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.

Anna Boghiguian talk at Tate St.Ives Feb 2019

Anna Boghiguian talk at Tate St.Ives, February 2019

Anna Boghiguain and Carolyn Christov-Bakagriev


The artist spoke for 20 mins, fluently and interestingly. She had come to St.Ives and researched re tin and Virginia Woolf, whose 'To the Lighthouse' she described as like a written painting.
Both artists use, memory, imagination, the subconscious, and ideas.

Anna Boghiguian came over as a serious forceful woman who felt the cold, bundled up in coat and scarf, and wasn't preoccupied with

conforming to society's idea of presenting herself as a woman, not having removed her facial hair,

but had her own inner confidance. She looks older than her years, born 1946.

No one mentions that her career was probably aided by a relationship with Robert Shapazian

who opened Gargosian Gallery in Los Angeles but I had seen that online. Afterwards I thought I

could have asked was it particular efforts she made or chance events that advanced her career to

the point where she is shown internationally. (It's envy prompts my concerns and I never get a

helpful answer when I do voice it.)

Carolyn Christov-Bakagriev, Director from Castelli di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin,

spoke next. She spoke of Anna folding history in a Baroque way, putting the present in contact with

the past, not wanting to be seen as an expressionist, experimenting with new materials , not

repeating herself in her work, and using two main methods. These are using sketchbooks, a linear

form, and using cutting, collage. She spoke of the importance of salt, oil and data, of Nietsche, and

of Revolution.

Anne Barlow

Tate director Anne Barlow added remarks and questions followed after the Italian curator had to

leave to catch a train.

Anna Boghiguian spoke of how much she admires and likes crows and feels they are magical and

have a collective consciousness.

She asked in reply to someone was there a back of one's mind? She asserted she wants to think

globally not of Cairo. [I find in the past she produced an illustrated book about Cairo]

The woman who earlier almost inaudibly asked deaf people to request a radio link I think, hovered

diffidently failing to get the microphone to people who had questions.

The talk ended half an hour before the advertised time but Anna B went to the gallery and anyone

could try to get a word with her. 

I return to the gallery, liking most the salt on the floor, the Nimes tableaux of cut out figures and the

piano music playing which turns out to be by Nietsche although not yet labelled as such.

It's a hotchpotch of imagery as if Anna Boghiguian throws herself into it all, working quickly, not

worrying if its intelligible, if the words are legible, if any argument is discernible,. Some of the

drawing is very enjoyably lively.

I am reminded of Keith Tyson's work. he won the Turner prize on 2002 and his work has a similar huge scope, a feeling of interconnectedness. He said he was as confused as the viewer and trying to be authentic.

I would like more clarity.

I would query if flying in and seizing on tin and Virginia Woolf as the most obvious things about

St.Ives to use is that great an idea.

However it's of interest, it continues our director's promotion of women artists, and it's about stuff

that matters in the world so it's a nice change from abstract modernism which continues its hold on

most of the art around the town

Two Private Views-Tate St.Ives and Porthmeor Studios.

Two Private Views shows- Anna Boghiguian at Tate St.Ives and Amelie Blendi and Jonathan

Michael Ray at Porthmeor Studios.

I had a Tate sandwich, popping out in the middle to Porthmeor Studios to see two artists who had

been in residence. Their work was said to relate to the Penwith landscape but apart from an

inscribed drawing reminiscent of the Rocky Valley labyrinth carving near Tintagel and a murky

video with a tin mine visible, I couldn't see much reference to it. There were a lot of paper

constructions like elaborate origami, some using maps but not of Penwith. There were some lead

weights on nice pink rope.

A handful of artists stood around talking.

A woman had a Bedlington in a nice bright blue coat and said had I dogs as it was showed an interest in me.
I had been out with two dogs earlier. I didn't realise the woman was one of the artists until I the barman told me or I might have gleaned more information.
They had been busy particularly folding paper but to what end?
Maybe the start of an idea that will bear fruit later.

Star of the show was the bar, providing free gin of many types and colours.

I tried one.

I returned to the Tate more cheerful despite the rain.

Anna Boghiguian's work was somehow beguiling. People were wandering around quite interested.

It was clearly about something, about the history of Nimes, about other places, salt, politics,

people, with references to literature, Cavafy, Tagore, Woolf and Nietsche. There was lots to see,

figures made of metal and card, a circular construction one could enter, and a floor covered in salt,

a surprise that was soft and uneven. There were words in English and lots of sketch books. This

artist could draw in a lively way. The paintings were rather mushy looking, sometimes ill defined,

lacking contrast. There were clearly themes, explained by gallery text, although the meanings of

the works were unclear. There was an impromptu feeling to the wooden stands with works on

paper attached. There were big images on cloth or canvas suspended from the ceiling. There was

a studio recreated. I heard that the artist was a large woman with a beard, and I looked forward to

her talk the next day. I had a feeling another look later would reveal more.

