Creativity requires a leap of faith that is not limited
necessarily to the making of art, but also in how we approach it or attempt to
engage with it. The sentiment comes from the title of this week’s blog post, a
line from the Auden poem of the same name, ‘Leap before you look’. As I
understood it, the poem, (in the context of first coming across it during my
art degree) is about taking risks, having the courage to move forward, indeed
even leap into the unknown. For all this 'leaping' we may be rewarded with
progress, innovation, revelation or new understanding.
Therefore appropriately titled, ‘Leaping the Fence’ the
first exhibition in the newly reopened Hestercombe House acknowledges this same
conviction of pushing of boundaries and pioneering exploration undergone in the
practices of sixteen selected contemporary artists who have contributed to
British art over the past thirty years. Although it is also asking its
audiences to do the same in challenging their perceptions of what contemporary
art is within the context of Hestercombe House and what are already well-established Georgian
and Edwardian gardens that would have been groundbreaking in their own way upon
their creation.
On Monday 26th May, I went to have a look at
‘Leaping the fence’ (never really being one to sit comfortably on it).
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| (pictured left to right) David Batchelor 'Colour Chart Painting 33 (green)', Steve Johnson 'Binoculars (charm no 9), Adam Chodzco 'Untitled stile (teenage version)' |
It should come as no surprise to find that there are a
significant number of works in the exhibition which are distinctly garden
and/or landscape themed. Perhaps the title of the exhibition inspired from Adam
Chodzko’s turquoise glossed stile (pictured) that stands proudly, mixture
between kitsch piece of aerobics equipment and ‘pimped-up’ take on the familiar
countryside hurdle. It is a fence of sorts but sadly, despite the temptation, not
for leaping over, at least not literally. The theme continues in what, joy for
me, is Gavin Turk’s ‘Desert Island Scenario’ (pictured) a mahogany carved
spade. Likened to Duchamp’s similarly conceptual ‘In advance of the broken arm’
whereby the authorship of the object is questioned, Turk takes the debate one
step further by crafting his ‘ready-made’.
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| Gavin Turk 'Desert Island Scenario' (2003) Mahogany, 8 x 103 x 19.5cm. |
Another tool-based piece in the exhibition that appealed to me (in the sense that it is probably the one I would most like to draw-and probably will) is Mark Hosking’s ‘Untitled (Lowland Rice) two steel sculptures that appear to be utilitarian pieces of farm machinery in bright red (pictured) and sage green. They appear at first like two abstract Anthony Caro works, their forms reminiscent in my view, of the late artists balancing/minimalist sculptures. In this sense the work operates on two planes, being sculptural for their form, colour and context but in also having a functionality that the artist has created from a United Nations pamphlet on sustainable development and survivalist technology. I’m not entirely sure what these contraptions are actually for, some sort of digging/sowing, I assume but am more interested in their ambiguity. In past discussions about tools and their uses, I’ve often found that the more interesting tools both visually and conceptually are the ones which cannot be easily defined in their use and/or being classified as a tool. The ambiguity of the objects imbues them with more potential than if their exact purpose is known. In Hosking’s work does this duality as art object and functional one help us, as stated by the catalogue, ‘question the clash between contemporary art and reality of life for large parts of the world’s population’? Perhaps, it goes someway to doing so, but I find it harder to escape its reality as an art object more than its connotation to the wider world of farming/survival. Man’s relationship with the earth is explored deeper (literally) in Tania Kovats sculpture ‘Sunk’ and in Janice Kerbell’s social/scientific digital drawings garden design is determined by the climatic, architectural and functional conditions of a range of indoor environments. In an adjacent room, Marc Quinn presents a series of prints of frozen gardens of plants which would never grow together naturally.
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| Mark Hosking 'Untitiled (Lowland Rice)' (1998) Steel and paint, variable. |
The exhibition also features painting by Clare Woods,
sound installation by Susan Philipsz and film from Spartacus Chetwynd and Mark
Wallinger (the Chetwynd film being the stronger of the two for me). Did I mention
Tracy Emin is in this show too? Well, her work’s here and maybe lends a
certain amount of popularity and recognisability along with the shows’
other five Turner Prize nominated/winning artists, but other than that her neon
poems/phrases, like the one featured in this show don’t do a lot for me
personally (I think I find them too obvious) however I do not doubt will appeal
to some. No stranger to this blog we also see a painting by David
Batchelor whose green gloss blob has seemingly inspired a similar green arc
filling the top floor of the gallery windows. It’s an impressive sight when you
come down the stairs or driveway to the front of the house (pictured) that
reaffirms that something new, lively and fun inhabits within. Largely, the
exhibition is well placed with the different rooms each giving their own
atmosphere/context to the work. It particularly works well in the case of Bill
Woodrow’s ‘Clockswarm’, a cast bronze in the shape of a mantel piece clock of a
swarm of bees which sits as though it were built for the space on the fireplace
opposite Ruth Claxton’s sculpture featuring, possibly what could be a bee-eating
bird. Mark Nelson’s installation ‘Taylor’ (pictured) also works well in the
building completely filling the room on the ground-floor. A raft of barrels
tied (expertly!) together with rope supports a small tent and supplies for a
journey. Where is it going? I’m drawing up my own recollections of the recent
floods on the levels...Nelson is best known for his labyrinthine installations,
‘Coral Reef’ shown at the Tate in 2000 being among one of the most ambitious,
disorientating and filmic pieces I have seen. ‘Taylor’ similarly has filmic
connotations referencing the character, George Taylor from ‘Planet of the Apes’
who tries to escape upon a raft in vain. This work was site specific to
Liverpool as one of the last centres for the British slave trade and references
the political plight of refugees from Haiti and Cuba.
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| Mike Nelson 'Taylor' (1994) Metal, canvas, wood and mixed media, 250 x 336 x 456cm. |
To ‘art tarts’ (so I’ve been told!) like me, then this
exhibition will come as a shining example at a time of great losses in
contemporary arts in Taunton and is therefore a glimmer of hope for the future.
It deserves every success and is a delight to be able to enjoy and see these
works on my doorstep. To the unconverted, undoubtedly there will be those who
come to Hestercombe with more traditional expectations of painted landscapes,
flowers and botany. To those ends you are probably best suited to looking at
the gardens, but if are willing to not just look, but to leap into embracing or
attempting to understand something new, something challenging, something
difficult then you will be rewarded with an experience that is every bit as
colourful but in many ways more, joyous and contemplative as the gardens
themselves.
It is also a refreshing reminder that regarding
creativity, sitting on the fence is a good vantage point but it also stops us
from moving forward. This proves that it sometimes pays to do away with the
fence altogether and venture into the unknown. Let's hope art at Hestercombe continues to do so.
'Leaping the Fence' is on at Hestercombe Gallery until 14th September 2014.
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