This July I spent a 4 days invigilating the Arts University College Bournemouth’s London degree show, BRINK and I came to the realization that people love viewing and experiencing art! The exhibition was a mixture of work by Fine Art, Architecture and Illustration graduates. The show featured photography, painting, drawing and film as well as performance, sculpture and everything one could want from a contemporary art showcase. The standard was high and despite the sweltering heat audiences were captivated by what this group of students had produced. Below is some of the encounters between visitors and artwork, that I witnessed. Enjoy!
A lot of people loved this work by Kim Brown, so much so I must have had at least 30 different conversations about it with gallery goers. Each of them seem to really enjoy being enveloped by the work. Many comparisons were made to viewer’s experience of Gaudi’s mosaics and fluid architectural spaces, such as Parc Guell in Barcellona. Part of the excitement created by the installation is that it’s quite an unexpected experience in this very open and airy gallery. Entering the show and walking round the first corner you were confronted by the expanse that is the T1 gallery space. You could see paintings and illustrations and things on walls, but just off to the left was a doorway. What once was just a small office space has been transformed by the artist through what must have been an almost endless process of painting and cutting. From outside the piece the doorway acts like a frame holding within it an abstract Pointillist painting. However this changes as you look deeper or enter the work and it shifts from the appearance of a painting to the experience of three dimensional flowing forms of colour that encompass you. Space and depth become warped in the play between the vast composition of coloured squares and the folds, twists and curves of the floor, ceiling and walls. Add to this the soft glowing light radiating through the paper surrounds and you have quite a sensational experience.
I really enjoyed this piece and the discussions it induced. The adventure of it really transcended the mundane materials and simple nature of its construction. It is just paper, paint, a small room and some lights but given to Kim Brown it becomes a whole lot more.
Undoubtedly some of the best painting on show at Free Range were in the BRINK exhibition and Tom Folwer‘s must have been high on the list. He constructs beautifully intricate surfaces with fluid like brush marks. I found myself viewing his 4 paintings from various angles and distances, moving from far away to almost touching, and each perspective gave a different and compelling viewing. I wasn’t the only one, it seemed many people enjoyed standing and peering into his works, they too seemed to be drawn into the mystery of their surfaces, getting as close as they dare. I particularly liked getting very close to the piece in an attempt to understand what marks the artist had made and what where the result of gravity and the different paints merging and rippling over each other. It’s certainly true that some works should be lived with and seen again and again, to be enjoy over time and these absorbing paintings definitely fall into that category.
In stark contrast to the very in deep and contemplative looks that I saw on the faces of the public viewing Tom Fowler‘s painting those that stood by Katherine Hamilton‘s had cheeky smiles. It was as if they had seen something they shouldn’t. On a few occasions the reaction took the loud and audible form of laughter. This is what I love about her work, they are sociable and without pretence.
This work by artist duo Lauren and the Sewing Roisin tells a compelling narrative of the ability of art to engage people and create a real dialogue amongst an audience. This beautifully made patchwork quilt is the embodiment of a project which, at the heart of it, is about a group of ladies, young and old sharing stories of a monumental moment in their lives, their wedding days. For the exhibition this quilt was accompanied by a wonderfully crafted little book that pulled you into the project. It helped weave together a picture of the various contributors and what it meant to give a piece of their wedding dress away for an artwork. It calls on us to consider the value we place on objects, the symbolic connections we make to artefacts as well as the unions that shape our lives.
There is a romantic and sentimental thread that runs through the work but it is genuine, it is about real people, real lives lived and being lived. I loved introducing people to this work and, once I showed them the book, some would spend ages looking through it and talking to their friends about it.
Jenny Parry’s work was wonderful, a magical zoetrope which brings to life a miniature mythical creature, a panther with butterfly wings. To activate this piece the viewer had to press a small button and right beside this button was an off-putting warning sign about the use of strobe lighting. I think this lead to many people being too timid to touch it. To counter this I spent much of my time introducing people to the work and I’m glad I did because they were captivated by it. Some even declared that is was their favourite piece in the show. I think some fine art works can be a bit hard to decipher as they require a lot time and consideration, and often some base knowledge of that type of work, but this piece hads an instant pleasure to it. Before your eyes the illusion of life takes place.
The show was enlivened by performance, this photo captures the live performance of a sound work by Kathryn Zack Crawford. After this understated performance the work lived on in a two speaker set up playing the two vocals simultaneous. This melody permeated the show and I liked how the sober tune invaded the illustration region of the show, which was set up like a graphic design business complete with pot plants. Listen to a compilation of the performance by clicking here: Oh How Glad and Happy When We Meet by Kathryn Zack Crawford.
The center square of the show was where much of the performances took place, well at least they started there before spreading out beyond and, in some cases, even onto the streets of London.
To say performance was a key part of the show is an understatement. For me they made it a living space; active, changeable and exciting. The gallery became the space of actions and instantaneous audience reactions. The two artist responsible for this were Claire Prosser and Rebecca Helen Page, but I’ll leave their distinctive pieces for another blog entry. Here just a couple of images just to give you some idea.
Similar to Jenny Parry’s piece the work of Clare Twomey also played on the magic of animation, but this piece was in a far more seductive casing, a beautiful laser cut and etched wooden mutoscope. This Victorian style photo viewer allows the audience to rotate a handle to control the movement of a central column which holds some 30 plus photographs. Having begun turning the handle photos flicker by and bring to life a narrative of imagery. This nostalgic quality is strengthened by the 6o’s or 70′s photographic style and the playfully enigmatic figure captured within. The ‘movie’ flows back and forward from shots of flowers, forests, old buildings to short glimpses of audaciously topless females and the reoccurring mysteriously coy protagonist. The narrative is made by the repetition of these brief encounters with various moments of time captured by the artist. This continues for as long as your arms move and your eye desires. With the explicitly sensual nature of the subject matter, as a viewer you can’t help but think of the voyeuristic role you are fulfilling by viewing the work. As a straight male I was caught between the unexpected pleasure of this flirtatious work and unease of being seen looking, as if I wasn’t meant to and it was a private moment between the artist and her muse. I watched many different people viewing this work, male and female and they always took a second look, like they weren’t quite sure if they had actually seen the fleeting images of nudity. After this, some would walk away quite swiftly. However, others would spend time with it, speeding up and slowing down the animation even stopping on a key frame to hold that image still, prolonging that moment.
One work that moved people, physically at least was Jack Honeysett’s exciting six screen video installation. Monitor displays on stands laid out in a hexagon shape surrounded the viewer, bringing them into the work. In doing this they became both audience and participant in a dance of viewing. The film cuts together a series performances of traditional British Morris dances, at practice in a community hall, at a regional show and on the street of a busy town center. The excellently crafted film induces movement in the viewer through the shifting focus of imagery from one screen to another. The only affective way to see the piece is to move with it, or to let it hop and leap around you.
Other notable works in the show included Pernille S. R. Olsen expansive display of paintings inspired by the periodic table, Ben Swails charming ‘Circuit Board Diagram of a Robot from my Childhood’ and Patrick Collier‘s intriguing nuclear war narrative told through a series of exquisite prints.
And…
Max Avery‘s video piece, Stephanie Bartlam kinetic sculpture, Aleksandra Sierpinska exploration of marks, process and family life…
And….
There is just too many interesting works and this is just becoming along list… that’s enough words…. so instead here’s a few photos
Checkout their websites on the Artists Link page, and see some more photos of the show here. I’ll get up some more reviews of this great work as soon as I have a free minute or two.
If YOU saw the show and liked some of the work then why not get involved and write something to post on this site for everyone to see or send in some photos.
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