Private views are fun, you see people you know, maybe dare to talk to people you don't already

know, and drink alcohol perhaps. No one has time to really take in the work but they get an

impression of it and may return another day. Sometimes the social occasion IS the work perhaps,

as Rikrit Tiravanija worked out. Is Anna B's show any more interesting than the other show? It is,

but it's still a confusing hotch potch of images with no clear focus, just a more personal and

intriguing one with more heart and soul. As a friend said, you need something immediately

attractive enough to bring people back to engage further

Two mixed shows Anima Mundi and Crypt, St.Ives December 2018

Anima Mundi and Crypt Exhibitions, St.Ives, Dec 2018

Anima Mundi now has an attendant near the door who turns out to be one of the exhibitors, greets

me, offers the information sheets and price list and is willing to discuss the work when I have been

around.

The information is extensive and in rather small grey print, so small it's like the last example they

give you at the opticians and feels like very hard work to read, particularly as a lot of the blurb

strikes me as contending for pseuds' corner. At the bottom of page one a line has been

accidentally omitted. Please proof read and print larger and blacker.

The big name is Trevor Bell, with the biggest price at £24,000 for 'Gust', a title which helpfully

guides me into understanding the gestural marks as relating to the wind, maybe a response to an

experience or maybe the experience of using the paint reminding the artist of the weather.

My favourite work is 'Dreaming of another world' by Rebecca Harper. It shows a group of young

men emerging from a tube train. It's a large painting done in a lively way. Here the title again adds something. Without it would there be any reference to possible migration to a new city or country? The beautiful coastal scene painted on the side of the

train could make us in Cornwall think of the way people leave their lovely surroundings here toseek fame and fortune via the smoky- smelling underground beneath the crowded capital.

Carlos Zapata lives in Cornwall 'currently'.His 'Son, you still alive' is a small scale wooden carving.

The child has a gun. The mother and son meet. The artist is Columbian. The meaning comes over,

the concern, the dangers in the world. The style is low key, the carving skilful and spare.

There is a lot more to see, including photography from 'troubled and turbulent places' by Abbie

Taylor Smith, and a fanciful video of Angel images by Roger Thorp, inventively presented in an old

gesso frame. There is a sound piece by Jamie Mills, an ominous high droning on the top floor.

All the artists seem to have done a lot, been to many places etc.

At the Crypt Marie Keeling is invigilating a show which is presented cheerfully with music playing

and prices often under £100. These are artists who live in St.Ives, not about to jet off round the

world you might think but in fact Zoe Eaton is in Gujerat on an artist's residency.

Zoe Eaton

Bobby Whatnot shows his obsessional dotted compositions which evolve in various directions from

a limited scope.

Marie Keeling is invigilating, willing to talk about the work.

I like her extraordinary use of wires with coloured discs emerging from some pictures. A sort of

irrepressible energy and whimsical notions (of a flight down to Rio perhaps)

There isn't oodles of information or persuasion of the important 'emerging' fame of the artists.

Anima Mundi aspires to and is the more cutting edge in St.Ives, of artists mysteriously selected to

secure a place on some list to be offered as commanding respect in the crazy art world.

The Crypt show is without this kudos yet presents three inventive artists who all live here not just

'currently', although of course they could also move. Their unusual works are also within the

budget of many of their visitors.

Interestingly the gallery names indicate a division - The Crypt referring simply to where it is, the

basement of the Mariners' Church, long changed in use to house art, whilst Anima Mundi, which used to be The

New Millenium, shows a desire to encompass in both its namings a contemporary global range.

To the cognoscenti The Crypt recalls the early show by St.Ives modernists who are now famous

names and the reason we have a Tate in St.Ives. So it's worth considering the Do it yourself

collective shows there alongside the select list at Anima Mundi.

Jonathan Baldock talk, St.Ives Dec 2018

Jonathan Baldock gave a talk at Porthmeor studios, St.Ives.

He's a bit manic, maybe nervous, very entertaining. He has worked using salt dough, felt, his work

is 'about the body and a product of the body', he likes to make references to earlier art.

It reminds me of Ellie Thomas making playful soft sculptures at Falmouth.

The pieces look very beautifully made, simplified shapes, clean lines and very attractive colours

such as those of sugared almonds. He acknowledges that his mother helped him make some.

He has been working in Rome, and in China. He wants an emotive effect on the viewer, maybe

participation, use of smells, collaborations, performance, use of masks, the 'mouth of truth'

like the one in one of the motorway service stations that gives you a prediction of your future and

goes back to Roman Empire times.

It's a good talk because I find all sorts of ideas flying through my head and have to make a few

notes in case they fly out again.

He makes corn dolly masks, a huge pink candle. Large installations.

He has a big show coming up in Camden Arts Centre next year.

He gives out a lovely sense of permission to try anything.

Everyone is hungry by the end, waiting for the delicious buffet that follows.

