A few things I have learnt this week...
Somerset's best kept secret!
Antony Gormley OBE RA talks about his artwork at
Barrington Court
Tuesday 17 July, 3.45 - 4.45pm
In the marquee on the south lawn, Barrington Court,
Somerset, TA19 0NQ.
Stating number of tickets
required and full names please.
£2.50 per ticket, payable on
the door.
Field for the British Isles is at Barrington Court until 27 August.
Poetry is awesome!
It has been a great couple of weeks to be interested in all things poetic or creative writing. After going to the excellent John Cooper Clarke performance at The Brewhouse in June and then getting the opportunity to perform my own poem and listen to lots of others at The Tacchi Morris' 'Page is Printed' writing competition. It is an inspiring time to dust off the typewriter, brush off your quills and fountain pens and just get writing!
Wales based artists 'Rhod' exhibit at The Brewhouse
(pictured above - Dave Shepherd's 'Ron's Boat')
'Sam Aldridge, Kathryn Campbell Dodd, good cop bad cop, Jason Pinder, Anthony Shapland and Dave Shepherd, a mix of established and emerging talent, use a diverse mixture of media from performance, film to sculpture. They have in common ‘Rhôd’, an annual exhibition in rural west Wales that aims to site contemporary art in a rural landscape creating a dialogue between urban artists and artists who work in rural settings.'
On until 11th August
(pictured above -Jason Pinder 'Balanced Chair 3')
I didn't go to the PV but I did check out this exhibition the following day during my lunch break. The chair piece seen here, definitely reminded me of Fischli and Weiss as well as Simon Lee Dicker's School Room desks that were in his exhibition, 'Show and Tell' which is an observation and not a criticism because I like this style of work and its clever balancing acts. Its playful. The whole of the exhibition, 'Take the M4 East Then the M5 South' is playful and intriguing. Sam Aldrige's cardboard sculptures of traffic cones and construction site helmets are fantastic trompe l'oeil replicas of their originals and remind me fondly of Claes Oldenburg's 'soft' and 'hard' sculptures of toilets, lipsticks and everyday things. Similarly, Dave Shepherd's work (one pictured above) is both playful and inventive. As ever, with Brewhouse shows, it is not a mass of things to see (as its a modestly sized gallery space) but the work is interesting if you're interested in something that will make you think and smile at the same time then its well worth a look.
Andro Semeiko at The Exeter Phoenix
Yes, it has been another eventful week of seeing art exhibitions across the county, and unfortunately by the time you read this post this exhibition of Semeiko's paintings, titled, 'Le Grand Charmer' will have ended at The Exeter Phoenix so you won't be able to catch it. However, I can give you a link to his website (below) and quick review and burst of info that may inspire you.
'Drawing on techniques and motifs from both the history of painting and its more recent past, Georgian born artist, Andro Semeiko's paintins-based practice extends into drawing, sculpture and installation. Constructing multilayered visual narratives, these elements operate as props for a Mise-en-scene and are often site-specific, referencing the history, legends and architecture of the place he is exhibiting.'
Well, I don't know, these paintings weren't exactly my 'cup-of tea', there was something about the colours and kitsch-ness that they along with the imagery and worm-like paint drips created that didn't appeal to me. I like the local connection the work has to the river Exe and its history and the cartoon-y/dreamlike quality of the images was also very interesting. Maybe the reason it did not appeal is that it felt a bit 'safe' as it wasn't completely abstract, nor realistic, it had a local connection and was contemporary without being too conceptual. It ticked all the boxes, when I would have liked something more challenging or confrontational.
Its good to talk
I don't go to EVERY Artist Dialogue session at The Brewhouse (they're the first Wednesday of every month) and when I do its usually because I like to meet new artists and catch up with friends and talk about what we're all up to. Whilst I didn't go this week with the intention of talking about my own work, we somehow ended up talking about it anyway. Which in the end, despite my inhibitions to talk about my practice publicly, actually helped a lot and I enjoyed it. Would recommend you come along to the next one, which will be in September.
Most frequently searched word that links to the SAW Blog
This is a bit random, but in looking at the stats for the SAW Blog, you can see which words are most searched on Google that then link to your blog page. For the SAW Blog the word that most searches linked it through to was 'BOX'. Hrmm, strange. I am pretty sure I do not refer to boxes that often if hardly at all on this blog, but there you go? I did mention a box once last year, in a post appealing for artists to, 'think outside the box' which I expect is where the link came from, but still, of all the words, 'box' is the most popular?!
That's all for this week, see you soon for some more Somerset Arts News!
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