work in 2012 here: <a href="http://somersetartworksblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thoughts-on-anna-barriball-exhibition.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://somersetartworksblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thoughts-on-anna-barriball-exhibition.html</span></a> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; margin: 0px;">Words copyright of Natalie
Parsley.</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; margin: 0px;">©</span> </div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
</div>
</span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-33754895967840271382018-05-14T13:06:00.000-07:002018-05-18T11:35:33.658-07:00A Stitch in Time<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Cross-stitch, if you had asked me a month ago, would have
definitely been on the unwritten and unimaginatively-named list of ‘things I
thought I’d never do’. Nothing against cross-stitch, just that it was never
something that I had time, reason or compulsion of any sort to commit my time
towards. The list of ‘things that need doing’ always taking the priority and
well, cross-stitch just never made it on there…until now! </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYA1xkWXOZe-C-_WrzHt-fSCCEsRGZFbHDcKFH1-Bx9J5tWIfe9XEVc4UlJmK7wjyErjAmxoIFy_xDtJyeQkPgedEyFU2EcuyU7WEtfsdyk59La8cNP5lGQ7NS_4moa7Y2RHUBqZC2ZDs/s1600/SAMPLER1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1135" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYA1xkWXOZe-C-_WrzHt-fSCCEsRGZFbHDcKFH1-Bx9J5tWIfe9XEVc4UlJmK7wjyErjAmxoIFy_xDtJyeQkPgedEyFU2EcuyU7WEtfsdyk59La8cNP5lGQ7NS_4moa7Y2RHUBqZC2ZDs/s400/SAMPLER1.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'A Day in the Life of a Nurse' 1938 Nursing Illustrated</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">To coincide with <b>70 years of the NHS</b> this year, the
library manager for the Library Service, where I work for the Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust showed me with the library’s copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>‘Nursing
Illustrated</b>’</i>. Published as a series of magazines in 1938 (that’s right, 10
years before the NHS), it features research articles, news stories, letters,
advertisements, tips and activities relevant to the nursing profession of the
time. Coming from an art background I was drawn to a feature it published
inviting nursing staff to produce a sampler, titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘<b>A Day in the Life of a Nurse’</b></i>. The sampler, serialised in eight
parts gave pattern designs for cross-stitch scenes depicting nursing activities
such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘an interview with matron’ </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘visitors’ hour’</i>. The sampler also ran
as a competition in which the winning first prize sampler could win 10 guineas*!
</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The seed of an idea has been planted and I thought it would be really interesting if these designs
could be seen and brought to life again, made by the next generation of nursing
professionals and even opening it up wider to everyone who works within the NHS
today (even patients potentially), reflecting the breadth and diversity of the roles within the organisation.
These patterns are likely to have been unmade by anyone for quite some years
and so it is exciting to reveal something from the past.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vFSZrlDlGWhjflG_aX2Qc2deFsWKmwVNKSDQjaZopvf6igm9KEAq-0mEaK2bgb46YAmnFQAkhD0Cr0noVZ7RNN38b4-D1KI78H3NBfurd2S9NwfDD3nXw6cOh9mHLSKhAR1MQ_ud4x8/s1600/SAMPLER2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1257" data-original-width="1461" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vFSZrlDlGWhjflG_aX2Qc2deFsWKmwVNKSDQjaZopvf6igm9KEAq-0mEaK2bgb46YAmnFQAkhD0Cr0noVZ7RNN38b4-D1KI78H3NBfurd2S9NwfDD3nXw6cOh9mHLSKhAR1MQ_ud4x8/s400/SAMPLER2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pattern for 'Up with the Lark' scene in 'A Day in the Life of a Nurse'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Inevitably times change and what was in 1938 a sampler design
inside a nursing journal, perhaps intended as something to be made in-between
caring for patients on wards, is now something that is more likely to be regarded
as a spare-time leisure activity. In-part it reflects just how time-pressures
and ‘the role’ of nursing has changed over the years. How many nurses still find
time to create and make things whilst at work? And, what are the benefits to
creative projects on wellbeing in relation to current day working within the
NHS? It raises important questions and discussions around these issues as well
as more broad ones in getting people to talk about ‘how things have changed’
and what the future may hold in store. If I have time I would like to talk to nursing staff and create new scenes that depict the modern-day counterpart to the 1938 one! What would be similar? What would have changed?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oubLbCckEZ2wByBKQY9TObr7m9djCs9nvabfcIzRif43C7IFYvYtbIIWLjAXaYWewrUQ6yLj-u2GiISWKZlpmO9S6mAPuAIovSUs4ZgbmXzkc20mNiN4SVG60ITEL5AiJszo1gWj5iQ/s1600/IMG_20180514_083214351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="1600" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oubLbCckEZ2wByBKQY9TObr7m9djCs9nvabfcIzRif43C7IFYvYtbIIWLjAXaYWewrUQ6yLj-u2GiISWKZlpmO9S6mAPuAIovSUs4ZgbmXzkc20mNiN4SVG60ITEL5AiJszo1gWj5iQ/s400/IMG_20180514_083214351.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My efforts thus far at recreating 'Up with the Lark' sampler.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Under the current and topical NHS initiative of ‘Wellbeing through Creativity’, earlier
this month we sent a call-out to employees at the trust I work for inviting them to participate in the challenge of
recreating this sampler. I have so far been met with a positive response! As
someone who artistically has mostly ever worked alone in the ‘making’ of art
work it is humbling and encouraging to be working on a project collaboratively with
a variety of people whose individual professions and experiences will hopefully
add to the ‘story-telling’ element of how the whole sampler comes together. In
some cases, parts of the sampler will have been made by employees in different
parts of the hospital, the trust (Somerset Partnership) and possibly even by
patients; I am hoping that the remote ways people now work within the NHS but
come together as a team for the combined whole (visualised in the sampler
through a variety of different sizes and colours) will celebrate the variety within
the organisation that shares the same overall cause and values. That’s the
bigger ambition, but I mean it when I say that I am genuinely inspired by the enthusiasm of those taking-part which has led to even me being encouraged to having a go at cross-stitch! Something, as I said, I thought I would never really try. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> At the very least if this project gets people making, talking
and feeling good through doing so, then it will have achieved what I hope it
set out to do. I will keep you posted how things materialise!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">*Disclaimer -No prizes, other than the saccharin satisfaction of taking part, will be awarded to entrants participating in the 2018 version.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-23917050634339033322018-05-06T05:52:00.000-07:002018-05-06T05:52:09.267-07:00Only 3000?!"<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">What is art? </span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">No-one seems to
know, </span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">but everyone has an
opinion.” </span></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span></i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivV7gQMvs_2KLl1RqV_1v68ID1BSuiWlaHkyoFxE9QvsHhcx4E5seYSC9jCk6NvDZGCmHErYMPxSbQe5sUFQvVTPpgjZljqGRNXqy0LYKxSr_Y0t79IWwb9rTRxcEfdRm-dCgHqdjTaIE/s1600/IMG_20180506_094112185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1600" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivV7gQMvs_2KLl1RqV_1v68ID1BSuiWlaHkyoFxE9QvsHhcx4E5seYSC9jCk6NvDZGCmHErYMPxSbQe5sUFQvVTPpgjZljqGRNXqy0LYKxSr_Y0t79IWwb9rTRxcEfdRm-dCgHqdjTaIE/s400/IMG_20180506_094112185.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Curse you Robert Good! If only you had published your
book when I first started Art School! How much more illuminated my traversing
of the path into territory unknown could have been, had I been enlightened by
the collected perceptions, definitions and opinions collated in, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A New Dictionary of Art</i>. Hours at the
easel, days spent scratching and scrapping the application of paint on the
walls and floors as I drew, painted, filmed, shot, did, didn’t read, wrote, whittled
and weaved my way through the potential of all the things art can be; all in
the fractious pursuit of creativity, expression, communication and somewhere at
the back of all those reasons a deeper searching, a desire to figure-out what
exactly, is art?</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">And am, in many ways, still blissfully non-the-wiser.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Language and word-based artist <a href="http://www.robertgood.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;">Robert Good’s</span></a> book offers some 3000
definitions of art, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘compiled from the internet,
established authorities, artists and institutions’</i>. This ambitiously mad
plight of collecting and organising so many definitions reveals (what the
author himself acknowledges) much of what we may already expect, that art <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can be</i> almost anything and everything! </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Definitions in this book really do include everything
from, the literal/descriptive,<i> ‘Music, literature and cinema’ </i>to the metaphysical,<i> ‘a way
for people to put something out there that cannot be said in words’ </i>and the
entertainingly specific, <i>‘like a strawberry cake’ </i>as plausible options in
answer to the question of ‘what is art?’ But how much does anyone really want to know?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKAgc9I8mhM1J3aivN0Wxgt_b31VWbCCSsE1DgTiZEr9j7ipMv4eRvKtoU30rmWNDXRFsLZcMID82uKywAEWJ4WJjYEBMdYMxFycXp8QiJw2C0CgPRKJvffGEWycl0sbJtJBgokSinrM/s1600/41V90K%252B2I5L%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKAgc9I8mhM1J3aivN0Wxgt_b31VWbCCSsE1DgTiZEr9j7ipMv4eRvKtoU30rmWNDXRFsLZcMID82uKywAEWJ4WJjYEBMdYMxFycXp8QiJw2C0CgPRKJvffGEWycl0sbJtJBgokSinrM/s1600/41V90K%252B2I5L%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">That being said, Good’s
book is a superfluous testament to a commitment in documenting the sheer range
of amusing, absurd, arrogant, informed, spiritual and historically defining
ways in which artists, makers, viewers of art, writers, philosophers, critics,
curators and more have created their own definitions as to what art is. Many of
which, historically speaking, have influenced the course of art history and
what we perceive ‘art’ to be. Or...not to be! The book includes Duchampian
statements of art being, ‘what the artist says is art’ to that of Surrealism
‘Transformed from the real to the unreal’. The chicken and the egg moment being
which came first, the definition of art or the work itself, when to some extent
I question how easy it is for one to exist without the other. It all becomes a
bit conceptual and reminds me of Sol Le Witt’s ‘Sentences on Conceptual Art’
(1928) in which the final sentence reads, ‘These sentences comment on art, but
are not art.’ I have always found this to be a paradoxical thing to say because
it seems that others have interpreted this as ‘art’ even though that was not
Sol Le Witt’s original intention (or was it?). The mind boggles.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">From my perspective, art is something that is usually
best discovered through actively ‘doing’ and experiencing it through seeing it,
taking-part or making it rather than, on first instance, attempting to
understand it through reading pre-set definitions. I do not think people need a
comprehension of what ‘art’ is in order to produce something that is then
perceived as being art. In fact, from personal experience, the latter is often
the better and the closer one is, ‘not trying’ to make art, often
results in work which is less contrived and more genuine.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">The book’s biggest problem and also its charm is the question
of whether what is presented here are a series of definitions or opinions. In-reality
it seems that it is a mixture of both and one could argue the semantics of what
is the ‘definition of definition’ as opposed to an opinion but then we would
still end up in a subjective state as this very book is trying to address. The
appeal of this is that established definitions from the likes of critics, Clive
Bell and Arthur Danto are anonymously embedded amongst definitions from
everyday people online. It has no hierarchy! Which is refreshing. Though
overall it depends on how seriously or not you want to take this book when, for
example, art defined as, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Largely a load
of old cobblers and a big sham’</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Like
a mirror which reflects our inner selves’</i>; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘that piece of light in your pupils’,</i> as confrontational or poetic
as they are still seem much more like opinions/beliefs than definitions to me...in
my humble opinion, of course!</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;">There is nothing wrong with this but part of me still
cannot shake-off the question of whether this book is really necessary if
nothing other than a light-hearted piece of satire? Sometimes it falls into
repetition of saying the same thing but worded in slightly different ways which
also slightly weakens its argument, but on the other-hand, also demonstrates the
individual subjectivism involved in interpreting what art is; as being
something unique and personal to us all as individuals but with certain themes,
symbols, readings that are inherently more universal. In the book’s opening
introduction by Professor in aesthetics and philosophy of the mind, Derek
Matravers’ offers an interesting viewpoint to what Good has produced as a whole,
</span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">‘...it [the book]
makes a mockery of the modern world’s desire to systemise, to classify and to
control. In particular, it mocks the modern world’s desire to put a boundary on
creativity.’</span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">And for those reasons <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
New Dictionary of Art</i> almost offers inspiration in its celebration of
diversity and the way in which art is its own language of multifaceted
readings. That it rebelliously seeks to continuously deify categorisation! Some
may even see it as a manifesto that art must never become definable and resist
categorisation least it become stagnant but it is also a celebration of the
things people find similar and different about art such as, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘a desire to convey meaning’</i>; ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">someone’s vision shared with others’</i>; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘from the world around us’</i>. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">For want of a better word, some of these ‘definitions’ at
their best, offer brilliant starting points for thinking about ways of making
work, generating ideas and opening-the-box on proliferating the possibilities
of what art can be, a few examples, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Does
not have to be man-made’</i>; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Does not form
without growth and movement’</i>; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The
opportunity for love between strangers’; ‘progressive’; ‘tilling the soil of
culture’</i>. Anyone of these and hundreds of others besides demonstrate some
of the potential and scope of what the arts are/can be. There are so many it is
almost harder to articulate what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t</i>
art than what it is! </span><span style="font-family: calibri;">And it is certainly something that I am sure will only
continue to grow with time. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>'<i>A New Dictionary of Art</i>' by Robert Good is available to buy now (at all good bookshops!)</b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b><a href="http://www.robertgood.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.robertgood.co.uk/</span></a> </b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span></b><b><br /></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">See more about Robert Good’s work at FAB 2017 here:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/fab-4.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/fab-4.html</span></a>
</span><br />
<br />Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-72150894798342035572018-04-08T11:37:00.000-07:002018-04-08T11:37:00.933-07:00It deepens like a coastal shelf<span style="font-family: "calibri";">An unidentifiable shape, compacted layers, an angular
blob, a series of locked-together tessellated forms; seepage through the gaps,
surfaces weathered and worn. Circles within blobs, within forms within forms.
