more exhibition news: i have had two more of my earth/bound series of works selected for a new curated art exhibition, feeling the pressure at Rhyl Arts Centre in Wales.
these are the exhibition invites, which have a curious printed lustre, looking a little like smooth granite or stone & gold on a tombstone. i do not know if this visual aesthetic interpretation was intentional, but it has a slightly apocalyptic tone - and they shimmer and change with the light...
...i also had to write about one hundred words about my art in the exhibition. in this regard, i always find myself focusing on the externalised factors (the environment) which influence the making of my art. there are other factors which are more personal to the artist, as if one's experience and perception of the environment is merely a conduit to exploring feelings about other things... feeling the pressure...the two artworks i have in this exhibition are earth/bound i and earth/bound vi; these sculptural reliefs are for sale in the exhibition (no pressure). here is a photograph of them, which i took just before i packaged them up and sent them to the gallery at rhyl arts centre.
[earth/bound i & vi, 2011, 30cm x 30cm x 5cm]
read a little more about the beginnings of the earth/bound series here.it was earlier in the year when i saw the 'open call' for artists to apply for feeling the pressure and i decided to submit an application. i was pleased to have some of my artwork selected for this exhibition as it is a new audience and context for my art.earlier in the year (or maybe it was last year) i said that i would focus on exhibitions which seemed most appropriate for my art.the other 'open' art exhibition i applied to this year was on the map at hastings museum and i was pleased to have two of my artworks selected for that exhibition too. read more about the on the map art exhibition here.the art exhibition feeling the pressure runs from
5 may to 2 June 2012 (more details about the exhibition are below).UPDATE: there's a slideshow of some of the works in the exhibition on the BBC news website......Feeling the PressureClimate change is the broad subject of this art exhibition, comprising work selected from an open call to artists across the UK. Rising sea levels, drought and over consumption in the world are just a few of the issues that artists have chosen to highlight in Feeling the Pressure, often with a touch of humour!A prize of £500 is also being awarded, and the exhibition is sponsored by TEGNI and NORTH WALES HYDROPOWER, who are working together to provide sustainable energy for future generations.
[feeling the pressure, exhibition poster]The artists exhibiting in Feeling the Pressure are:
Sonja Benskin Mesher, Mary Conway, Sarah Durham, Simon Farid, Helen Snell, Ian Brown, Stuart Carr, Martgaret Tietze, Pat Thornton, Tim Pugh, Emma Louise Preece, Simon Collinge, Mark Sheeky, Jon Kehoe, Jazz Green, Dorothea Reid, Lisa Carter, Tara Dean, David Rasores-Parry, Anne-Mie Melis, John Clarke, Sue Clarke, Lin Cummins, Simon Job, Andy Owen, Harriet Challis–Jones, Jane Glennie, Clarrie Flavell, Jim Taylor, Esther Tew.Feeling the Pressure5 May – 2 June 2012Rhyl Arts CentreChurch StreetRhylWALESLL18 3AAExhibition open: Monday to Friday 10am - 5pm; Saturday 10am - 12.30pmView location on Google Maps...
artist in the woods - wood shelter structure
artist in the woods
artist in the woods - wood shelter structure
artist in the woods...i didn't make this… it's in a large woodland along boudicca way...
a musing at the museum
isolated poses looking in different directions for the purpose of understandingthe ornithology room at the museum was quiet on the afternoon i visited. with the current trend for the quasi-museological in the art world, the artfully 'animated' array of bird species started to take on the uncanny presence of a contemporary art installation. naturally, i could not resist relating the experience of many preserved, dead animals in a room in a museum to the current retrospective of damien hirst's work at tate modern, london......
