Exhibition Visit: Wales

Abram Games - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Comfort Zones - Oriel Davies

Took a work related trip to Wales to visit the above exhibitions on 23 April. By way of background, these two shows will be coming to the James Hockey & Foyer Galleries, where I work, in the near future.

First stop: Aberystwyth. It's a long way away. Abram Games was a Graphic Designer, most known for his work during the Second World War, and the exhibition showcases the development of his creativity, innovation and technical skill through 70 or so posters. Having spent a good six months researching and spending time with a lot of the designs, I was already curious to see them close up. The DVD provided an informative background to the nature of the works displayed and I found the show to be educational as a whole. The designs themselves are regularly branded as 'iconic', and one of the most intruiging aspects is how much they reveal of social history - of how the world acted at the time. For example, there's an image reminding soldiers to think about their personal hygiene that made me think about something to do with being in the army.

A few hours away in Newtown, Powys is Oriel Davies Gallery who have initiated the touring exhibition Comfort Zones, on the topic of questioning notions of 'home' and domesticity. It'll be at James Hockey & Foyer Galleries from mid November. The curatorial information we'd been reading on the show had seemed somewhat complicated and inaccessible, but the exhibition itself has a fun atmosphere and is well put together. Perhaps the most memorable and illustrative of the stated theme is Nina Saunders' collection of works that remind me of Stuart Robinson's subverted objects. Distorted furniture and animals combined. Half a fox stuffed between the cushions of a sofa-esque item. I noted a lack of particularly expressive works. The collection has a certain cold and distant overriding feel. Topics tackled in a deadpan Gilbert and George style, with subjects seemingly needing to be held at arms length in order to comment.

Exhibition Visit: Callum Innes, Modern Art Oxford

Callum Innes - Modern Art Oxford

Rule and I visited Oxford last Sunday (15 April) to see the Callum Innes show.

Before getting to the paintings, we had a quick look at some big red chests of drawers containing Raphael Vella's (not particularly) "intricate and meticulously executed drawings". I'm still trying to decide what I think of the method of display - involving the opening and closing of drawers. Essentially, I wasn't at all moved.

The viewing of Callum Innes' paintings almost took a similar route. Whilst completely engrossed in the deciphering of processes, I began to notice the absence of subject. This gave the experience an eerie quality similar to how I might imagine an empty factory with all the machines running. There was even perhaps an absence of the works' connection with itself, clarified by the five Dioxazine Violet works lined up on one wall. Although the paintings look similar and presumably use the same process and colours, they have a distinct isolation from the room and from each other. All the 'Exposed' paintings have an aggressive air, but this is muted by the aforementioned isolation, and reinforces the heavy atmosphere. I suppose it would be referred to as a kind of tension.

For me, the inspiration comes mostly from the act of painting. The works in the show seem completely immersed in themselves and in their process that the impression Innes leaves is oddly cold and mechanical. It makes the gallery setting seem a perfect location to show these paintings, despite the current climate of 'alternative spaces'.

Wimbledon

To the inaugural episode of writings.

Tonight, I am somewhat concerned with the usefulness of part-time university courses in practical based subject areas. Having very recently returned home this evening from an Open Evening at Wimbledon College of Art, I have decided to not pursue the Masters avenue for the time being.

The majority of questions regarded the format of the part-time route, and the questions themselves reveal the possible inability, and indeed unwillingness, to fully engage with the course. Examples include the question of transporting work to the College for critical analysis sessions, as part-time students don't have a studio base provided. The questioner herself revealed that her present situation (at Chelsea, no less) of being required to bring in work for discussion has resulted in her producing work smaller than she would like. The pleasure in being an artist is more a topic of having the ambition that results in work that you feel the necessity to produce. That she is willing to compromise to such an extent that her work is not what she needs to produce to satisfy her curiosity indicates that her motivation is probably not suitable for creating a dynamic course 'cohort'.

Similar examples include the lady asking whether putting together a portfolio of work from a few years ago, which isn't necessarily representative of the pathway and ambition she wishes to take, would be a disadvantage to her application. If she hasn't done any new work in the past few years, why is she applying at Masters level? Likewise with the lady who went to University for a year in the 1960s, but didn't complete her BA and who now wants to get back into artistic ventures, but finds that art schools have surprisingly changed 'an awful lot' in just 40 years.

The tutors attempted to disuade any part-time applications, but stopped disappointingly short of discounting them altogether.