Earthy reds, yellow ochre, moss green, burnt umber, scraped, smeared and
poured. Fissures. The cracked resistance between opposing surfaces.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It was starring-up at the ceiling in the Royal Danish
Library a.k.a the Black Diamond that I had my first, of what was to be many
more encounters (in Denmark) with the work of artist, Per Kirkeby [1938-]. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVGcwGzVX-flV2O_fMg7jE1S8IWXyJQxUzH7jmPUd_GYJ-L6sZSxM6XT-BPnzd2uP_dMoLy2Iqm1AaDQQFUWP5G34rlfUEdK726fOGrQ-l9Fx7Lp6d-t0qUQQRREq5RYg_dqwkpZVDZU/s1600/IMG_20180312_151937882.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1425" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVGcwGzVX-flV2O_fMg7jE1S8IWXyJQxUzH7jmPUd_GYJ-L6sZSxM6XT-BPnzd2uP_dMoLy2Iqm1AaDQQFUWP5G34rlfUEdK726fOGrQ-l9Fx7Lp6d-t0qUQQRREq5RYg_dqwkpZVDZU/s400/IMG_20180312_151937882.jpg" width="355" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: x-small;">View looking up at Per Kirkeby fresco at the Black
Diamond, Copenhagen</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Mostly known for its sparse, angular architecture, the Black
Diamond is not the first place you might expect to see a 210 metre squared
fresco. Apart from the foremost connection the artist has with being Danish, the
untitled piece is contrastingly colourful and wildly expressive in relation to
its more formal, structured surroundings. Kirkeby’s fresco is expressively
abstract but with a clear likeness in its painted forms and textures to rock
strata, geological shelves and layers of shifting earth. The artist had previously trained
as a geologist. I was interested in how these interpretations, within the
context of the library, could also be read as symbolic of the processes through
which knowledge is sought and acquired. Exploring ‘a subject in-depth’, ‘the
layering of knowledge’, ‘sifting’ and ‘excavating’ to source the correct
content being words that neatly link the geological with the ‘search for
information’. Kirkeby’s painting, is visually similar to looking at a cross-section
of coastal shelf, for me at least, it is a visual aesthetic that is in ways
parallel to the library being its own kind of coastal shelf; the horizontal and
vertical lines of books on shelves, different colours, each section, every shelf and row of books
filed into separate categories like the layers of geological time. It takes
time for collections of books to accumulate, as it does for new layers of mineral
strata to form. Dozens of individual components that make-up a bigger whole. The shifting as things settle and move in a state of flux and
uncertainty also echo some of the ideas within how information is edited and
acquired. That is, at least, how I saw it. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvLJ4p_rB87DE8zWmreYBez4xBgm93b8BUeSSchs5MqY0bPYsRO_9tsEAPPvsR6kglHybp-Dz1jar26t6Soto799VD-nO44Z4x_8cVxm7u6Fqy3_jmGst_rf6mE3rWelWOLGylmLTmyA0/s1600/IMG_20180314_115954260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvLJ4p_rB87DE8zWmreYBez4xBgm93b8BUeSSchs5MqY0bPYsRO_9tsEAPPvsR6kglHybp-Dz1jar26t6Soto799VD-nO44Z4x_8cVxm7u6Fqy3_jmGst_rf6mE3rWelWOLGylmLTmyA0/s400/IMG_20180314_115954260.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><i>Portugalia (Portugalien)</i></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"> 2008 Oil on canvas. 300.5 x 500cm</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In truth, I had been fortunate to see many of Per
Kirkeby’s paintings nine years ago, in an exhibition at the Tate Modern. Though
this was the first time I had seen so many new works (and been reunited with
some of the ones I had seen) in the artist’s native country. Then as now, I
feel that he is such a prolific and diverse maker, in painting, brick and
bronze producing so many large works that I should have probably written about him
a lot sooner!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On a half-hour train journey through the bleak
Scandinavian forests and coastline travelling to Humblebaek, Louisiana Museum
of Modern Art I had a second insightful experience into how much of a contrast
the grey, still and desolate Scandinavian winter landscape has in comparison to
the lively, relatively rich, warm colours in Per Kirkeby’s paintings such as, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portugalia (Portugalien)</i> 2008.
Presumably, the titles of many of his works suggest that they were not all
based on the landscape his native country? I admit, that I would have to do some more digging
to find out the answer to this question. Generally speaking, Kirkeby’s art
draws from his experiences as a geologist and his inspiration from images in
both popular culture and art history. The 3 metre by 4 metre painting titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flight</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">into Egypt</i> 1996 was, in-part, based on German Romanticist, Philipp
Otto Runge’s, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rest on the Flight into
Egypt</i> 1805-6. It affirms Kirkeby’s interests in art to landscape as a
subject matter within his own work. Though some of the implied seriousness of
this connection to Runge is slightly lost on me and I am not entirely convinced
that some of Kirkeby’s paintings need this explanation in order to carry
institutionalised significance. His own writing offers a more spontaneous
interpretation into the use of paint as a medium for conveying landscape that I
am more inclined to believe in, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“The world is a material of which one makes art: through a
natural-historical process which, at its most profound cannot be controlled.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjzyESG2kuInNCpNbxP8wv7b03XZecOF01IcnX11fkEe8Srt1xRPjE77DJf1r795BJlD1eXea041YK1ehwze0vRTSrkTSuJNtRHB_InArXBS8uaja9k_LMSrIXhIVWxOS8ILDnxC3Qiw/s1600/picksimg_1064x%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1064" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjzyESG2kuInNCpNbxP8wv7b03XZecOF01IcnX11fkEe8Srt1xRPjE77DJf1r795BJlD1eXea041YK1ehwze0vRTSrkTSuJNtRHB_InArXBS8uaja9k_LMSrIXhIVWxOS8ILDnxC3Qiw/s400/picksimg_1064x%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">*<a href="https://www.artforum.com/print/previews/200807/per-kirkeby-21024" target="_blank">Flight into Egypt1996 Oil on canvas. 300 x 400cm</a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">B</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">oth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portugalia</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flight into Egypt</i> are in many
ways abstract paintings but share a sense of panoramic scale, as though either
looking onto a landscape from above or from within. The territorialising of
shapes become like mapping, reminding me of the compositions in paintings by
Jasper Johns, yet neither appear static, instead they are enlivened by a huge
element of gestural drawing and vigorous mark making on the surface and within
the layers of the painting, creating a sense of movement or mimicking the
textures of ploughed fields or sun-dried cracked earth. Both of these later
works saw Kirkeby linked with in the 80s with Neo-Expressionists along with
artists such as <span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px;">Georg Baselitz.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px;"> <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span>The drawn elements in
many of Kirkeby’s works actually remind me more of Cy Twombly but I enjoy the
way his work reminds me of all these other artists without being too-like any
of them to make it repetitive. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_9194cZ6gpBXj9jC4hQ_2orU_Y-v4cf9Z8Tuf4MkuqhTRce_vGqvc5YC-CMoxMfCP_jbUvSPuHLSCni_fGuL0TSv785E4t2SkNWev-DijCZbu87lmJpUr7D0Z3hy5kWQM82jUQFHZoM/s1600/IMG_20180314_123124448.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1189" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_9194cZ6gpBXj9jC4hQ_2orU_Y-v4cf9Z8Tuf4MkuqhTRce_vGqvc5YC-CMoxMfCP_jbUvSPuHLSCni_fGuL0TSv785E4t2SkNWev-DijCZbu87lmJpUr7D0Z3hy5kWQM82jUQFHZoM/s400/IMG_20180314_123124448.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Car Pictures</i> 1964-5 Mixed media on Masonite. (detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i></i>Whilst in Copenhagen I also saw a lot of Kirkeby’s
earlier paintings which are very different to these later ones. Equally they
demonstrate the breadth of his 40 year career as an artist. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Car Pictures</i> 1964-5 [pictured right and below] is a series of four
mixed-media works on masonite depicting traces of car-like iconography amidst,
for me, what I can only describe as a <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>joyous cacophony of pop-art benday dots,
gestured mark-making, flat areas of bright colour and a mixture of hard-edged shapes.
Aesthetically speaking, there is a lot about the variety in surfaces in these
four works that appeals to me, it is also their similarity to other favourite
pop art-era paintings by Richard Hamilton such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hommage à Chrysler Corp</i> 1957 and Robert Rauschenberg. Whilst there
is no fixed-narrative to these they could be read left to right as a series of
comic-book style panels. Other paintings by Kirkeby during the 60s include <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The murder in Finnerup Barn</i> 1967 [pictured below] which
features imagery from Tintin comics, fairytale characters and a title that
‘alludes to the murder of King Erik Klipping in 1286’. This patchwork-like use
of sources within one work should be disparingly chaotic but visually it seems to work.