I find Jonathan and ask him how much time he spends applying for career opportunities and he

says a lot less than his making time, but now he has opportunities offered. His work is known, the

advantage of showing in London with a footfall of some influential people.

He still hasn't eaten, too busy talking to interested people and goes off to find something now.

I give the disco a miss, feeling 17 again, everyone standing around not dancing until later, and walk

home through driving rain past the beach with wild waves, up the hill, still full of ideas and really

appreciating hearing about Jonathan Baldock's.

Two Shows and questions.

Two art exhibitions: raising questions.

Recently in St.Ives, Cornwall, I saw two exhibitions. One was of unusual quilts made by Louise

Donovan, staged in the large Crypt gallery with rent paid to the St.Ives Society who exhibit above

in the Mariners' church. The other was work by the deceased Anthony Green, put together by his

descendants as a pop up exhibition in an empty shop, also paying rent and I believe commission

on sales.

This is the way many artists show their work now. Established art dealers are slow to take on new

artists beyond their tried and tested stables and no longer ever buy work from the artist like those

renowned dealers did in Paris, thereby supporting the Impressionists. The art societies charge to

submit works as do competitions and then also take commission on sales. Commission is usually

40to 50%.

Louise Donovan's works are hand quilted with the stitches going in various patterns, circles,

spirals, undulating rows etc. I was interested to learn that the coloured shapes are first stitched into

an abstract design usually worked out first but sometimes evolving spontaneously.

The most unusual aspect of these quilts is that the motivation is sometimes a response to a

personal experience such as visiting Patmos

or to feeling grief following her father's death

but

sometimes motivated by political outrage. Thus one quilt was made with the colours responding to

photographs of prisoners clad in orange at Guantanamo Bay,

another from bomb damage photos of Syria.

There is a long history of political quilts such as those made by the Soweto women to tell black

protest narratives in South Africa or by those aiding black slaves to escape in America, However

Louise uses no depiction of people or events so visitors need information to be aware of the

motivating factors. It reminds me of 1980's arguments about whether feminist art was art made by

a feminist or needed feminist content, whether Artists for Peace could paint a pretty landscape or

needed to confront contemporary events.

Annie Albers did weaving to comemorate the tragic loss of Jews in the murder of Nazi holocaust

and these are on show at Tate. Like Louise Donovan's work they are complicated, have been

made with much time and care, they are aesthetically pleasing but sidestep direct comment which

can be grasped without reading the catalogue.

Anthony Green's paintings have been in storage since his death some years ago.This raises the

questions that must occurr to most artists. What happens when you die? Will your husband like

Stanhope Forbes be found burning your canvases? Will a friend race to the tip to rescue pictures

from the widow throwing them out? Will there be an auction or a show? Will the work be left only

online and maybe in local archive centre records? There is no way to control this without fame,

fortune or devoted relatives. If Van Gogh's sister-in-law had not appreciated his work perhaps more

than his art dealer brother Theo who failed to sell more than one painting when Vincent was alive

what a loss to the world that would have been.

I am surprised some entrepreneur does not set up a business to take care that artists at least have

some legacy, some documentation, perhaps a final show and a donation to their local municipal

museum.

How do we assess the work of Green?

I gather from the handout that he was a well known artist in

Devon, active in the artistic community. I can see various influences in his work, changes over time

but the dates are not documented. I like some of it. But I have no context to do more than see it as

the work of an artist like so many, diligent, varied, worthwhile but never likely to enter the canon of

art history, remaining a piece of local culture and its storage being a financial burden to someone

unless they sell it, destroy it or give it away.

Mary Fletcher.

Onya McCausland LANDSCAPES

Onya McCausland LANDSCAPES 

Anima Mundi Gallery, St.Ives 

October 20 to December 8 2018

From outside the show looks minimal..Several yellow ochre and red ochre canvasses with geometric designs, very carefully painted. One or two with organic branched designs. Some overhead plans of sites on the floor.

On the back of the price list are grey small print details about mine sites and water treatment although the why and how are not clear. Prices from £1,600 to £10,600.

The artist is ‘working with the Coal Authority to designate five Mine Water Treatment schemes as living paintings that perform the production of ochre, while generating an income for the local economy and producing high quality pigment for artists.’

The images are hung sparsely and look elegant and people are ecstatic about them in the visitors’ book.

Isabelle Bucklow has written an exhibition essay, to my mind contender for art bullshit of the year at 4 pages of pretentious references to Calvino, to ‘porosity between the raw and the cooked’, Freud, Manzoni, Bataille, Nietsche, Whitman, ‘time is not a container but a component, where all is in process, all is song’.,..’McCausland does not halt at the surface, rather she plunges into the depths of terrain entering into a dialogue with that which the earth provides.’

Anima Mundi takes a swerve into geometric abstraction from its usual slightly gruesome expressionism. Succombing to the St.Ives pervading quiet interior decoration?

Is it all a smugglers’  lantern?

I