'Misbehaviour' exhibition organised and curated by Katya Rosenburg at CMR Redruth - an Artist collective.
October 2014, Wednesday to Saturday 12-4, free admission.
Members of CMR invigilated.
There was a lot to see in this show, work from 50 artists, from several countries, which is going onto be shown in London.
I felt quite at home looking at it as I am familiar with themed political work from the 80's when I was part of Brixton Womens' Work shows. There was a mix of printed booklets, video, participatory stuff and purely visual and there were helpful statements from the artists about their contributions.
I 'd have liked some work hung lower, some statements to make more sense, some information about the Artists and a printed list of them to take away, but in general it looked good, well spaced, easy to get involved for at least an hour and thought provoking. Someone visiting remarked how you see nothing like this in St.Ives, still dominated by what I call 'Penwithy abstraction', it's an invigorating change to be asked to think and for the artists to be involved in current issues such as the London riots.
Amanda Walsh, from Redruth, had obtained cc tv footage of misbehaving, to understate it, which was shown on a large screen, showing bluish video of night scenes of fighting amongst presumably drunken people in our streets and police dealing with the victims of it. There was some middle of the road bangy music which you could have on the headphones and which may help people to keep watching but I preferred it without the music as it seemed more real, less a balletic sort of clockwork orange thing. It was very impressively unpleasant and current and titled 'Tooth and Claw'
I wished this could have been in a window to bring in a larger audience, but the danger of attracting smash and grab thieves after the telescreen apart from the fact that the windows are reinforced and frosted made this unlikely.
Next to it Alke Schmidt from London had a work painted on top of that furnishing fabric with a chic pattern of eighteenth century ladies and flowery bowers. Contrasting with that image of bourgeois interior design and comfort were figures of hooded youths, out of doors, the dangerous looking lowest rung of today's society, It was called 'Mind the Gap'- a title which I had used myself, here used with subtle power and wit.
More lightheartedly, Catherine Kontz from London , a composer, had a punch card operated musical box. You could make punched holes and feed your own composition in, turning a small handle, and because it was mounted on a small chest of drawers the sound was amplified pleasingly.
There was more to it, even instructions on how you might misbehave by not following the instructions. I immediately wanted one if these devices to play with at home.
On the floor below I particularly liked the well drawn images of a smoking seagull and a Heath Robinson diagram of scrumping for apples and making and drinking cider.
Also beautifully drawn, and employing the Grayson Perry tactic of enticing with technique to express something serious, was a drawing of a child being detained while youths stole his bicycle.
There was a turning hanging mobile of paper pistols and shrimps, referring to pistol-shrimps and the noises they make.
There were photographic booklets about the notices in our environment, an opportunity to write your confessions of your own misbehaviour or tell lies about it, something about being gay, references to the troubles in Ireland, many surprises to enjoy in fact whilst showing that artists are doing all sorts of things that are relevant to contemporary life.
CMR exists to show this sort of current work and it was well worth seeing.
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