Kirkeby, I also learnt is a keen writer about art and artists and I think that
this enthusiasm for knowledge, dualism of interests and collecting of sources
comes across strongly in these 60s based paintings which seem to combine
multiple ideas in the same way that a body of text might. Alternatively, they
could also be experiments with another form of language, one that is visual and
are more spontaneous than they are preconceived. As the artist himself states, <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawzZmXkfo_3OkkL4NbMLiS01UYPt0R9h5ER0lzAzCCE9d1Vt8WqYetXgbh80WWNTVHPO_sxO6gE_j29fvIVCbXP3t-El5fAXXne4WZlAHcYFaAS8SNZj6fWmx5NiQXKaxXqCRy6HXQac/s1600/IMG_20180314_123151151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1600" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawzZmXkfo_3OkkL4NbMLiS01UYPt0R9h5ER0lzAzCCE9d1Vt8WqYetXgbh80WWNTVHPO_sxO6gE_j29fvIVCbXP3t-El5fAXXne4WZlAHcYFaAS8SNZj6fWmx5NiQXKaxXqCRy6HXQac/s400/IMG_20180314_123151151.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Car Pictures</i>
1964-5 Mixed media on masonite, 4 panels. Each 122 x 85cm</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
“Drawings are full of
untrammelled thought and devoid of language. I have never drawn in order to produce
a drawing. But simply in order to find something out.”</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0PunnUGY-nrqO1Y3KvKAtjVfR4YZ7PLj7ycGvQH_Bj7TmBnisdfzOD5HU-3DQyZytZgpu2aylM8Iik9lrDPhB7tk6nUnp2-5adJGxshUBRVdjGQkFLv97V1a1IIJXIej6enV9nARsOY/s1600/per-kirkeby-murder-at-finderup-barn-1967%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0PunnUGY-nrqO1Y3KvKAtjVfR4YZ7PLj7ycGvQH_Bj7TmBnisdfzOD5HU-3DQyZytZgpu2aylM8Iik9lrDPhB7tk6nUnp2-5adJGxshUBRVdjGQkFLv97V1a1IIJXIej6enV9nARsOY/s320/per-kirkeby-murder-at-finderup-barn-1967%255B1%255D.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">
*<a href="https://curiator.com/art/per-kirkeby/murder-at-finderup-barn" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The murder in Finnerup Barn 1967 Mixed media on masonite. 122 x 122cm</span></a></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
It is a fascinating philosophy to have towards drawing. I
have long been a believer in the pragmatics of drawing as a way of ‘working
out’ or ‘thinking’ through doing. I would probably like to be able to fully adopt Kirkeby’s
statement in my own practice, but I am always usually more than conscious of
the fact that I am producing a drawing whilst drawing-it! It would be
interesting to try and ‘let go’ of that conscientiousness more often, if I can,
to see what it may produce. I suppose it is then a question of whether you find
out something you were expecting, wanted to know or not?! Seeing as how this
post somehow began looking up at the ceiling in a library in Copenhagen, that
is not a bad point to have come to some sort of realization!<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Images sourced from: <a href="https://curiator.com/art/per-kirkeby/murder-at-finderup-barn"><span style="color: blue;">https://curiator.com/art/per-kirkeby/murder-at-finderup-barn</span></a>
and <a href="https://www.artforum.com/print/previews/200807/per-kirkeby-21024"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.artforum.com/print/previews/200807/per-kirkeby-21024</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Quotes:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Borchardt-Hume, A, Per Kikeby -An Introduction 2009: London, Tate Publishing p24.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Shiff, R, It doesn't reveal itself 2009: London, Tate Publishing p43</span></div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
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</span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-44547872165639365512018-03-25T12:26:00.000-07:002018-03-25T12:26:14.666-07:00The Race for Space
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2h5ovuJua0djKpFW_mogKmxMblepQG7JoNvwr_BH3bH_DOOwXMoi5J0JSeMZMgXI42UZw4XisBplTxVAxs492btMFoKReFEIlVgIeCHsxiJIgttXwYpMIIdOhX91BxjCVEZVk1OB4uk/s1600/MAP+ARCHIVE+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2h5ovuJua0djKpFW_mogKmxMblepQG7JoNvwr_BH3bH_DOOwXMoi5J0JSeMZMgXI42UZw4XisBplTxVAxs492btMFoKReFEIlVgIeCHsxiJIgttXwYpMIIdOhX91BxjCVEZVk1OB4uk/s400/MAP+ARCHIVE+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Sometimes when I’m careless enough to turn in my sleep or call out or
twitch, I am horrified to hear the books start to slide, because it would take
little more than a raised knee or a shout to bring them all down like an avalanche,
a cornucopia of rare books, and squash me like a flea.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Like the obsessive collector of knowledge, Hanta in Bohumil
Hrabal’s novel, “Too Loud a Solitude” I share, a slightly more rational, but
real fear of the impending possibility that I could be swamped or crushed under
the sheer weight of paper I have accumulated in the form of books (mostly),
magazines, photos, postcards, drawings on paper and exhibition catalogues. I
sleep in a bed towered by two rather large bookcases. It is a collection that is
forever growing, even now, from having just sorted through an album of some 170
photos printed and chronicled into another album to sit on top of the ever
groaning and increasingly bowing bookcase shelves. I have never tested their
structural integrity, but am happy to keep adding to them, long may they hold!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I paint a dramatic hyperbole and it is of course true that
much of this material could be digitised and made far smaller (and safer) but my
reasoning for mentioning is that somewhere in my madness lies the bigger question of how we
gather, store and access knowledge and information in a world that is
consistently producing.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“It took two centuries for the Library of Congress to acquire its 29
million books and 105 million other items...today it only takes 15 minutes for
the world to produce an equal amount of information in digital form.”</span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTbLlUfztQqooPgguTp53dcD0EI11bWbS8-D7Pf4dpxEjRlvb5XKFMfpGu8iVrcSCf_mXuy70XxcyOq4x5YMyKNakgdGLqp_y5ynhTgwH-ofh_35Wr0-BTp8_0z0u-GOdtfdZp8cerWg/s1600/IMG_20180322_133228752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="903" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTbLlUfztQqooPgguTp53dcD0EI11bWbS8-D7Pf4dpxEjRlvb5XKFMfpGu8iVrcSCf_mXuy70XxcyOq4x5YMyKNakgdGLqp_y5ynhTgwH-ofh_35Wr0-BTp8_0z0u-GOdtfdZp8cerWg/s400/IMG_20180322_133228752.jpg" width="225" /></a></span></i></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Where does all of this information go? What happens when
that storage is full? And how much knowledge can we possibly stand to lose or
even be unable to re-call if it is forever increasing? I am emphatically not
suggesting the solution is one of burning or saving books as the premise of
Hrabal’s novel, but for me, it does raise the foremost questions as well as the notion
of the personal archive versus the public archive and how they operate
differently but share a similarity in that they are both dependent on issues of
space in relation to time, accumulation and editing. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“According
to a 2007 BBC report, the Vatican library (1.5 million books on 37 miles of shelving)
was literally sinking under its printed burden.” </i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I do not aim to answer or resolve all of these ideas in this post, but felt
that I had begun collecting too many thoughts and references on the subject to
ignore it completely; it is a starting point from which hopefully I will
revisit themes again at a later date. The origins of this post have
actually come from those photos I mentioned earlier, specifically they document
a recent trip to Copenhagen where in the Architecture Centre I came across a
zine all about Archives and their relationship to space and storage. Titled MAP
(Manual of Architectural Possibilities) and created by David A Garcia Studios on an A1-sized folded sheet of paper, printed on both sides in a
poster-style format. Each issue deals with a different theme succinctly
presented through text, quotes, stats, info-graphics and graphics.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html</span></a> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMU1PWwIY0EfudO9F0lweSZKgTS6xA4eAOeI3alvC9MBV8EMhmed1D-el3ICx2Eu_sqZgUwzKT5tUFGrct-XSzIlhBPirievLCoLBdfLHc-ksPTRb2zlMIji-j8E_sEr3vuEtqD1xmR8E/s1600/MAP+ARCHIVE+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="910" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMU1PWwIY0EfudO9F0lweSZKgTS6xA4eAOeI3alvC9MBV8EMhmed1D-el3ICx2Eu_sqZgUwzKT5tUFGrct-XSzIlhBPirievLCoLBdfLHc-ksPTRb2zlMIji-j8E_sEr3vuEtqD1xmR8E/s400/MAP+ARCHIVE+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sample of the layout of MAP 003 Archive </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">For its size, the content and information within this
zine is impressive and relevant to my current thoughts on the huge amounts of
paper I personally hoard! Its utilitarian size also refers to its purpose of
providing insight into the spatial implications needed for systems of
organising information, i.e. collections, libraries, archives, servers etc. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where</i> do we store all of this info?”
being the question asked that also seems to me to be intrinsically linked to
the more written about question of, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how is it </i>stored?” Much seems to be written about systems of categorisation , less so on where it is held. According to MAP, preserving information for the future seems to
be closely linked with physical issues of context and space as much as it does
with the organizational systems by which information is catalogued. Not to mention,
of course, political implications of the institutionalisation of knowledge, i.e. how,
when, by and for who information is gathered; a question for another day! </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“From antiquity to the present, and with an exponential impetus, we
have been obsessed with systematically collecting and reorganizing what in
effect already exists, in its own kind of order, or disorder. This desire for
control and centralisation of our environment, has no doubt aided us in the
past and present. Nevertheless, some think that archives have reached such
epidemic proportions that, not only has the digital revolution not been able to
solve the problem, but it has in fact aggravated it. All of this, of course,
occupies space, an increasingly huge amount of space.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
I<span style="font-family: calibri;">t was interesting to discover that, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>The British Museum exhibits 1% of its total collection of
7 million items.</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>The British Library exhibits 3% of its total collection
of 14 million items.</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>The MOMA exhibits 15% of its total collection of 150,000
items.</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">The above stats highlighting, for me, the importance of
circulating what is exhibited within these collections or making what isn’t
shown ,accessible in other formats; either online or per request which many of
them already do. It is really a question of who decides what is shown and when
and whether some things are better not shown in order to protect/preserve them?
