FAKE ART at CMR - Redruth October 2017

Fake Art at cmr Redruth. October 6,7,8   2017

I missed the opening of FAKE ART as I was away being an artist in residence in Sardinia, and I approached the building hopeful but a bit nervous in case some of my contributions had not been included.

Luckily they were all there apart from some 'colour in your own Braque'  sheets, but my own colouring in of my own copy of a Braque was there, considerably lighter and brighter than the somber rich tones Braque had used. I had drawn from the original when it was in Tate St.Ives because I loved the painting and wanted to possess it but had not referred later to the actual colours.

There were many different approaches to fake art in this mixed show, curated by David Axtell and being his choice of theme. He had several things in and my favourite was a hotline to God using an ancient telephone.

He also had a fur coat embellished with false nails etc. which  was all about the false additions some women use to add to their bodies.

I knew these were his but most of the work had no names on and the catalogue, of the international  Gallery 13 ,  London New York and Redruth , had no indication who had done what although  there were photos and names of the artists. This all fitted in with the fakery of other artist's work but makes the attributions rather dodgy.

There was one completely fictitious artist, a French woman with the name of Moser, an identity used by Ron Ford to enable him to make a change from his usual concentration on landscapes.

It was a show where a good grounding in art history and contemporary art made the jokey references more appealing but there was information about the first artists discreetly placed to inform the incognescenti. Some of it could on occasion be spoof info.

Angelica Rescued, Two lines before Willie Barnes Graham, Moser -two paintings, Emin bed

Tracey Emin's bed was recreated using photocopies by Jaqui Orly. This brought to mind how much art we only know via print media or online. In a way installations were a way of insisting that you make the effort to get firsthand experience of work, similarly performance art requires your presence. The  development of film, tv and video are I think our version of the medieval cathedral, a vast arena of imagery, largely made by people whose identity escapes us.

There was a room with female emphasis and a spiritual room where my underlit Cretan goddess looked very mysterious under a Rothko which had been made based on research into his methods.

Alongside were some glowingly coloured sort of Buddhist temple forms , part of Alice Mahoney's work.

Stuart  Blackmore had used the words 'real deal' repeatedly and also made an amusing series of collaged images of the artists, photographed by Alice Mahoney, stealing an idea by having paper bag masks and using all sorts of background locations and a current ubiquitous Trump and fake news image. Jaqui Orly had chosen to hide her head behind a dog, which reminded me of her performance in a previous show in which her head was hidden, and of the many art performances I have seen where the heads of the performers are enveloped in bread etc. It seems to be almost de rigueur in performance art, whether to make the performer feel more free or just to confuse the audience?

(Howmanyperformanceartistsdoesittaketochangealightbulb? )*

Tim Pryke had copied a Van Gogh which was one of his very lively drawings using many sorts of marks. He also had documentation in the form of letters from Vincent to his brother Theo.

There was a jigsaw of a painting  by Sam Basset which you could take up and put together, and another jigsaw of Angelica by Ingres, with the woman freed from her eternal wait for rescue by Rugiero. I had made this in the 80's as a feminist piece. 

I also showed a lithograph done years before Willie Barns Graham had done a similar one and speculated about whether she had seen mine. When I was studying art history at Nottingham University so much of it concerned influences, from whom, on whom and finding if dates indicated who was first.

David Axtell had obtained a Duchamp bottle rack which would make him rich if only it had been signed, and had produced a Picasso dove that might still buy him a house if he ever takes to criminal forgery.

The result of looking around all these most enjoyable fakes, some produced by accidental subconscious knowledge or simply doing work in a similar way to someone else, some produced by careful reference to the original either to learn from it or to see if it could be faked, was to gently raise all sorts of issues.

Why is the first version the best?

Are the 'cover versions', a term used by Danny Fox in  a recent talk in St.Ives about his own versions from Gauguin, tributes, developments, avant garde gambits as described by Griselda Pollock, or failure to be original?

Work ranged from an Egyptian  BC anonymous monkey vessel, through to copying a living painter, who it turned out wanted the jigsaw to be destroyed after the show, feeling the need to assert his identity.

Approaches ranged from using up some paint in my studio and finding the result reminded me of Howard Hodgkin

and  made me think about his obsessive border making in a psychotherapeutic way as I have been an art therapist, to trying to make  accurate copies of either the  way an artist worked or to copy an actual work exactly.

The repetitious aspect of many artists' work seems to me to often mean they are stuck in habits, either because that habit sells or because they have a psychological stuckness or simply have become crafts workers without the imagination or urge to strike out in new ways, but it seems to be seen as evidence of making a successful recognisable style by dealers and buyers who are often uneasy as artists develop. However artists seen now as great innovators were able to change repeatedly as we see in Picasso and in music the Beatles.

Writers sometimes write books in different genres under different names so why not artists seeking to free themselves from narrow confines?

Visitors were taking a long time to examine everything perhaps because of the uncertainties about the identities of the artists and the degrees of fakeness involved. There were a lot of things to see.

As the bbc programme about fakes shows the monetary value of works of art hinges on correct attributions but in this show everything was fake to some extent. 

Two pieces by two different artists used fake bank notes.

Fake Art turned out to be a playful fun fair of cross references and illusions, thought provoking and enjoyed by those that sought it out. 

I look forward to the New York and London versions.

• I don't know - I left before the end.

' Misbehaviour ' at cmr gallery Redruth October 2014

'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.