Rebecca Harper talk at Tate St.Ives and exhibition at Anima Mundi, 2nd March to 6th April 2019

Rebecca Harper talk at Tate St.Ives.

Rebecca Harper has a show at Anima Mundi gallery in St.Ives.

Bloody bean bags to sit on and thankfully a few chairs and Tate just have not got to grips with

getting their speakers to project their voices although I asked them to speak louder.

Rebecca Harper is likeable with quite a bit of nervous laughter but she does try to answer peoples'

questions.

She spends a lot of time applying for opportunities and says she has been fortunate. Anima Mundi

emailed her as a result of seeing images on Instagram.

She draws on canvas, unstretched, on a roll on the wall, using observational sketches, memory

etc. She then paints on unprimed canvas but using a ground, sometimes fluorescent, colouring life

size figures on the floor, avoiding drops and feeling more in the centre of her work than seeing it

separate on a wall. The large scale is important to her..

She thinks it helps her career to be in London and would like to visit New York.

She enjoyed art school for the lively conversation and motivation and says the peer group are

important when you leave and want to organise shows and applications. She went to The Drawing

School in London and did an unaccredited Taps course.

Rebecca Harper at Anima Mundi, St.Ives, Cornwall

‘Chameleons and Urban Nomads’  March-April 2019

‘Cinema [Between Two Worlds]’ is a painting about 6 feet high with the unusual subject of some people in a cinema, although the film screen looks more like a painting or a shot of a painting in the film. Its painted fluently, the seats look like plush. its a cinema with small tables between seats,  and two young men are turning to speak to a young woman. It evokes comfort and enjoyment and escapism.

‘Peckham High Street’ similarly has a scene that seems to be on a canvas in a room. One seated figure inside the room looks out at a figure outside on the canvas, or outside a window painted on the picture within the picture. Other figures outside look in at the seated figures. The paint is sloshed on, the colours are luscious, there’s plenty to look at and notice and it reminds me in a way of Gauguin - a frieze with life going on and you don’t know what exactly is happening except just whatever passes by somewhere where people pass by. The way the paint is put on reminds me a bit of the work of Michael Andrews, painting swimmers.

There’s a couple in a jungle, maybe somewhere like the Eden project but with monkeys, or on a stage set with a painting of monkeys but the leaves from the trees are coming into the space where the couple are seated. Its called ‘Insight’.

So I see this as Rebecca Harper playing with what is a painting or a painting within a painting. her subjects come from contemporary life, from her own experiences and the scale of the figures being life -size helps to make the viewer feel part of the scene.

There is a lot in the blurb issued by the gallery about ‘the diasporic condition’, about ‘global citizens with itinerant lifestyles’ but to me this is imagined. There is nothing to say whether  these people are travellers or have lived in these spaces all their lives. I don’t see the work as very profound or having something political to say. I do see it as very enjoyable, confident and exuberant.

Somehow Rebecca Harper by producing such large scale works is claiming attention and it seems she has launched herself successfully into a high priced circuit of exhibiting and selling, an arena where she has been chosen for projects and galleries and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Porthmeor Programme, St.Ives School of Painting, at Penwith Gallery, St.Ives March 9-23rd 2019

There are 18 artists in the show, all women, who have been on a year long course consisting of

several weekends at the school and working Inbetween from where they live, receiving tutorials

and paying a considerable amount for the experience.

At first sight the large beautiful gallery at the back of the Penwith looks a bit subdued and quiet but

in fact there is quite a variety of work and it comes over as genuine explorations by keen students

who are not yet set in their ways.

For the Penwith it's unusual in having a sound element to accompany Stephanie Wright’s frieze illustrating 

her experience of a special awareness of a moment, all the more cherished now she has aterminal illness. 

The delicate sweet sound of a nightingale floats through the space, thus permeating the whole of the show.

Also unusual for the ultra conservative Penwith is pile of notebooks arranged on the floor with a

tiny chair and fairy lights, and a padded red coat hanger. This is by Karole Langer

and she cites the influences of beuys, Messenger and Kiefer.

An aspect I really liked was the acknowledgement of influences of other artists which each

exhibitor included in their statements. One had avoided the house style for the statement and I

question why everyone else had accepted this uniformity which deprived them of their individual

way of expressing their ideas.

Roz Hamer had a project to obtain hand prints from members of a village and remarks about how

they used their hands and whether they felt part of a community or not. The hand prints were then

reduced in size to make butterfly shapes, placed as a collection in a glass case. I wasn't sure why

this was done as it brought connotations of Victorian pinning down of dead specimens collected

whereas the project in its social engagement had a more positive feeling.

Susan Watt made a revolving wire object related to her making of toys for her child. I thought it could 

have had more dramatic lighting to throw shadows but it was very likeable and intricate .

Jane Buckroyd had been folding paper with amazing precision to make three dimensional forms in grey and cream

Tara Leaver goes wild swimming.

Most of the artists connected their art to their life experiences. There was also a lot of reference to

places and a lot of sensitive use of marks and surfaces.

Rather like the members' and associates' shows at the Penwith there wasn't much depiction of

people. The Penwithy abstract marks referring loosely to landscape have quite a hold on the art in

St.Ives but many of the students brought different ways of working.

I thought the show was impressive. The tutors have fostered diversity

Falmouth Illustration Forum 2019

Falmouth Illustration Forum, March 1st 2019

The theme of the day was Chaos, but the day of presentations was well organised and stimulating.

The MA course leader, Steve Braund and Hannah Waldron have been working with students and

people who are involved with the Chaos Cafe in Truro which exists to help those with mental

stress. It's a democratically organised project and helps self expression of peoples' stories. As an

ex art therapist I thought maybe there was rather a style emerging coming from the influences of

mixing of students working with the cafe participants rather in contrast to the way an art therapist

holds back to allow the client free reign however upsetting their expression and their feelings. This

is something different, a therapeutic use of art and collaboration in a group, not the intensity of

psychologically demanding and confidential art therapy.

David Foldvari was very entertaining and gave insight into his work as a political cartoonist,

working quickly to deadlines. He was very encouraging and informative about his day to day life

and working methods.

Imogen Lacey speaking

There were lots of speakers, referring to algorhythms, philosophy, work with chemotherapy patients, a project in The Netherlands where students live rent free with oldpeople in a home and join in their activities, a project to involve Latin American residents at Elephant and Castle. There were questions raised about artists being shipped in on projects and how to work sensitively.

Kat Johnson spoke about appropriation and had been inspired by Bohemian Rhapsody to make a

Brexitian Catastrophe animation.

Sometimes speakers spoke so quickly to cover all they had prepared that I could hardly keep up.

Edel Rodriguez

A Skype link with Edel Rodriguez in America worked well. He posts anti Trump images online

without being paid for them, explaining that it's only 5 percent of his work and you don't have to be

paid for everything when you feel a need to speak out.

Alternatively the gender fluid artist Frank Duffy pointed out that there is no need to do work for

nothing 'for exposure' and added that people can die of exposure.

There was a lively buzz to the day and I left energized, very pleased to find illustrators involved in

social engagement, in important current ideas and problems, well aware that the personal is

political.

As many MA courses have closed, Illustration at Falmouth remains a beacon of light, as it was

pointed out is the meaning of illustration,to cast light on things, to make sense.

I consider the Illustration courses are the refuge of artists who can and want to draw and to draw attention to contemporary issues.