I speculate that archivists, curators and librarians will also have their own
set of either institutionalised or professional criteria for selecting work to
be added or displayed within collections. I do not know and am curious as to
what these are, but am more interested in the idea of what a creative or artistic
practice could bring to the process of archiving that perhaps these other
professions lack or are prohibited in some way from doing.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">I’m fascinated by the idea of archiving but I carry the suspicious mind
of one who is easily bored: that dares to suggest that the very act of making
an archive is already an admission of creative defeat...Others will argue that
the very process of making the archive, devising the system...is in itself
totally creative...What if the day-to-day circumstances may not be as neat as
the parametric analysis? –Peter Cook</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></i></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXDhz_4n7RhzYiwHJdQlAQ7w2mRR3_sujoTXMFmWxAAimI-3Bis35yXnlYh33ERohImJOHlJSwB5Eey7Tc9kBm7rg1z3exjbfhbyVp8RituT-ZALf-bieSfHSZ-ejeWDozjb84VqabHE/s1600/DSCN6388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXDhz_4n7RhzYiwHJdQlAQ7w2mRR3_sujoTXMFmWxAAimI-3Bis35yXnlYh33ERohImJOHlJSwB5Eey7Tc9kBm7rg1z3exjbfhbyVp8RituT-ZALf-bieSfHSZ-ejeWDozjb84VqabHE/s400/DSCN6388.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside The Black Diamond in Copenhagen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Artist as archivist, artists working with archives? Architect
or designer as archivist? I am fascinated at the idea of a sort-of
cross-pollination of disciplines between an artistic practice with its
parameters of looking, deconstruction and analysis from a creative perspective
could work with more traditional archiving systems. This isn’t the same as
artists using archiving as a way of making work, this is about artists working
with existing archives and what they could bring to how these collections are
accessed and/or interpreted. Surely there is a need for creative solutions to
future challenges faced by ever increasing demand for space in relation to what
is being stored? It marks a shift in my own attitude from how I have had an art
practice heavily centred on ‘producing’ and its capitalist
implications of making a physical art work with the intent of owning/selling it; over to one of
‘engaging’ and working with things that are already in existence. I do not have
a problem with either but feel that there is something more sustainable about
the latter. Perhaps I also feel some responsibility to not keep adding to the pile as to working with what already exists... <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">In an interview about, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/57475/interview-reanimation-library-andrew-beccone/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue;">Collection (not) as curation: how
exhibitions are different from libraries</span></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> artist and librarian, Andrew Beccone explains how collecting can
function as interpretation,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“Absolutely, but many libraries don’t have the freedom to approach
their own collections from such a standpoint. One of the things that I find
interesting about the current trend of independent libraries is the attention
that they often call to collection-as-interpretation.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I think Beccoone’s statement implies <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>that by allowing more control in a curatiorial
sense of what is admitted and omitted within a collection can become a means by
which collections can be interpreted by what is in them and how it is
organised. This seems to me a similar process to that of curating, when art
objects are [collected] and [organised] into a new system, in other words
exhibition, from which they can gain new meaning and interpretation as a whole
as well as individual works within a bigger concept. The problem with the
library as a collection is whether it becomes more about the overall
interpretation or the sum of its parts?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhL12qewzwkNcssyNLdyDL8urq-IYNiKEdgmg0542jhppRH3o8nGkfl-gEuMwjWcMKhdMen2G9kkh2euoognIcJKZe01GTrq9Z6DOzViJgkQTYbgav_WpBz4B3e3ZfvFjGPiD3gag9Vw/s1600/IMG_20180312_152222783.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhL12qewzwkNcssyNLdyDL8urq-IYNiKEdgmg0542jhppRH3o8nGkfl-gEuMwjWcMKhdMen2G9kkh2euoognIcJKZe01GTrq9Z6DOzViJgkQTYbgav_WpBz4B3e3ZfvFjGPiD3gag9Vw/s400/IMG_20180312_152222783.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">He does however acknowledge that there is some overlap
between the two,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“In library-speak, those who are responsible for acquiring materials
and shaping collections are known as collection development librarians. These
are probably the closest corollary to curators in librarianship, but there’s a
difference (and this is speaking very broadly because there is an incredible
range of conditions within which both librarians and curators operate), for
instance, between a curator who is able to assemble a group of artists based on
a particular idea of his or her own choosing, and say, a collection development
librarian at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library who is “curating” a
collection based on a concrete set of criteria such as the demographics of the
neighborhood, the library’s own circulation statistics, or some institutional
policy.”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkMSWpNb8eMiT9YXfg1-Qtpu0rhBTDenF6JELS5NjbO3OmdykRkIXhP4TYjbBYoKHRcN4dhR30KJWkS328cMZzBbxgTkJs4NEBan6TWSRt6RPG2gv7jFTOSZvTaY7UTd3v2tzEgt5akc/s1600/IMG_20180322_133211615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkMSWpNb8eMiT9YXfg1-Qtpu0rhBTDenF6JELS5NjbO3OmdykRkIXhP4TYjbBYoKHRcN4dhR30KJWkS328cMZzBbxgTkJs4NEBan6TWSRt6RPG2gv7jFTOSZvTaY7UTd3v2tzEgt5akc/s400/IMG_20180322_133211615.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I know that I am skimming the answers to many of the points raised
here, but part of the way to solving or addressing them is in recognising them,
the future of the archive in relation to space is highly topical and one I think
will become increasingly important in years to come. MAP offers one last and final
insight into future storage possibilities, </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The brain has also been discussed as a medium of data storage and it
has been estimated that the brain has the equivalent digital capacity of 1-1000
terabytes…1 terabyte is the equivalent to 50,000 trees made into paper and
printed...</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;">
<i><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Occupationally speaking, having worked as a Bookseller,
now, within a Library and in my spare time continuing to make works on paper as
an artist, it seems and I hope that my own relationship with collections both
physical and digital is set to continue. Of course, as long as t<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span>here is space!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">Quotes and Images sourced
from: <a href="http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: calibri;">http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html</span></a>
& <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/57475/interview-reanimation-library-andrew-beccone/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: calibri;">https://hyperallergic.com/57475/interview-reanimation-library-andrew-beccone/</span></i></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"></span></span></span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: blue;"></span><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-41282551651524335142018-02-23T11:47:00.000-08:002018-02-27T12:28:57.949-08:00Out of Line Online!<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica","arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-align: left;">
Exciting news everyone! Thanks to the Graphic Design production skills of <b>Rob Watts</b>, I am pleased to reveal the first online version of <b>HIVE</b>, available to view online here and as a pdf on Scribd.</div>
<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica","arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-align: left;">
Previous issues will be available to view online soon (it is our ambition to have a HIVE website sometime in the, hopefully not too distant future...?!) but, until then, please cast your eyes over this issue of <b>HIVE 3#</b>. This is the issue I co-edited on with <b>Nina Gronw-Lewis</b> in 2016 and saw 14 artists make work in response to the theme, '<i>Out of Line</i>'. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to test what it would look like online and of course practice sharing it with those interested! Let me know what you think!<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c263d; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></div>
<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica","arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c263d; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>Hive 3# (June 2016) Visual Arts Zine, Edited by Natalie Parsley and Nina Gronw-Lewis.</b> </span></div>
<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica","arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c263d; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Featuring work by; Rico Ajao, Frank Edmunds, Jon England, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Kevin Hawker, Tim Martin, James Marsden, Natalie Parsley, Stuart Rosamond, Eileen Rosamond, Ruby Rowswell, Chris Taylor, Deborah Westmancoat and Rob Watts.</span></div>
<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica","arial",sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c263d; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All work is Copyright of the Artists <span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: black;"><span style="margin: 0px;">©</span>2016</span></span></span></span><b><i></i></b></div>
<div style="display: block; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">
<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/372236435/HIVE-3-Out-of-Line#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View HIVE 3# 'Out of Line' on Scribd">HIVE 3# 'Out of Line'</a> by <a href="https://www.scribd.com/user/188503364/Natalie-Parsley#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Natalie Parsley's profile on Scribd">Natalie Parsley</a> on Scribd</div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="1.3303834808259587" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_39760" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/372236435/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-zeVNSftCPcLrf18O5vKz&show_recommendations=true" title="HIVE 3# 'Out of Line'" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">For more info
about what <b>HIVE</b> is and some of its history then please refer to some of my
previous blog posts for clues.... <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=hive"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=hive</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Ahem, and if you really like what you see and are interested in procuring your very own CD digital copy of the latest <b>HIVE V</b>, meeting the artists and celebrating then please come along to the launch of <b>HIVE V on Friday 23rd March</b> at 06.00pm. Info on poster below and via our Facebook event page; <span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/407305959707446/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.facebook.com/events/407305959707446/</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Edited by Chris Dart and featuring the creative stylings of: <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">Chris Dart</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">,
<span style="margin: 0px;">Frank Edmunds, Jon England, Martin
Jackson, Tony Girardot, James Marsden, Tim Martin, Rashid Maxwell, Anna
Newland-Hooper, Eileen Rosamond, Stuart Rosamond, Natalie Parsley and RobWatts </span></span></b></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">
</span></span>
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Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-48472911263647246602018-01-23T14:55:00.001-08:002018-01-23T14:55:12.131-08:00Land of Plenty<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It isn’t every day that one dons a pair of wellies to go
visit and art gallery, but you’d have a pretty slippery time getting to <strong>Hauser
and Wirth</strong> in Bruton, Somerset if you didn’t (unless of course you came by car,
but this way is infinitely more fun)! Whilst I am unsure how gratefully
received the mud I tramped-in to the gallery was, in my mind, it was the best
possible start to viewing an exhibition about ‘Land’ by bringing some of it
with me! You’re welcome!</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQo1nvKfjgoPPuZ73DylFnZAk10DWtfLFZ7kmjedjOUoallhjctiJX9XdabrxbU1uLkyQEMeVePjZAQFGBsYGqOHMlHMOpz8hRtMcuGs_lEGd3uRwRJYKBIGDugLoHkpKAagtBOzC5ZE4/s1600/Land+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="977" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQo1nvKfjgoPPuZ73DylFnZAk10DWtfLFZ7kmjedjOUoallhjctiJX9XdabrxbU1uLkyQEMeVePjZAQFGBsYGqOHMlHMOpz8hRtMcuGs_lEGd3uRwRJYKBIGDugLoHkpKAagtBOzC5ZE4/s400/Land+2.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Carston Höller <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Giant Triple Mushroom’ </i>[2015] Polyester
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">paint, </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">synthetic resin, </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">acrylic paint, wire, putty, </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">polyurethane, </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">rigid foam,
stainless steel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By pure coincidence, around the time of seeing this show
I had just started reading for the first time, <strong>Graham Swift’s</strong> novel, <strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waterland</i> </strong>[1983], in it Swift writes,
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Only nature knows neither memory
nor history.”</i> Implying that it is forever changing and has been there long
before us and will continue to do so long after we have gone. I thought this
was a good connection to the exhibition titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind’</strong></i> at Hauser and With
Somerset, whose key themes include an exploration of, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘society’s relationship to the rural’</i> featuring work, projects,
reportage and documentation in response to land; food production, consumption,
sustainability and nature in the urban environment. These are just some of the
concepts explored by over 50 artists and creative groups of people from the
past (as far back as the 14<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>and 18<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Century) up to the present.
I meant it when I called this post, ‘Land of Plenty’! Whilst writing this review I kept going back to my
copy of <strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waterland</i> </strong>and reading things
