Thao Nguyen Phan at Tate St.Ives 2022

 Thao Nguyen Phan at Tate St.Ives, Feb and 5 to 2 May 2022

The booklet issued with admission tells us this 35 year old woman artist, who lives in Ho Chi Minh City, ‘collapses and then redrafts the standardised histories of Vietnam and wider south-east Asia.’

However many of us don’t already have much idea of the history to collapse.

This exhibition will expand our knowledge if I we have the patience for it - because the pace is very slow in the videos and  the paintings are small, pale and exhibited so we can’t see them very easily - many  behind a barrier and at right angles to the walls.

I lack patience and found the rope upholstered seats, which only accommodate about eight people, very uncomfortable. Visitors were taking the time to watch on a wet Sunday afternoon, having paid £12 to enter the gallery.

I watched three videos presented on three screens and taking twenty minutes.
Some of the shots are very beautiful and poetic. I loved the ingenious insect finding lanterns made from tin cans which children wheel through fields.
I absorbed something of the symbolism, of the tragedies of famine and fire, of the smelly thouren fruit, the  patterned concrete sun screens, the busy city and the wide Mekong river.

I was shocked by the words on the screen, ‘they began to sell their children and their wives’ presented so matter of factly and so oblivious of the sexism in the way it says ‘they’ not ‘men’. A patriarchal power structure is conveyed.

A lot of it is acted out artfully, for example children posed with fairy lights in their clothing at dusk.
It doesn’t  come from the artist’s own direct experience and it’s filtered through layers of artistry which to me get in the way.

The whole space seems dimly lit and dominated by the faint sounds from the videos and the delicate paintings which are so hard to examine closely. The atmosphere was very quiet, almost reverent.

It seems Thao Nguyen Phan is ambitious in scope and presents a lot of work but I found it frustrating and bewildering.
An attendant advised a second visit but most people won’t be going twice.
Maybe I should have bought the book about it from the shop.

I encourage people to see for themselves - and be prepared to make an effort to respond.

Camp - Plymouth based artists' organisation - funday in Redruth

 CAMP is an organisation of artists based in Plymouth.

They had a free drop in 12-4 workshop at Back Lane in Redruth which I attended as a member but anyone could go. Sat 24th March 2022. Others will follow in various locations.

I enjoyed the day and especially a delicious vegan free lunch that came included.

I was a bit nervous about it being a crowded occasion re covid but there were only about twenty people.

Everyone was friendly.

We began with reading a three part play that had been collaboratively written during lockdown with each contributor only seeing the work of the previous one.
There was a great scope of ideas and styles of expression about making and exhibiting and having a private view. People shared the reading and then went down to the charming little public garden to play with recording voices and sounds with equipment brought by soundart radio who will be broadcasting the results.

Chatting went on non stop through the lunch hour.

Then we engaged in a playful production of painting and drawing that was passed from person to person. Images and text were combined and the results immediately exhibited on the wall. No one tried to obliterate the work of others.

Next was a sound recording session using a voice distorting app but I had had enough for day and missed it. I was lured away to the many fleshpots of Redruth’s excellent charity and secondhand shops.

I suggested they seek feedback- maybe a zoom discussion.

What I think is that maybe the purpose of the day could have been clearer.

Personally I would have liked the meeting other artists to be the focus instead of squeezed into the interstices.
Maybe activities that required small groups to co operate and discuss could be used in future.
Name labels would aid making contacts.

Nevertheless a fun day for artists makes a welcome few hours recreation and I thank all the organisers for it.

Tim Shaw at Anima Mundi 2022

 Tim Shaw at Anima Mundi, St.Ives, Cornwall, UK.    February 18 to April 4th 2022

Tim Shaw’s exhibition is called ‘Fag An Bealach’ which in Irish means ‘Clear The Way’.
He is a sculptor who has shown in San Diego, California and he had a year long residency in Bonn, Germany, which is probably why the ‘Breakdown Clown’, an animatronic large figure which one encounters here, speaks some words in German.
It’s quite a scary experience to meet this large personage, described in the gallery notes as androgynous but appearing to me as male, deep voiced and with moving eyes. Would he suddenly strike out with his arms or lurch forward more than the few inches that he does as he addresses the room with a melancholy and menacing impact, intoning about the purpose of life, about being a shape-shifter and inviting a response?

I was told at the preview this figure reacted to visitors but it was not working as well by the second day. It’s made of some probably ecologically unsound polystyrene like material and unattractively naked except instead of genitals it has a curious curved crescent appendage.
It calls itself a clown and strangely says that we never left the garden of Eden.
It’s a menacing figure, the machine workings partly visible and yet still seems lonely and grim.
The meaning is ambiguous.

On the next floor up are two smooth blue bronze heads -  the same but one small facing the larger. They are accordingly priced by size at £6,500 and £50,000.

There are also figures based on Northern  Irish Mummers that the artist has seen perform, now in safer times than when as a child Tim Shaw experienced a bomb going off in a cafe. He later made ‘Mother the air is blue. The air is dangerous’ an  installation shown at The Exchange , Penzance, a few years ago which was very powerful as the viewer was plunged into the experience using moving images.

That piece had a reality and impact not matched by this show, in which Tim Shaw uses mythic figures and refers to shamanic ritual which must mean a lot to him but is not part of most folks’ way of dealing with the modern world.

In Cornwall we do have continuing traditions such as Montol, the meaning of which was once part of society in a way that our reconstructions are more enthusiastic gestures to a mysterious past set of beliefs than rituals used as a way of dealing with present crises.

On the top floor another large figure stands in the middle of a circle of charred wood which on its own would resemble a Richard Long. This piece is this artist’s  way of responding to Gilbert and George’s recent cursing of the Royal Academy, of which Tim Shaw is a member, when their latest work was rejected. Plans are to burn Shaw’s wooden construction at the end of the show - at an outdoor  location.

Tim Shaw lives in Cornwall and here we get a rare opportunity to see premiered the work of a local contemporary internationally known artist.

I respect his intention to deal with serious contemporary issues but I find the results although memorable and thought provoking rather sidetracked by his love of archetypal symbols that are outrageously out of tune with contemporary life and that I find are ultimately taking refuge in grotesque imaginings.

Mary Fletcher.

Newlyn School of Art Studio Practice show at Tremenheere March 2022

 Tremenheere had a brief show of work from students at Newlyn College of Art studio practice course. March 18-20, 2022

This show was very nicely displayed with unhung items in an overflow room.
Works had only numbers so names and prices were on  a couple of lists one could consult.
The college was very discreetly mentioned on the list and no details about the artists or tutors  were to be seen. Most of the students were women.

I felt it was quietly impressive - many landscapes that showed care and sensitivity and a few life drawings with movement indicated. There were a couple of people expressing grief.

What there was not was any politics, issues, eg feminism, LGBTQ, any sculpture or installation, any ceramics or textiles, any townscapes , geometry, photography, video, or text, any animals or participatory elements or performance or sound. Nothing shocking or surprising or garish or bright.
Is this just that these 28 students like subtle painting or were 28 such painters selected for the course?  

I overheard some of the tutors talking to students very gently and encouragingly and one told me that this is the norm - she had no experiences of male ego driven tutors reducing students to tears which I know can still happen at art colleges. This student had loved the course.

Is the Newlyn School itself becoming a ‘school’ of gentle poetic work based on observation?
Or was the covid year encouraging quiet study with no drama?

Anyway it was enjoyable and showed artists developing their individual sensibilities.
Let’s see what happens next year.

      'Face' Basil Towers

"Fresh Fish' Cetto di Letto

 

'Winter Toadsmore 4' Kathryn Chapman