Monica Sjoo by Rupert White

Monica Sjoo by Rupert White.

This book is a condensed diary for Monica Sjoo, presented after a useful introduction about her life and work's contribution to art, feminism and Godess worship, so that it takes a sort of headlong rush through her life. After a while I really liked this dash through the years as I came across lots of names I knew and events I had been to and the whole era was evoked with all the earnest and

changing enthusiasms of youth. I found I was in 1982 at the demonstration against the US at Greenham 'Embrace the base' in which Monica Sjoo was also participating.

It is clear that Monica Sjoo found her kind of feminist spiritual belief must be linked with political action. She was very keen on ecology, leftwing trends, anti war protest and her own bisexuality.

She put a lot of energy into exhibiting widely and going to speak in several different countries.

Somehow she endured through the grief of the death of two of her three sons when they were quite young, killed one by a car hitting him and one by cancer. She then went onto suffer herself from cancer but went on contributing to events indomitably.

I do not particularly like Monica Sjoo's art in its highly stylised form, strangely similar in some ways  to socialist realism say in Diego Riviera's murals, but with a love of Neolithic monuments and belief that there were pre patriarchal religions that revered goddesses. My own feminism rejects idealising a list of the 'feminine' qualities although the idea that once in Crete images of women were worshipped I find an exciting probability that emphasises the cultural construction of patriarchy that came after.

'God giving birth' was an important work by Sjoo, first shown in St.Ives,1970, often seen as controversial and used many times in various publications. Her book, 'The Great Cosmic Mother' was named by Alice Walker as her favourite work of literature and I now want to take it out to read again.

I found out a lot about Sjoo from Rupert White's researches and I ended up respecting her wide ranging work and realising that it amounts to more than I had thought before.

Hummadruz- Newlyn Art Gallery 2018

The Batty Edge of Art

'Hummadruz',       Newlyn art gallery, March 3 to June 2nd 2018

Curated by Field Notes - Cat Bagg and Rosie Thompson-Glover.

'Hummadruz' refers to a humming sound heard by some visitors to ancient sites such as reported by Andy Norfolk in the periodical Meyli Mamvro as he and two friends experienced it at Zennor quoit, not far from Newlyn gallery.

My companion reacted to this by saying, 'sometimes you get a noise from the wind blowing through the long grass - it's a physical phenomenon - not some mystical crap.'

As the title is a Cornish word new to me I found I was calling  the show  'that stuff about the occult and magic' rather than the gallery leaflet's 'lived system embodied by both artists and communities'.

Unusually it was the video exhibits I found the most interesting. There is a circular tour round an Irish hill plus a black mark on the lens that the artist, Niamh O'Malley, thought necessary.

There's a beautifully filmed bright sequence of a Danish woman asserting her belief in the strengthening properties of a Rowan tree, by Gitte Villesen.

And there is a small child listening to remarks about the supernatural as he colours in and asks matter of fact questions. This last, by Susan MacWilliams has a warning in case parents do not want their children to be hearing the conversation.

In the 70s Monica Sjoo's works about the occult and the Bronze Age stone circles were complained about in St.Ives and removed by police.The curators have the account of this in the Daily Telegraph to entertain us but now no such fuss has been made as her paintings are shown here.

 I would have liked inclusion of her image of God as a woman giving birth which was shown in St.Ives church about the same time.

The American Mary Beth Edelson's use of nude photos plus pagan allusions from the same time are also here. Both recall an era when feminism had quite a yearning for times before patriarchal religions took control, women were excited to learn about early eras when there were goddesses, and had a fascination with the idea of an essential 'femininity' which claimed certain qualities for women's work.  Some appreciative visitors' comments indicated this may persist.

There are artefacts displayed from the Cornish museum of witchcraft.

There is rather a lot of small print to read, stuck not always quite straight on the wall and not as I would have liked available to read as a handout, sitting down to take it in comfortably.

Linda Stupart has spells to take away, one of them against the malign effects of Richard Serra's work and fame, a sign of men's dominance in the art world as macho wielders and welders  of big heavy objects.

So, there is humour, history and the batty edge of art, from Ithell Colquhoun's surreal vision of a stone circle 

to an artist new to St.Just, Lucy Stein, who says, 'Since settling permanently in St.Just I have become totally cosmic'. (2016)

Does this show provide an interesting change from the usual arts council fare? Another show all by women but not saying it is so as not to provoke complaint?  Is it a worrying rejection of science and reason in suggesting the ancient supernatural beliefs are live and flourishing? Is it adding to a Cornish touristy myth of a backward strangeness with romantic aura? Is it a themed show with art you probably haven't seen much of before? An examination of a tiny backwater?

It's all of that.

The slides weren't working, the tea was not being served and my camera batteries ran out.  

A jinx on this sceptical visitor or just bad luck this bank holiday Monday?