that related to what I saw in this exhibition, with <strong>John Burnside’s</strong> introduction
including the following useful quote from <strong>Dorothy Canfield</strong>,</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Art is considered as the expression of any people as a whole, is the
response they make in various mediums to the impact that the totality of their
experience makes upon them, and there is no sort of experience that works so
constantly and subtly upon man as his regional environment.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is interesting about the ‘land’ exhibition at <strong>Hauser
and Wirth</strong> is it is a diverse collection of people’s responses to their
‘regionalness’ from where they are from and so includes work from all over the
UK and the world, yet despite this the common theme that unites them all is a
very human one and that is the desire to create, explore and understand, on a social, political,
spiritual, scientific, bodily, biographical [delete as appropriate/the list goes on..] level the land and how we connect to it.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7UA1qVGHL-GYupjgWf2mqSTqXhZQBCpTAbbc9cmSWJbPMm7i1L475Jql8ZwimOaHbiu86aFK_Mr0CxQFus8KrgkhXT-UrOiY4bzUMvAmER4cyseT_NltjVL9DNZM0ExBG_zl0TrA5DBY/s1600/Land+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7UA1qVGHL-GYupjgWf2mqSTqXhZQBCpTAbbc9cmSWJbPMm7i1L475Jql8ZwimOaHbiu86aFK_Mr0CxQFus8KrgkhXT-UrOiY4bzUMvAmER4cyseT_NltjVL9DNZM0ExBG_zl0TrA5DBY/s400/Land+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eric Sjödlin ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project’</i>
[2017] Azolla weed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is an ambitious and plentiful exhibition, each room of the gallery hosting anything between forty and fifty small
works on the walls, in vitrines and in one instance as a feast set-out on a
grand dining room table (but more on that later). Read it as you might read a
book, with each room responding to a different theme and idea within the
overall totality that it is a [book] about the human relationship and impact on
land or vice versa. In the first room, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘the
rural as a laboratory for the development of ideas’</i> greets visitors with
the overwhelming smell of cheese in <a href="http://casco.art/fernando-garcia-dory-artist-at-work" target="_blank"><strong>Fernando Garia-Dory’s</strong></a><strong>, </strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘Mobile Dairy School’</strong> </i>and plastic-lit
water tanks growing pond weed in <strong>Eric Sjödin’s </strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project’</strong>. </i>It genuinely feels
like a laboratory, elsewhere <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘Sweetwater
Foundation Aquaponics system’</strong></i> houses fish and grows salads at the same time
whilst <strong>Tom Philipson’s</strong> eggs and pickles in jars form a calendar of sorts and <a href="https://www.gagosian.com/artists/carsten-holler" target="_blank"><strong>CarstonHöller’s</strong></a>
botanical cross-sections of mushrooms are inquisitive and precise scientific
looking spectacles that render large the architectural and alien-like
fascination people, not limited to mycologists, have with beholding the natural
world. During the exhibition’s running time these exhibits also act as working
models for social engagement and participation, supported by live
demonstrations of cheese and bread making as well as goat milking.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP05wWgWNbXMFsXsIWX3hotf69e3uNKmQ8nCqpOuXkBK38er-xn1Q_MLE9WxlQZlF_UOE_W5cU6r34vIU1Bej05thZhdAEFwuP3E7xIOBsi_bJiHwoXeSe-RL9UuT92gq5FWA-tNhyphenhyphenf_8/s1600/Land+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP05wWgWNbXMFsXsIWX3hotf69e3uNKmQ8nCqpOuXkBK38er-xn1Q_MLE9WxlQZlF_UOE_W5cU6r34vIU1Bej05thZhdAEFwuP3E7xIOBsi_bJiHwoXeSe-RL9UuT92gq5FWA-tNhyphenhyphenf_8/s400/Land+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tom Philpson ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shelf’ </i>[2018] Wood, eggs, vinegar,
glass, pickles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other [chapters] of this exhibition include two
rooms exploring the rural utopia, the religious, the spiritual and ritualistic
through a historic and joyous plethora of artefacts; featuring exquisite tiny
<strong>Samuel Palmer</strong> prints to work by <strong>William Blake</strong> and <strong>John Ruskin</strong>. A <strong>Kate Greenaway</strong>
study of rock, moss and ivy and drawings by <strong>Beatrix Potter </strong>remind visitors of
how their published illustrations helped educate and inspire an interest in the
natural world. They are a treat to spot in a room nearly bursting with work by
<strong>Henry Moore</strong>,<strong> David Nash </strong>and <strong>Kurt Schwitters</strong> to name a few! There is a <strong>Grayson
Perry</strong> print (because he’s everywhere!) hung above a door, too high to see and
two excellent photographic works by <strong>Paul McCarthy</strong>, <strong>‘Use a Shovel to Throw Dirt
in the Air’ </strong>and <strong>Roni Horn's, ‘Becoming a Landscape’</strong> that document a performance
or moment-in-time. The art in these rooms generates conversations through the
sheer variety and on-going obsession artists have had in depicting how we
relate to earth, not only in reproductions/descriptions of it, but crucially how
art has evolved to make work that reflects the philosophical idea of being <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of</i></b>
and <em><strong>in</strong></em> the land. None more so, is this present and grounded than in the farm tools
hung throughout the entire exhibition, donated by <strong>Richard Hollingberry</strong>. I
salute you!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxiViTqhyfFVzgPBKV5LUGDP7kiYO3Ows7tawiY7pdWd7qUXfWYepEiTWBmQjyfYEBoI4qZTQHZk81GZ2Grdq9BZmoj0Cb_rND19E3N8qLWcvSquzdKjGNaehKlRhyl-VQdK0y2CNAFx4/s1600/Land+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxiViTqhyfFVzgPBKV5LUGDP7kiYO3Ows7tawiY7pdWd7qUXfWYepEiTWBmQjyfYEBoI4qZTQHZk81GZ2Grdq9BZmoj0Cb_rND19E3N8qLWcvSquzdKjGNaehKlRhyl-VQdK0y2CNAFx4/s400/Land+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nikolaus Geyrhalter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Our Daily Bread’</i> [2005] Dvd.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the more powerful rooms is the darkened Rhoades
Gallery in which a film projection titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘Our
Daily Bread’</strong> </i>[2005] by <a href="http://www.geyrhalterfilm.com/en/homo_sapiens" target="_blank"><strong>Nikolaus Greyhalter</strong></a> dominates showing scenes of food
production; from the heavily mechanised more gentle crop-harvesting to the graphic
slaughter of cattle and chickens in an abattoir. For vegetarians and meat-eaters
alike, it is highly emotive and likely to cause much debate and possible controversy in its
harsh, but starkly honest, documentation. Before it, lies a banquet of art
works on a table, reminiscent for me of <a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/tasteless.html" target="_blank"><strong>Hestercombe Gallery’s, </strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>Buffet d’art’</strong> </i>[June 2017]</a> in which a
host of artist’s make table and/or food-based work to be metaphorically
consumed by the viewer. The theme for this room of, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘transformation, transition and transubstantiation’</i> presents work
that is largely about food production and consumption. <strong>Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s</strong>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘The Four Seasons’</strong></i> feel oddly at home
here, their message of ‘you are what you eat’ and slightly sinister,
strangeness alongside a mountain of decaying compost and <strong>Karen Guthrie’s '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">House of Ferment'</i></strong> [2016] act as a
reminder of the cyclical-nature of our relationship with food. <a href="http://www.katemacgarry.com/artists/marcus-coates/" target="_blank"><strong>Marcus Coates’</strong></a><strong> ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anchorhold’</i></strong> [2015] offers a more
spiritual and contemplative form of transformation through a performance inside an
architecturally bespoke, apple-store in which participants are invited to eat
an apple and address the artist, ‘As the Apple Service Provider’ with a
question[conversations of which will later be played as audio in the space].</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Lz-kf2BmcX9dVqy1kr49IZ-BYXxhyUA7ffKLwzy07FTNZl595FB-a4D4fKZZHfLb1MPegen9zjDw3mwjkmcVXxfmj0tj6rShhY0WAJSbvecbOOTlkmhWkeT6OoGKO_xKizaipPhUHdQ/s1600/Land+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Lz-kf2BmcX9dVqy1kr49IZ-BYXxhyUA7ffKLwzy07FTNZl595FB-a4D4fKZZHfLb1MPegen9zjDw3mwjkmcVXxfmj0tj6rShhY0WAJSbvecbOOTlkmhWkeT6OoGKO_xKizaipPhUHdQ/s400/Land+5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Giuseppe Arcimboldo <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Four Seasons’</i> [1572] Oil on canvas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The final room of this exhibition ends similarly to how
it began, with working examples of participatory projects, but this time in more urban
settings. Projects highlighted such as, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘What
will the harvest be</strong><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><strong>?’</strong></i> and an <strong>Honesty Shop</strong> selling
items hand-made by people living in Bruton are two examples in which communities
have been brought together through a creative activity. It is an uplifting end
to the exhibition, aided by <strong>Simon Fairlie’s</strong> haystacks and <a href="http://bedwyrwilliams.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Bedwyr Williams’</strong></a> ram/bicycle
hybrid. Visitors who enjoy this exhibition should also note that with this show
Hauser and Wirth is doing what exhibitions at <a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/your-visit/somerset-gallery/" target="_blank"><strong>Hestercombe Gallery</strong></a>, under the
curation of <strong>Tim Martin</strong>, has been doing for the best part of three years;
bringing local and national artists who work with rural, environmental
residencies and programmes into the context of the gardens and house at
Hestercombe. Their current exhibition, <span id="goog_1796048380"></span><em><a href="https://www.hestercombe.com/event/odyssean-topographies/" target="_blank"><strong>‘Odyssean Topographies’</strong></a></em> <span id="goog_1796048381"></span>is well worth a
look if you enjoyed this one! </span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFqhYieODRiGKKzP-eR7HzLShJ834ou5ML12g9icfYZzto46_fZtl_KA1OhT09_mJpDTY48QK0QsR_fud5NE8u3Pao640iCW0iWTcaJayDAO3w1dc98pytj61szJYJ9ckUMfSYRoD8y0/s1600/Land+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="962" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFqhYieODRiGKKzP-eR7HzLShJ834ou5ML12g9icfYZzto46_fZtl_KA1OhT09_mJpDTY48QK0QsR_fud5NE8u3Pao640iCW0iWTcaJayDAO3w1dc98pytj61szJYJ9ckUMfSYRoD8y0/s400/Land+7.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bedwyr Williams ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wooly Back’</i>[2010] Bike, rams </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">horns,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
skull, wool.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><strong>‘The Land We Live
In – The Land We Left Behind’</strong></i> is the exhibition that Hauser and Wirth in Bruton
have always needed; a chance for it to utilise its unique feature of being
located in a rural setting and community. I am surprised it has taken this long
for it to happen, but the breadth of work in this exhibition has made it worth
the wait. Conceptually, it is a show that is almost self-gratuitously proud and
flaunting in telling the themes and ideas within its curation, perhaps it’s a
little too much in some places... The positives are, that its potential for
social influence is good; it inspires and aspires that communities can have a significant and mutually beneficial relationship with their
environment and that artist’s have a very active role to play as pioneers of
change, instigators of activity as well as practical doers and credible
researchers. <em><strong>‘The Land We Live In – The
Land We Left Behind’ </strong></em>reminds that change begins at home, we do not need to go further than
our front door in order to have a connection with a sense of place. It can
begin with the land right under our feet.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></b> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Land We Live
In – The Land We Left Behind at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset until 7th May 2018<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/3392/the-land-we-live-in-y-the-land-we-left-behind/view/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/3392/the-land-we-live-in-y-the-land-we-left-behind/view/</span></a></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Text Copyright Natalie Parsley© January 2018</span></div>
</span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-13210339943343600462018-01-07T07:56:00.002-08:002018-01-07T07:56:39.492-08:00Through a Glass Darkly<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Despite her popularity I have never really looked at <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cornelia-parker-2358" target="_blank">CorneliaParker’s</a> work in as much detail as it perhaps deserves; until now, that is! It
seems logical that on my quest to research artists that use the everyday in
their work that I would have written more about her compressed wind
instruments, exploded shed, unravelled spoon, deconstructed silverware and
other works in which Parker transforms ordinary objects into something
unexpected or compelling. I’ve seen her work in several places, so overcoming
my reluctant adversity to the obvious I visited <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/cornelia-parker-one-day-glass-will-break" target="_blank">‘One Day This Glass Will Break’</a> </i>as part of entry to the exhibition,<a href="http://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/women-rwa" target="_blank">‘Women with Vision’</a> at the <a href="http://www.rwa.org.uk/" target="_blank">RWA </a>in Bristol.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhip0vi-zXn1Ji75Dge94clRPG4hiP8PS61Nh8wXtSYZoeZWLhBRnsTJs6QJMwDgZm4mv6DXWCAj2-6VPIxjJ3SVA3o3mzPjY5laJca257NjB2qjK2J5bLsRpTyOAWrXhHaMJXQ-LxfoIc/s1600/Parker+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhip0vi-zXn1Ji75Dge94clRPG4hiP8PS61Nh8wXtSYZoeZWLhBRnsTJs6QJMwDgZm4mv6DXWCAj2-6VPIxjJ3SVA3o3mzPjY5laJca257NjB2qjK2J5bLsRpTyOAWrXhHaMJXQ-LxfoIc/s400/Parker+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The exhibition features approximately twenty prints of various
sized and arranged glass vessels that have been photographically captured on
paper using a process inspired by 19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Century photography pioneer,
William Henry Fox Talbot; whose experimental techniques we learn in this
exhibition, have had a significant and reoccurring influence on Cornelia
Parker’s practice since the 70s. The objects in these images selected because of photos Fox Talbot produced featuring a similar subject matter and compositions of objects. Cornelia Parker's images to me look like
