have decided to collate in one place my experimental haiku-style poems, from the making of the recent saltscapes series, written May 17th to June 17th 2009...
from salt and earth,i made a dystopian green with envyand chemistry smiled, slyly…May 17th, 2009...
the ashes sighed,mourning the old flame,murmuring, if only…May 18th, 2009...
a bloodshot skyhand in hand,we returned cautiously…May 19th, 2009...
in a waterlogged eden,the birds took flighton sensing the eyes of strangers…May 20th, 2009...
through a grimy haze,all burnt golden, mouth glistening blackfaces, charred by an obese sun…May 21st, 2009...
the haze cleared, a crystalline sky,salt lakes and tidal poolsmelted, into the silvered silt…May 22nd, 2009...
a disaster areabelches blackfury inflamed...May 25th, 2009...
in ore, the chromium mirelife lies, sleepingslowly mineralised…May 29th, 2009...
the melting cavern,into saline poolsit plinked, dyspepsia…May 30th, 2009...
limestone rockssalt trails a scarin time, healed…May 31st, 2009...
underground, a stream,of consciousnesswhere perception flows…June 6th, 2009...
bruised rouge, to greyclodded clay,clawed deep, the way…June 10th, 2009...
a rockscape mouldedvestigial traces, marksthe slippery way out…June 11th, 2009...
stepping on stones, skippingthe sedimental slabs, water blackenedstriated, to the shore...June 15th, 2009...
abraded, by seawater and saltcoarse skin, furrowed then frownedat a more polished reflection...June 17th, 2009...
salthouse, uninterrupted views
on the art exhibition salthouse: salt of the earth, at salthouse church, norfolk...
[detail of my work, saltscapes i-xxv, at the salthouse : salt of the earth art exhibition]over the weekend i gave a brief artist talk on my work in this exhibition, saltscapes, about the ideas and concepts behind it and my use of materials...
i was surprised (and very happy) to hear that my work has attracted a lot of interest from many visitors, and one of the exhibition's invigilators said that i had effectively sold it three times during the day (just once is very nice)...the next day i was at salthouse church yet again to do my stint of exhibition invigilating, which gave me a chance to revisit some of the artworks in the salthouse art exhibition...andy cairns' salt encrusted construction corroded, crystallised, coalesced is a fascinating piece of coastal assemblage, displaying both resilience and fragility...rory mcshane's woodcut print salt squares shared some similarities with my work, exploring the geometric formation of salt crystals, echoing the wider pattern of the constructed landscape...ross loveday's three drypoint and carborundum etchings reminded me a little of the london skyline paintings by john virtue, as their natural rural counterparts, with their rich, dark expressive tones, evoking the wind-swept flat vistas of the north norfolk coast......the celebrated east anglian painter maggi hambling displays one of her recent north sea paintings,storm wave, an energetic, power-packed painting in which its swooshing, watery depths persuade you to jump in and yet there is a fear drowning if you stay there a little too long...marcela trsova's piece light vessel, is a beautifully crafted construction of salt crystals and wire, an ethereal boat surrounded by wire fish suspended from the ceiling recalling souls to prayer...both antje ernestus and jane wheeler reference the ritual collection and harvesting of salt in their sculptural, ceramic pieces...david page's some views of the marsh is a curiously abstract and dream-like painting, as one seemingly floats high above the salt marshes, with a solitary, small figure just visible heading inland...colin yorke's the outcasts is a work that is sensitively made, embracing the organic, weathered qualities of aged, spalted wood, as a group of only partially seen carved heads - all the more moving when seen in their final resting place (outside the church wall)...there is also the work of ana maria pacheco, colin self, kabir hussain - too many to mention here as there are fifty artists included in this exhibition (it's a big church), but it is a show that is defintely worth its salt (sorry, no pics of their work, but there is a colour catalogue). salt of the earth is curated by simon martin, curator at the pallant house gallery, chichester.salthouse : salt of the earth : 2 july to 2 august 2009, salthouse church, norfolkp.s. see some photographs of some of saltscapes, in progress, in the studio... or click on the photograph below for a small glimpse...
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and finally... [i found this and thought of yew...]
a tranquil gaze
after the hustle bustle of the art trail weekend, it was a welcome break to travel to salthouse to install my piece for the salthouse art exhibition.... having only ventured to salthouse a couple of times before, i am beginning to wonder if it is perpetually shrouded in an ethereal mist... as we travelled northwards, about ten miles from our destination, a mist appeared, and, unlike the mist of winter which descends slowly, silently and is usually quite still, this mist arrived in waves, moving in smoke-like drifts across the fields...
[saltscapes i - xxv] 100cm x 100cm, gesso and mixed media on wood panel, installed for the exhibition salthouse 09...the mist scarcely dispersed along the winding coastal road, and became even denser as we neared salthouse village... later, taking a short walk across the salt marshes to the sea, from the vantage point of the high shingle bank, all evidence of salthouse the village was erased by the silvery greyness, and looking north, east and west the mist quietly enveloped, obliterating the sea horizon, a sense of direction briefly lost but a strange sense of immensity gained, a vaporous cocoon of immeasurable calm...
[salthouse beach, june 2009]a tranquil gaze, discovered in the humblest of eyes, are the artisans of immensity (the poetics of space, gaston bachelard)