the physical (im)possibility of life in the mind of a taxidermista prime example of taxidermy is exhibited in this 'lively' looking tiger - simultaneously both frightening and quite frightful, a curious inversion of the hunter and the hunted…the castle museum's natural history collections, as seen in the old mahogany wood cabinets (above) to the meticulously staged landscape dioramas (some with sound effects), altogether display an exhaustive if slightly eccentric fascination with all things natural and wild. many of the specimens on display are acquisitions from the collections of local edwardian or victorian naturalists - expertly catalogued, neatly labelled & now tamely presented. it reminded me of a time when i visited tring natural history museum many years ago, and 'seeing' (unbelievably, absurdly, curiously) two fleas dressed as mexican dancers…however dear reader, i digress... this museum visit was really an opportunity to see Titian's painting, Diana and Actaeon, in the flesh (the painting is currently on a national tour, cost a staggering £50 million and it was 'bought' for the nation by a consortium of funders). i sat quietly in its great presence for many minutes, but it failed to animate my interest beyond the myth of the young hunter (Actaeon) who stumbles upon the chaste goddess of the hunt (Diana). deep thoughts about Titian the great painter and the great skill of this painting were slightly distracted by two toddlers who found the pattern of the air-conditioning grid on the floor more fascinating. it was perhaps not the admiring, attentive audience that the great Titian would have wanted.Diana and Actaeon is one of six large mythological paintings by Titian (inspired by Ovid’s series of stories, the 'Metamorphoses'), as part of an ambitious commission for King Philip II of Spain - and it would seem that Titian relished the challenge.
Diana and Actaeon, 1556–9, oil on canvas, 184.5 x 202.2 cm, © National Gallery, Londoneven with the protective barrier of 'glass' Diana and Actaeon the painting pulsated with epic drama and spectacle - in sheer scale, in the dynamics of composition, in the lushness of colours and with every florid brushstroke. i sat on the bench, i looked and i observed, and then i began to wonder; Titian may have been a great painter of full-bodied flesh but he was no painter of women.it bothered me that diana had a very small head (for a goddess) and that her legs were out of proportion with her torso (and with each other too, it seems - and, as if my eyes wanted to deceive me even further into finding more faults, i started seeing a third leg?! i take it art historians forego these small anatomical inaccuracies (as we might do when watching a sci-fi movie, the special effects versus continuity, etc)however, when viewed in the context of a museum exhibit (this is a painting that comes with its own personal security guard) i felt compelled to admire Titian's 'Diana and Actaeon' for its art historical significance. by all accounts Titian was at the top of the art hierarchy when he created this magnificent series of paintings, a showman in command of his medium (and his audience) and a wealth of rich patrons, and the art 'critics' of venice praised him (is that an oxymoron?) - does this ring any bells with anyone?however, when removing the lavish 'history' of Diana and Actaeon (expertly provided by the museum to enrich the visual experience) i later began to ponder how an outsider might 'interpret' the dramatic scene.idle thoughts led me to make a comparison of Diana and Actaeon with this quite well-known advertisement from the 1970s (badedas), as a number of visual features are superficially similar - outside/inside retreat, the swathe of the curtain, the private pleasure of bathing, a moment of alarm or surprise, the intrusion - and what might happen next. in fact, a number of the badedas adverts played on a kind of faux-historical tableaux.
however, unlike the hunter goddess diana, who is clearly enraged and will later seek her revenge (in the next episode of the story), the badedas bathing lady does not appear to be in any hurry to reach for her shotgun to do away with the red-shirted voyeur. it's all in the semiotics (reminded of my MA thesis, which was on beauty, women & advertising).when i first saw Diana and Actaeon i was put in the position (or mind) of the King who commissioned it, and from that perspective the painting becomes an object of status, wealth, and with that the delight and desire of looking & owning. the badedas advertisement's original message was [good] 'things happen after a badedas bath' and it has resonances with many other 'luxury' lifestyle advertisements of this bygone era, such as 'imperial leather' and 'milk tray' (the milk tray man). how times (and contexts) change as this advertisement now seems very sinister.when we look at an object or image (as art), into that context of looking comes prior knowledge or cultural experience and this influences interpretation and understanding. what is discussed or written about the art beforehand (and afterwards) is often more persuasive and conveys more meaning than by the simple act of just looking. the viewpoint changes, the viewer changes, the context changes, the meaning changes....In the end, the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms.John Berger, Ways of Seeing...