drawings, they are charcoal black and hazily soft whilst holding a weighty
sense of definition, so that the cut and characteristics of each glass vessel
remain visible. It was almost surprising to discover that they were
photographic positives, created using a process called photogravure and solar
printing which are loosely, as I understand it, made when objects are placed on
a plate and exposed to ultraviolet light to create a positive image of the
light that travels through a glass vessel rather than of the physical vessel itself…
Clever stuff! </span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRsWcDQRQcKAAfmnaqwTrUSECPB4w_zJNumFkwC-JziCfcmhpGetzv3xSvwuR2BmlfLtHAtTxC1LGLDfkg362OKAso1KHlacbbvMsKWf0QIqwJgCTWPbEAA1v-Jf2ah0N17Rsqlui_W7s/s1600/ND542137_942long%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="942" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRsWcDQRQcKAAfmnaqwTrUSECPB4w_zJNumFkwC-JziCfcmhpGetzv3xSvwuR2BmlfLtHAtTxC1LGLDfkg362OKAso1KHlacbbvMsKWf0QIqwJgCTWPbEAA1v-Jf2ah0N17Rsqlui_W7s/s320/ND542137_942long%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">'Fox Talbot’s Articles of Glass (bottoms up)' 2016</span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For me, it is a philosophical reminder of the dichotomy between
the illusion of objects reproduced in 2D processes and their physical known
reality; I have always found the illusion of the thing to reveal more of an
understanding of its shape, form, weight and ‘existence’ in terms of how we
perceive it, far more than the placing of the actual object on a plinth for
consideration. Whilst shadow, X-ray or ghost-like, the glass jugs, decanters and bulbs
in this series of prints are a manifestation of the void spaces within objects
rather than the thing itself and are in-fact an attempt to capture the image of
light that passes through. Negative made positive in an almost <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rachel-whiteread-2319" target="_blank">RachelWhiteread</a>-like move but without the literal physicality of turning negative
space into a solid; these are turning a negative space into a photographic
representation of a solid! There is a second layer of mental gymnastics if one
also considers what the presence of the glass through which we view the image
of the glasses does to how we interpret it, i.e. can we ever see an image
clearly if through glass with all its reflections? The plot thickens!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMQxOpoqKU1Vdqsl3xNcHVskAAUcaz_7KCfxUFmmA_g9cz-udqnr-wBFR9r-qbfZn2o1KK3jxYWcxin420atJrETjB5MA3XDPMakfFQmiQC0GJqtpezNOtHTfYGSz7tC4Gfm_uqsmr9U/s1600/8813%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="600" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMQxOpoqKU1Vdqsl3xNcHVskAAUcaz_7KCfxUFmmA_g9cz-udqnr-wBFR9r-qbfZn2o1KK3jxYWcxin420atJrETjB5MA3XDPMakfFQmiQC0GJqtpezNOtHTfYGSz7tC4Gfm_uqsmr9U/s320/8813%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">'One Day This Glass Will Break' 2015</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cornelia Parker’s work often literally flattens objects, such as
the trombones in the wittily titled, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O111998/breathless-sculptural-installation-parker-cornelia/" target="_blank">‘Breathless’</a></i>,
so it is interesting here to see that process is used again but taken into a flattened
representation and trace of the original object itself; sometimes from unusual
or unfamiliar angles such as the view of the underneath or bottom of a glass or
of several shot glasses stacked within one another (pictured). For personal reasons I was particularly drawn to how the image opposite looks like an X-ray of a spine. These alternative,
flattened and groupings of objects are unexpected and amusing; in some ways I
think they almost create a sense of animation or potentiality to their expected
static presence. Parker’s work has often been likened to using actions of
cartoon-like violence in their creation; other prints in the exhibition demonstrate
this with explosion like areas of splatters and blots created from the artist
spitting tequila onto a prepared photo plate. An abstract expressionist meets
punk form of expression that turns something repulsive and aggressive into
something arguably beautiful but also echoed in the title with the implication that these things will break (by age or by violence? It is left to us to decide). These double-meanings through the production,
titling and execution are present in many of her works.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGEbIY9EgcZHMvsl0ns6TaFNwT38M2Up_kFkzjJ4k4UDOKQKlyS6v_DMhWVExllLBZqMARZxZf92dk0KNpYPkyY1BH0rl5QiiyDs5r3odjNUr0FvuMDFlnX7oWw4ilkMXp5LAP1otBUY/s1600/Dynamic-04d28fab-72d5-5526-9a10-82026ab330eb%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGEbIY9EgcZHMvsl0ns6TaFNwT38M2Up_kFkzjJ4k4UDOKQKlyS6v_DMhWVExllLBZqMARZxZf92dk0KNpYPkyY1BH0rl5QiiyDs5r3odjNUr0FvuMDFlnX7oWw4ilkMXp5LAP1otBUY/s400/Dynamic-04d28fab-72d5-5526-9a10-82026ab330eb%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">Fox Talbot’s Articles of Glass (three
decanters) 2016</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ironically the glasses in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘One
Day This Glass Will Break’</i> as images will never break, as such,
immortalised by the photographic process. The original ones of course will
eventually age, decay and break. In that way these images share something with
museum-style preservation with some images even composed in a way that includes
identification tags on some of the glasses. The vessels become metaphorical
shadows that are both twin and opposite of its original, they represent the relationship
photography philosophically has with capturing a moment in time as associations
with death and mortality. The title of this post, ‘through a glass darkly’ refers
to the idea that we have an obscure or imperfect vision of reality which to me
seemed to fit with the ideas of 'what is real' and 'what is not' at play in these
prints and the literal take that the prints exhibited in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘One Day This Glass Will Break’ </i>show glass which is dark, rather
than light and transparent. Those were at least my initial thoughts into this
body of work, maybe in time I will see things more or less clearly.</span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can
see Cornelia Parker’s ‘One Day This Glass Will Break’ (ticketed as part of the
exhibition ‘Women with Vision) at the RWA until January 28<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>.
Further details on the link here: </span></span></b></div>
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</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/cornelia-parker-one-day-glass-will-break"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/cornelia-parker-one-day-glass-will-break</span></a> </span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">Images sourced from; <a href="http://themultiplestore.org/cornelia-parker-one-day-this-glass-will-break-at-alan-cristea-34-cork-street-until-14nov/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://themultiplestore.org/cornelia-parker-one-day-this-glass-will-break-at-alan-cristea-34-cork-street-until-14nov/</span></a>;
<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><a href="https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about/touring-programme/hayward-touring/cornelia-parker-one-day-glass-will-break"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about/touring-programme/hayward-touring/cornelia-parker-one-day-glass-will-break</span></a>
and <a href="http://www.londontown.com/LondonEvents/Cornelia-Parker-One-Day-This-Glass-Will-Break/074b8/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.londontown.com/LondonEvents/Cornelia-Parker-One-Day-This-Glass-Will-Break/074b8/</span></a>
</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; margin: 0px;">Text Copyright Natalie Parsley© January 2018 </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-22317044990103431622017-12-11T08:36:00.002-08:002017-12-11T08:36:16.551-08:00Seeing is Believing<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Writing is a way of making sense of things.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> It is a way
to collate, consider and consolidate thoughts. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Writing is my way of making
sense of things I see and experience.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> There is a lot of repetition and
revisiting of ideas in what I write from which the things that hold the most
resonance are visited again and again in new ways as I attempt to find out
more.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWD9oRickbl9PgIUzsT2_HVTVH3tej08YbfbnHAYRvijbjw3vvp0uf2TZ6hTsY9cUVV_Z3FuV0iiKuDEO5-r8E1u1uMZJh1OcZfYClYpNZ1JIUxCVJ3OqNEFZ3-EcnCJ-99e1VyVK9y0g/s1600/bhepmm6cjx1ubw79clnl%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWD9oRickbl9PgIUzsT2_HVTVH3tej08YbfbnHAYRvijbjw3vvp0uf2TZ6hTsY9cUVV_Z3FuV0iiKuDEO5-r8E1u1uMZJh1OcZfYClYpNZ1JIUxCVJ3OqNEFZ3-EcnCJ-99e1VyVK9y0g/s400/bhepmm6cjx1ubw79clnl%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Painted
bronze (1960) Bronze and oil paint</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Therefore it is perhaps surprising that it has taken me almost
two months to write about the Jasper Johns retrospective exhibition<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>that I saw at the Royal Academy in
London. It was the first time I had ever seen so many of Johns’ work in one
place in the UK and I was even more excited to see so many of his paintings up
close, the tones of his grey paintings and encaustic surfaces only previously
imagined from what little information can be photographed of these works in
books or art lecture slides. To see the ‘real’ (if that is the correct word for
a representation cast in bronze of the real thing) Savarin Coffee can with
paintbrushes (pictured left) was a personal artistic highlight of my year! For me that piece
encapsulates the on-going dichotomy of the representational versus the real,
truth versus illusion, written language against visual language and ways in
which it is still so important to consider how we <strong><em>look</em></strong>, generally speaking, and
how we perceive the everyday. It is also the reason why it has taken me so long
to know how to write about it; I felt a little intimidated by its significance!
In the past when I have written about other big retrospectives such as, Robert Rauschenberg
or Kurt Schwitters I felt that no matter what I wrote it was unlikely to be
anything new and had to some way hold up to the scrutiny of those who know far
more about his work than me. What can I write about that hadn’t been echoed or
articulated in some way by someone else throughout the thousands of reviews
written about their work throughout history? There is so much known about
Jasper Johns that the only way I can offer anything different is by writing
about my own experience of seeing his work with maybe a few interjections of
research along the way...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1wXNlGiDi_5Tdp2bH2xy_KhQ-T-wRwGQpZS7rhp7xJtYcuqgNp46WAVQivawrJE3z1TA4ho4Yy_Km6NGrBj2sxYroqdvFTmqNe4eH002z0vnNHhJhlJguLKbA5n6e6R7YdvoLo-6t6A/s1600/Johns+Targets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1600" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1wXNlGiDi_5Tdp2bH2xy_KhQ-T-wRwGQpZS7rhp7xJtYcuqgNp46WAVQivawrJE3z1TA4ho4Yy_Km6NGrBj2sxYroqdvFTmqNe4eH002z0vnNHhJhlJguLKbA5n6e6R7YdvoLo-6t6A/s400/Johns+Targets.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;">LEFT; Target (1961) Encaustic and collage on canvas
RIGHT; White Target (1958) Encaustic and collage on canvas</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">havoc of
sameness and difference</i>’ as quoted from an article about the Jasper Johns
exhibition, by Paul Keegan in the Times Literary Supplement is at play in both
my own anxiety to offer something new or stick to what I know in the writing of
this post, and in context here, to the repetition and use of familiar motifs
throughout Jasper Johns’ career. From the 50s to the present day, the American
artist now in his eighties has prolifically explored the visual and pictorial
language of painting and mixed media through reoccurring imagery such as flags,
numbers, letters, words, body parts, targets, shapes and colour. There is a
progression of themes in the exhibition, aptly titled ‘Something Resembling
Truth', each room explores a different obsession that Johns had in
which the works are similar but different, a reference to the repetition within
Johns’ own work and the play of the real against the representational, abstract
and illusionary. An example of which is pictured here in two examples of Johns’
Target paintings. These are paintings as objects and as illusion both at once; the
way the paint is applied to the surface is almost 3-dimensional (using wax added to paint), the large
scale of some of these paintings only adding to their presence as 'painting as a
physical object' in the room and not merely a representation of, in this
instance, a target. Similarly, in his flag paintings the work occupies a duality
between representation and object, i.e. it is a representation of the American
flag but it is also a series of stripes and stars rendered in paint so as to
become a new object in itself, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“...between
seeing and language, between what we see and what we know</i>.” The language of
visual art as a way of communicating and the literal nature of written language
and symbolism is further layered in the number and alphabet pieces for example
in ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">0 through 9</i>’ [1961] the numbers,
unsurprisingly from 0 to 9 are layered one on top of another so that they become
almost unreadable and obscured into the abstract.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw329DlvyXMoQz-qDUqKu6IHmd31l2wrvpxQLRUHPiqhJIXrKNM1gvj0h2wVARgbFI8dmNvTpsV-F-ElzfX6Joo-wcs_oMF3evm6nBAFvZrPVB721AzCMvJuEn-6-LDPi6QLSysoqDHU/s1600/Johns+Numbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1083" data-original-width="1600" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw329DlvyXMoQz-qDUqKu6IHmd31l2wrvpxQLRUHPiqhJIXrKNM1gvj0h2wVARgbFI8dmNvTpsV-F-ElzfX6Joo-wcs_oMF3evm6nBAFvZrPVB721AzCMvJuEn-6-LDPi6QLSysoqDHU/s400/Johns+Numbers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;">LEFT; Small Numbers in Color (1959) Encaustic on wood
RIGHT; 0 through 9 (1961) Oil on canvas</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Johns is quoted as once saying, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“a picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator”.</i>
It may come as no surprise to some of you that I have actually spent some time
looking at radiators, or heaters at this side of the pond, and never found them
to be quite as interesting as many pictures but the implied sentiment from
Johns is a good one, in that the act of looking should be inquisitive and
exploratory, as though looking at something [a radiator] with consideration for
its familiarity but for the first time due to its invisibleness for the fact it
is so often overlooked. This should be the same treatment with which one sees a
picture or painting (discuss). Conversely, it can also mean that a picture should be
regarded with the same banality as that of a radiator which is amusing and
neither a bad thing to remind us not to take the act of looking, too seriously.
