'Loving Nature' PZ Gallery 18th Nov to 2nd Dec 2022

 Loving Nature.  An art exhibition at PZ Gallery, Penzance, 18 Nov to Dec 2, 10-4 daily,

Plus Wed 23rd Nov an evening of performance and music.

 

The four artists here have created a pleasant atmosphere, displaying their works in a calm uncluttered way.

George Clement Peer has made a comfortable corner where you can sit in an arm chair and hear through headphones him reading his poetry, which is available in a small edition of hand sewn booklets.

Ian Barnfield was painting in situ when I visited and willing to talk to visitors. His paintings simplify a seascape such as the Cot Valley using a limited palette of orangey browns with blue.

Mel Stokes explains that she likes to go barefoot to feel connected to the landscape and her paintings are delicately coloured and the images drawn with a lively energy.

Angela Annesley uses woodcuts to make a dramatic impact with for example an image of a wolf.
She also has printed on lengths of fabric which hang attractively in the window.
Her small paintings use clearly defined line and glossy paint to celebrate what she has observed.

A show which gives the visitor variety and a relaxing opportunity to enjoy strolling about in the spacious gallery, which, although being a valued Art Deco structure alongside the Jubilee Lido and the Yacht Inn,  is under threat of demolition for redevelopment.

All in this Together- environmental art at The Crypt St Ives

 “In This Together” exhibition at The Crypt, St.Ives, 5-11th November 2022

The title of this show seems to satirise a slogan used by the UK Tory government as well as referring to climate change, ecological matters and community spirit.

Ten artists present work that ranges from Bill Gordon’s variety of handmade wooden spoons which he sees as connected to the spiritual power of the universe to Charlie Lewin’s Gratitude blanket with its small colourful appliquéd embroidered spots which recall her network of helpful people in a very beautiful way on a relative’s dark woollen blanket. 

 

 

Her ‘Exhausted” is a vibrant fabric image referring to harmful particles that pollute and relates to the printed information given.

However her ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ despite its inspiring title doesn’t speak to me of more than a love of pattern.

There is a difference between work with a message on the one hand and decorative enjoyment linked to a worthy cause but not embodying it.

Camilla Dixon makes a tribute to environmental activists via two large wall hangings made from recycled materials referencing the efforts of artists Barbara Hepworth and Patrick  Heron to be socially concerned and using images of their abstract art without detailing what both did or believed politically.

Alex Smirnoff acknowledges the dilemma of his ‘pretty pictures’ claiming that respecting nature will give hope. His two paintings combine remarkable observed detail of plants with fabulous faces reminding me of the fairy kingdom in a Midsummer Night’s dream.

Josie Purcell presents us with a lovely experience of seeing her images via a kaleidesope as well as her wall pieces using photographic digital patterns from geology.

George Dow, Ilya Fisher, Jane Gray, Josh Rogers and Neil Scott also have lively contributions here.

I hope the group continues to make exhibitions which are as unusual and thought provoking.

I think that  impulses to link art with climate concerns and social concerns will emerge widely as these topics come to the fore. 

They show a new zeitgeist emerging.

Sutapa Biswas at Newlyn and The Exchange Gallery

 Sutapa Biswas at Newlyn and The Exchange Gallery, Penzance,  October 8 to Jan 7 2023.

I remember in the eighties when feminist art was thriving that Sutapa Biswas had her painting  ‘housewives with steak knives’ in a published book and was evidently on the up as an artist.
I was involved with Brixton Women’s work and Woman’s Eye in north London. Women were attending consciousness raising  groups. Women teachers demanded to be allowed to wear trousers at work. There were protests about beauty contests.

 I wanted to like Sutapa Biswas’ latest work and eagerly drove to see it.

At Newlyn downstairs were  some large stills from the film that was projected on the end wall of the big upstairs gallery. The walls had been painted a dark colour specially.
‘Lumen’ is a thirty minute work but seems longer and I was so glad I had some chocolate with me.
It’s about colonialism in India and the artist’s family. The words are spoken by an attractive actress much younger than Biswas and I thought she took up too much time on screen and could have been on the soundtrack.

Most unfortunately the sound was not clear.
It’s a poetic piece and the story is obscure with mention of a crow but no crows visible.
There are old clips of English colonialists and photos of Indian fishermen.
I thought it could usefully have been edited after people were consulted to check if it’s meaning was communicated.

Over at the Exchange there are several more videos, some double screens but some oddly showing the same image on both. There are no captions.

There is a block of paintings of birds which are nice but not remarkable.

There is a beautifully made catalogue about the artist’s whole oeuvre.

The best part of my visits to both galleries was the conversations I had before I left with the interesting and helpful workers at the admission desks.

One was very keen to say that artists are presenting stuff and you can take it or leave it and it’s all subjective.

Well I think it’s ok to air a subjective response and personal disappointment on this occasion and hope Sutapa Biswas will clarify what she is doing and make a greater impact in future.
It’s very hard to get what’s in your head out into art and make it vivid and compelling.
Her early paintings did this and maybe her next work will be more lively and memorable.

Bus Stop 1956 Marilyn Monroe

 Bus Stop, Directed by Joshua Logan, 1956.

Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray star.


Bus Stop is a film in which Marilyn Monroe plays a singer in a bar who wants to follow her ‘direction’ which she has drawn on a map, to Hollywood.
Before we see her we meet Beauregard, a cowboy who comes to compete in the rodeo and is accompanied by his older and wiser friend. The youth has no experience of women but falls for Cherie at once and persues her with determination but no grace or care for her opinion, which is that she can’t marry a hick from Montana who lives on an isolated ranch.
It starts as  a comedy of overstated exaggeration. There is a fight between the bus driver and Beau after which he has to change his attitude.
Cherie is very touched by this.

What I started watching just to follow how Marilyn acts, singing badly as Cherie, but always magnetic, somehow turns itself into something so sweet and sad and against all odds believable that I end up crying and remember this happened when I saw it before.

It turns out to be about more than at first appears.

All the more poignant if you have read about her life.