It is a provocative statement to make and reflects Johns’ philosophy to take
what the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘...mind already knows and make
us look again’</i>.</span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoDIUNAZCHtjqCZpL9mwUn_Z9qVNGDRNOV-IpIsQKVYq_0gLfn3_VpH3DrhkZF5Az2O19P-mAf3ZnU7uR9Dmt5xhpRqPJs4MRzUNC6Qg00zuXzsoEfIFD0u6THJzplfXGYFmlAkMN7_4/s1600/jasper-johns-passage-c-1962_a-l-339039-0%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoDIUNAZCHtjqCZpL9mwUn_Z9qVNGDRNOV-IpIsQKVYq_0gLfn3_VpH3DrhkZF5Az2O19P-mAf3ZnU7uR9Dmt5xhpRqPJs4MRzUNC6Qg00zuXzsoEfIFD0u6THJzplfXGYFmlAkMN7_4/s400/jasper-johns-passage-c-1962_a-l-339039-0%255B1%255D.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;">Passage (1962) Encaustic, charcoal and collage on canvas
with objects</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My personal favourite Johns works are his paintings
that combine objects on or into their surfaces. Made during the same time when
artists like Rauschenberg were doing a similar thing, these paintings such as ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Passage’</i> [1962] combine abstract
expressionistic use of gesture and formal qualities with the placing of
physical objects such as a fork, a ruler and a letter. For Johns however an
extra dimension is added with the inclusion of words such as ‘iron’ and ‘red,
yellow, blue’ as signifiers for colour and an object but without really being
present creating layers by which the literal, metaphorical and representational
are operating all at once in different parts of the painting. Stencilling the
word ‘yellow’ in green and partially obscured by grey paint confuses what we
read and know yellow to be and makes one think again. It’s playful but as full
of intent or meaning as you as the viewer want to bring to it. Chronologically these works Johns
explains came as a progression of the flag and target paintings being
considered as an object,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My use
of objects comes out of, originally, thinking of the painting as an object and
considering the materialistic aspect of painting......”</i> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3NTWx42DCVHXpOrHrlA6q_acDECLecw2yinICBkBfeHxxiacG8BUK4VWsRoRuxUo4n6dGkTrlAA1dJL2TDW1lHN-77Xyvlfycs7dLJd26icC7O_wSYt4px-K0zSWm3aQgR8Rvg9zGiN0/s1600/JohnsFoolsx1R%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="776" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3NTWx42DCVHXpOrHrlA6q_acDECLecw2yinICBkBfeHxxiacG8BUK4VWsRoRuxUo4n6dGkTrlAA1dJL2TDW1lHN-77Xyvlfycs7dLJd26icC7O_wSYt4px-K0zSWm3aQgR8Rvg9zGiN0/s640/JohnsFoolsx1R%255B1%255D.jpg" width="329" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">Fool’s House (1961-2) Oil on canvas with objects
attached</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The broom in ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fools
House’</i> [1961-62] is both structural protagonist of the painting as well as
the means by which the sweep of paint was manipulated across the canvas. The
objects in these paintings take on new purpose as formal components of the
paintings they reside in; a broom becomes a straight line, a can becomes a
cylinder, a neon light becomes a colour to work with that isn’t physically
present like paint, a fork becomes a ledge from which a chain can hang from, a
ruler is a line of yellow that implies a sense of order and precision that never
comes to fruition. I am a huge fan of these works and find their unexpectedness
and visual variables a pick and mix-like indulgence or a welcomed disruption to
the eyes that jazz music is to the ears. Both make seeing these works now still
relevant and exciting!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Going back to the bronze paintbrushes in the Savarin
coffee tin, I hope I have explained some of the context as to why I think it is a
significant work. In being cast in bronze the brushes and tin are less real
because they have been made with the purpose of looking in mind and not use,
they have been made to be looked at; the point in time in which they came to be
inside that tin captured forever. Whilst they are convincingly painted (right
up to their stains of use and wear) and realistically proportioned, they don’t
sit in the way that real paintbrushes do when residing inside a pot or can,
their bronze-cast rigidity makes them almost too static and they lack the
differences in texture of metal versus wood that the eye can distinguish. It is
like exposing an imposter and my eyes enjoy the visual conundrum and
illusionary trickery it plays. It summarises why I enjoy much of Johns’ work, seesaw
of real and unreal, truth and deception; the double-take, counterbalancing visual language with
that of written language. It makes you think without being convoluted or too pretentious.
The bronze in the exhibition sits alongside two drawings; one in ink and one in
graphite of the same display; they are all different versions of the same thing
but operate in different ways. The drawings place the paint brushes in full
centre becoming the artistic equivalent of a vase of flowers whereas the bronze
becomes a fake prop and a new surface on which to apply paint. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEsgLEpRoaH2dFGVwFf2hu-zd3dyrPEieOYXsfD18aKCamldzATK7uhjAfQwCnpaCelEx5OgbpTN0PNkhVpKjhoOx-oHO0GgNytOS4nApC5ZUxHi0xLzlpglbDgube3c_RS94GDrrbwY/s1600/jasper+johns+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1409" data-original-width="1422" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEsgLEpRoaH2dFGVwFf2hu-zd3dyrPEieOYXsfD18aKCamldzATK7uhjAfQwCnpaCelEx5OgbpTN0PNkhVpKjhoOx-oHO0GgNytOS4nApC5ZUxHi0xLzlpglbDgube3c_RS94GDrrbwY/s320/jasper+johns+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">From the Exhibition, ‘Something Resembling Truth’ at the
RA 2017</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For me personally, these works symbolise the moments of
inactivity within art, when the contemplation happens and the tools reside
their work carried out until such time when they are used again. There are two
specific lasting memories I have of paintbrushes in cans and they are; a photo
of brushes in two used dog-food cans in the window of my grandfather’s tool-barn
on his farm and of the paintbrushes of a painter who taught me during my degree
who had his brushes in a pot placed on his coffin at his funeral. In both
instances it struck me how deeply poignant the reverence I place upon
objects has with their association to the people who used them. I remember the way
the light was hitting the weather-beaten and algae-coloured corrugated Perspex window
of my grandfather’s tool-barn against the silhouette of these two paintbrush cans
being something celestial, almost like stained-glass within a church such was its importance to me and how I remember my grandfather. It tied into my research
into tools during my degree, but nonetheless is an image, like Johns, I have
reproduced and come back to more than once but never fully realised yet. It also brings me back to the discipline of writing and how it offers a way into processing exhibitions that I see. I cannot be sure if I looked at every piece in the Jasper Johns retrospective in the same way that I would look at a radiator but much has made me want to look and look again. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jasper Johns ‘Something
resembling truth’ ran at the Royal Academy of Arts from September 23<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup>
– December 10<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> 2017</span></b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Includes quotes from ‘The
only one seeing things’ by Paul Keegan published in the Times Literary
Suppliment 24<sup>th</sup> November 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Images of Jasper Johns work
sourced from </span><a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/jasper-johns"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/jasper-johns</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">;
</span><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/johns-0-through-9-t00454"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/johns-0-through-9-t00454</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-45463615710203029572017-11-14T07:27:00.001-08:002017-11-14T07:27:36.709-08:00Outta Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">Works produced by artists as part of the South West
Heritage Trust, <a href="https://musemakers.wordpress.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Muse: Makers in Museums’</b></a> is now on
show as a group exhibition at <a href="https://museumofsomerset.org.uk/"><b>The Museum of Somerset</b></a> features
work by Emma Molony, Jess Davis, Jacky Oliver, Sean Harris, Dorcas Casey,
Catlin Heffernan, Taja and Andrea Oke who each previously exhibited their work
in the museum they worked with for <b><a href="http://www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk/">Devon Arts Week</a> </b>or<b> <a href="http://somersetartworks.org.uk/">Somerset Art Weeks</a></b>. The museums,<b> <a href="http://axminsterheritage.org/">Axminster Museum</a></b>,<b> <a href="http://www.kingsbridgemuseum.org.uk/">Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum</a></b>,<b> <a href="http://www.museumofdartmoorlife.org.uk/">Museum of Dartmoor Life
[Okehampton]</a></b> in Devon; and <a href="http://www.kingjohnshuntinglodge.co.uk/"><b>Axbridge
and District Museum</b></a>,<b> <a href="http://www.brutontown.com/museum/">Bruton
Museum</a></b>,<b> <a href="http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/">Chard and District Museum</a>
</b>and<b> <a href="http://www.wellsmuseum.org.uk/">Wells and Mendip Museum</a></b> in
Somerset. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28dZvKRigw_maS4GNUtUoDJ3dHLZV2kHb_yr5xd-jcXaWF7G8FrGVz3NBHICoPAOOoTDVjCCpjTOgxPeYyE4g2OCWbkUgfcJnNZ6djpH3eyg5eRR3ymXXJ6ISvEwMU6elW6wljcvvBdM/s1600/MUSEM4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1293" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28dZvKRigw_maS4GNUtUoDJ3dHLZV2kHb_yr5xd-jcXaWF7G8FrGVz3NBHICoPAOOoTDVjCCpjTOgxPeYyE4g2OCWbkUgfcJnNZ6djpH3eyg5eRR3ymXXJ6ISvEwMU6elW6wljcvvBdM/s400/MUSEM4.JPG" width="322" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sean Harris at Wells and Mendip Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Prior to hearing and seeing about ‘Muse’ I had little
awareness of any of these smaller museums yet alone what any of them may
contain; For example, how many people know that the Bruton Museum holds a desk
used by the American writer, John Steinbeck? Or that he lived near Bruton in
1959? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I speculate that I may not be alone in thinking this.
From a PR point of view this exhibition has certainly been a success in
highlighting the benefits that the arts can bring at raising awareness and
offering new ways of informing the general public to engage with their
collections and the stories they have to offer. From Maritime, Bronze Age and
Archaeological history to the history of tin mining, quarrying and farming on
Dartmoor and carpets in Axminster! There is a rich and slightly daunting amount
of material that each of the artists working on this project had at their
disposal. I recall my own experiences working with a curator at the Somerset
Heritage Centre sourcing old farming agricultural tools to draw from, the enthusiasm
and knowledge of the items within the collection was truly inspiring. It also
made me realise the challenge faced by each of the artists on this project to
somehow take their experiences of these collections, artefacts, stories and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">produce</i> something from them.</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMPqql7jk7zK9Ut3GQTNWwksBxr1UbO8xhJYvIVV65pzUl4go7HfYPZTq61fUplAysGxsmmYKRysKCs9s8eo6RhEF-IBq2EM-1tliE50hBOmLWuSGGe4joYN_-JvQmmU86ElQfnHgTQ8/s1600/MUSEM6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMPqql7jk7zK9Ut3GQTNWwksBxr1UbO8xhJYvIVV65pzUl4go7HfYPZTq61fUplAysGxsmmYKRysKCs9s8eo6RhEF-IBq2EM-1tliE50hBOmLWuSGGe4joYN_-JvQmmU86ElQfnHgTQ8/s400/MUSEM6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jess Davis at The Museum of Dartmoor Life</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">The resulting work made is pleasingly well-crafted and reflects
the variety of mediums from its makers. The relationships with each of the
museums the artists worked with is demonstrated in the process by which each of
them has had to select and edit artefacts, documents, contexts, processes,
stories and/or ideas that are relevant to their respective practices.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.emmamolony.com/" target="_blank">Emma Molony</a></b> was well selected as an
artist who is a printmaker and has made her own wallpaper to be situated
working with Axminster Heritage Centre, who are well known for their carpets.
The resulting monoprints takes inspiration from patterns of their textiles. <a href="http://wildboarpress.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sean
Harris</b></a> uses his practice as an animator and film maker to produce
flip-book boxes of bones at the Wells and Mendip Museum. Viewers are given a
torch as they propel the handle operating the flip-books housed inside dark
wooden boxes evoking the caves from Wookey Hole in which Hyena bones were
discovered; the processes of excavation and illumination used as a metaphor for
the element of discovery in archaeology. The use of low-technology in response
to these artefacts is also an interesting idea as it brings an element of two
sets of histories, that of the evolution of animation and the history of the
bones it depicts.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The use of technology
is present again in <a href="http://andreaoke.weebly.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Andrea Oke’s</b></a> intricate and exquisitely hand-made papercut outs
that also feature a QR code for viewers to interact with and access an audio
recording of text taken from ancient documents at Axbridge and District Museum.
The audio is very engaging but its place as a QR code visually within the
interior-design pleasing surrounding papercut image feels a little bit
superfluous.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-rxqx5MbfSxVBNGU5uuFcyT1_vNZXJh_pTv0Y-royeX7zqUiSRyfhksliUo9_PUZuyMpado6CVD3wDSZnkbyTktR9yPW2nzgx3jFhMgGe7jhUbWaX8mfJbxBohx-IiBfTQ6ixolPqlow/s1600/MUSEM3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1199" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-rxqx5MbfSxVBNGU5uuFcyT1_vNZXJh_pTv0Y-royeX7zqUiSRyfhksliUo9_PUZuyMpado6CVD3wDSZnkbyTktR9yPW2nzgx3jFhMgGe7jhUbWaX8mfJbxBohx-IiBfTQ6ixolPqlow/s400/MUSEM3.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taja at Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.jessdavies.net/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jess Davis’</b></a> lino prints of the evolving landscape of Dartmoor depict scenes from its past, some appearing almost appear other-worldly. She also has a series of dry-points depicting objects that respond to the landscape. <a href="file:///C:/Users/natal/Documents/Blog%20Posts/jackyoliver.co.uk"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jacky Oliver</b></a> makes wire and enamel
studies of boat models from the Teign Heritage Centre that are an interesting
cross-over between the illusionary depth of a blueprint and making those lines
out of wire that become both a 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional representation
of the original. Elsewhere in the exhibition<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><a href="file:///C:/Users/natal/Documents/Blog%20Posts/dorcascasey.com"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dorcas
Casey’s</b></a> ‘life-size’primordial crocodile model with scales made from
antique jelly moulds is an imaginative addition to the natural history area of
the Somerset Museum, creating its own mythology and talking-point and is both
funny and unsettling at the same time.</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">Context plays an important part on viewing these works
and some of them I feel may have lost their understanding in being taken from
their original corresponding museum and put in this group show, <a href="http://www.tajaporcelain.co.uk/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Taja’s</b></a>
paper clay tableware pieces being one example. Beautifully made and seemingly
precariously balanced together in a ball reminiscent of a prop from the Mad
Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland; Taja’s pieces were originally shown
in hanging on original iron hooks in the context of the Kingsbridge Cookworthy
Museum’s Victorian kitchen. Its meaning and visual presence look a bit lost
without the place or artefacts that inspired them in the vast, non-domestic
space of the Museum of Somerset. <a href="file:///C:/Users/natal/Documents/Blog%20Posts/caitlinheffernan.co.uk"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Catlin Heffernan’s</b></a> textile
installation similarly struggles here to compete with its surroundings rather
than work with it.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SqeSGDDanjsOcuGQudNB1YkjYY4lazQk9HYB8TJlL3Nrf8RYesSUj_1_nESYLXm6LyKAdb6b9T3wm2YU_nV7DNHUoANgylwJER6T1ES3imlcdpy3CW8LQa7CRxnCxXMhmpIa5gh_n9M/s1600/MUSEM1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1207" data-original-width="1600" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SqeSGDDanjsOcuGQudNB1YkjYY4lazQk9HYB8TJlL3Nrf8RYesSUj_1_nESYLXm6LyKAdb6b9T3wm2YU_nV7DNHUoANgylwJER6T1ES3imlcdpy3CW8LQa7CRxnCxXMhmpIa5gh_n9M/s400/MUSEM1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dorcas Casey at Bruton Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">My only other reservation of this exhibition is that it is
almost too ‘nice’, everything is made to a high standard but it feels all a bit
safe, there is nothing particularly edgy, moving or resonate revealed from what
the artists have taken inspiration from. The works presented here offer
alternative ways at highlighting the existence of the artefacts/stories in
these museums rather than engaging or telling us much of anything new or
forming a new opinion of. Maybe the intention of the title of the project being
‘makers in museums’ as opposed to ‘artists’ shifts the role to something more production-based?
It is worth noting that since this projects inception the artists involved have
kept a <a href="https://musemakers.wordpress.com/">blog</a> and also ran
workshops; their individual journeys and interactions with staff and the public
are very interesting, but these are additional things artists offer rather than
possibly being the main event, as they could and perhaps deserve to be?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OFOGpSeiqz5FH63_28B-GSnN0P7OgHJcZn0MXyGuO9e0hgQ8pWZ7L6-RdG9nqKkmCMrLX4Omnny997IU4KaAZMNsHrALZdRQbo67UjzmzNfEolGWB_bj95-E12OwQ9go-lY9RjZxU3Q/s1600/MUSEM5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1359" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OFOGpSeiqz5FH63_28B-GSnN0P7OgHJcZn0MXyGuO9e0hgQ8pWZ7L6-RdG9nqKkmCMrLX4Omnny997IU4KaAZMNsHrALZdRQbo67UjzmzNfEolGWB_bj95-E12OwQ9go-lY9RjZxU3Q/s320/MUSEM5.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emma Molony at Axminster Heritage Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">Unfairly my expectations are probably too high but I
think it is important to always push the limits of bravery and ambition in what
museums, audiences and arts organisations select or enable artists to do. What
this project importantly <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i></b> achieve is in opening up the dialogue
between the arts and museum collections both very accommodating and respectful
of the other and offers an example on how they might work together. For artists
it is an informed and rich source material and different context to work within
and for museums it is the opportunity to engage in new ways in which their
collections can be interpreted and accessed. I would just ask that they
continue to do so courageously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";">‘Muse: Makers in
Museums’ can be seen at The Museum of Somerset until 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> February
2018</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://museumofsomerset.org.uk/muse/">https://museumofsomerset.org.uk/muse/</a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://musemakers.wordpress.com/">https://musemakers.wordpress.com/</a></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2667281689804038832.post-86023194647383437502017-11-13T01:50:00.001-08:002017-11-13T01:50:28.652-08:00Word Gets Around -Celebrating five years of A Spanner in the Workz<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This November marks the fifth anniversary of sticking a Spanner
in the Workz of the art world as Natalie Parsley reviews and analyses contemporary
art and exhibitions throughout the UK and across the globe!</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thank you to anyone who reads these posts! The blog has
been posting regularly since 2012 and has covered 150 exhibitions and art
projects including the Liverpool Biennial and Venice Biennale. A third of those
are either national or local with another thirteen being international. I began
blogging in 2010 during an internship with Somerset Art Works when the idea was
first mentioned that I create a blog that provided an anecdotal reflection but
also critical writing platform to report and analyse art events that may be of
interest to SAW members and the public. I established and wrote for the SAW
blog for two years slowly gaining the confidence and passion for venturing into
writing for myself. The SAW blog continues to this day with Davina Jelley posting
on SAW related projects and events. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The purpose for creating a Spanner in the Workz is to
provide a context for my writing and link to my visual art practice and artist
CV. In it I reflect on visual art exhibitions, talks, projects and events that
I have either visited in person or am in some way directly participating in. The
writing motivates me to see more exhibitions and the more exhibitions I see,
the more I want to write about them!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The blog’s title taken from my Fine art degree critical
commentary, is a reference to both my own work which features tools (including
spanners) and the process of analysing something by way of unsettling or
questioning something. In other words, putting a spanner in the works. I was
obsessed then with double-meanings of things, the treachery and illusion of
representation; how something can be and not be a pipe all at the same time
[Magritte’s Ceci n’est pas une pipe]! To some extent I still am, as both an Artist,
Blogger and Bookseller (not always necessarily in that order) I, like many people
I know, live a life with multiple roles but all of which share common interests.
This too is reflected in my writing as I write to both understand something
better and (hopefully) make it sound appealing or of interest to others. The
bigger ambition that art writing and reading can lead to a greater sense of art
appreciation is something I am very passionate in. Perhaps also, but more subtly
it also acts to criticise and question the art world and establishment; by
being independent I am free to write my thoughts and opinions more unedited so
I hope that in some way, if they take the time to read it, my comments may make
artists, art venues and organisations think and scrutinise what they are doing.
With all that in mind here’s to many more posts in the coming years about art,
here’s to throwing more spanners in the workz!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">To commemorate my interest in puns, wordplay and
double-meanings of things I have collated a list of blog posts whose titles are
taken or reference songs, books or films. Not a lot of people know that! Simply click on the title to reveal what each one is about. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Enjoy!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Songs</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/everything-to-everyone.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Everything
to Everyone</span></a> – Everclear</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/viva-venezia.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Viva
Venezia</span></a> -Viva Las Vegas, Elvis</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/everything-youve-come-to-expect.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Everything
You’ve Come To Expect</span></a> – The Last Shadow Puppets</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/anything-but-ordinary.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Anything
but Ordinary</span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: windowtext; margin: 0px;"> -Ordinary, Train </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/cant-you-hear-it-in-silence.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Can’t
You Hear it in the Silence?</span></a> – Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Bear’s Den</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/we-can-work-it-out.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">We
Can Work It Out</span></a> – The Beatles</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/hollow-talk.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Hollow
Talk</span></a> – Choir of Young Believers</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/you-could-be-lifted.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">You
Could Be Lifted</span></a> – Lifted, Lighthouse Family</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/these-streets.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">These
Streets</span></a> -Paolo Nutini </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/i-always-believed-in-futures.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">I
Always Believed in Futures</span></a> -Futures, Jimmy Eat World</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/in-middle.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">In the
Middle</span></a> -The Middle by Jimmy Eat World</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/playing-videogames.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Playing
Videogames</span></a> -Videogames, Lana Del Rey</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/whats-word.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">What’s
the Word?</span></a> – We Are Scientisits</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/another-brick-in-bookcase.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Another
Brick in the Bookcase</span></a> -Another Brick in the Wall, Pink Floyd </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/livin-for-weekend.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Livin’
for the Weekend</span></a> -Living for the Weekend, Hard-Fi</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/venice-biennale-2013-im-lost-for-words.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">I’m
Lost For Words</span></a> – Redundant, Green Day</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/on-magic-carpet-ride.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">On
a Magic Carpet Ride</span></a> – A Whole New World, Disney’s Aladdin</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-answer-is-blowin-in-wind.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">The
answer is blowin’ in the wind</span></a> -Blowin in the Wind, Bob Dylan</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/im-looking-in.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">I’m
Looking In</span></a> -Outside, Staind</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/bv-open-studios-i-am-walrus.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">BV
Open Studios, I am the Walrus</span></a> – The Beatles</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/can-can-book-review-chris-chapman-100.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Can
the Can!</span></a> -Suzi Quatro </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Books</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/into-wild.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Into the
Wild</span></a> -Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-unbelievable-weightiness-of-air.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">The
Unbelievable Weightiness of Air</span></a> -The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan
Kundera</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/of-mutability.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Of
Mutability</span></a>- Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/fantastic-artists-and-where-to-find-them.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Fantastic
Artists and Where to Find Them</span></a> – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by
J K Rowling</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/dust-interrupted.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Dust
Interrupted</span></a> -Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/youre-in-for-big-surprise.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">You’re
in For a Big Surprise</span></a> -The Teddy Bears’ Picnic </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/let-light-one-in.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Let
the Light One In</span></a> -Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindvqvist</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-city-city.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">The
City and the City</span></a> -The City and The City by China Mieville</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/silver-linings-sketch-book.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Silver
Linings Sketch Book</span></a> – Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/life-is-easy-to-chronicle-but.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">“Life
is easy to chronicle but bewildering to practice!”</span></a> – A Room with a View by
E M Forster</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/somethings-wicked-this-way-comes.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Something(s)
Wicked This Way Comes</span></a> -Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/here-are-my-bees.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Here
are my Bees</span></a> -The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/look-if-you-like-but-you-will-have-to.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Look
if you like but you will have to leap</span></a> -Leap Before you Look by Auden</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/four-legs-good-two-legs-bad.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Four
Legs Good, Two Legs Bad</span></a> -Animal Farm by George Orwell</span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></u></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Films</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/easy-glider-peter-lanyon-at-courtauld.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Easy
Glider</span></a> – Easy Rider </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/jurassic-world.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Jurassic
World</span></a> – Jurassic World</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>Natalie Parsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11219688760493843744noreply@blogger.com0