GLAM’D OUT

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Sunday 18th – Saturday 31st July 2010

Art is not about art. Art is about life and that about sums it up (Louise Bourgeois)

What is it to be human in the 21st century? The human condition might describe how we respond to both traumatic and joyous events that befall us as we mark our passage of time. Art and artists such as these may not provide the answers to this question, but perhaps more importantly, they will share their personal life experiences and empathise with you on a universal level.
To engage with the work in this exhibition is to experience the realities of death, pain, loss, grief, horror, beauty, love, wonder and humour. Some of what is here may not make comfortable viewing, but then art is not necessarily about comfort; art has the capacity to question, confront and speak of what is necessary and real.
 To be confronted by the Vanitas of Julia Rowland’s meat covered china, Amanda Green’s grotesque forms or the brutal, affectionate and humorous portrayal of middle aged femininity and society’s attitude to it by Susan Morris, is to feel the stab of pathos.
 To be subsumed into Calwyn Glastonbury’s sublime landscape paintings and Laura Bennett’s installation of canvas constructions is to be reminded of just how insignificant we are in the face of our environment and that Nature is a power far greater than ourselves.
 Whereas the imagined environment of Natalie Thomas speak of the fabrication of other worlds; as virtual and alternative spaces for us to enter both physically and mentally. Technology offers us this limitless potential and Kristian Hughes reminds us of the limitations and possible redundancy of the human, a body stretched to its extent of its usefulness and purpose.
 The body where traditional definitions of gender and sexuality can no longer be applied is questioned by Tiffany Oben and Shaun Price in their intensely personal inquiries of the self.
 It is interesting to note that of the 15 artists here, 10 are directly engaged with the representation of the figure and the body. Every artist brings a unique aesthetic and approach to their practice. Craft skills are juxtaposed with cutting edge technology; there is painting, collage, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and installation.
 The artist is no longer reliant on the object or the painting as a vehicle to create art and communicate ideas. Many of the works in this show are temporal and will simply cease to exist once the exhibition is finished.
 This diversity of practice demonstrates that art, in order to reflect the world that we live in today, can and must be made from anything that is relevant to the idea.

Exhibiting Artists: Laura Bennett, Charlotte Burnell, Agnes Corbett, Calwyn Glastonbury, Amanda Green, Sian Leung, June Lloyd, Julie Matthews, Susan Morris, Tiffany Oben, Shaun Price, Julia Rowlands, Martin Walker

  

Review:
The Womens Institutionalised Tea Stall. A Performance by Mrs. Parry-Evans (Susan Morris) and Mrs. Wyn-Jones (Tiffany Oben)
 What can be more reassuring than a nice cup of tea in a nice cup and saucer served by a nice lady?   
Even though it’s unlikely you’ve seen two well groomed ladies (Morris and Oben) from the 40s set up a tea stall you won’t have much trouble picturing it. Pearls and twinsets and jaunty little hats, gloves and red lipstick, all atremble at the importance of their task, these well brought up and well mannered ladies are the stuff of all good Sunday night dramas.
With impeccable poise and obsessive attention to detail these gentile ladies spent over thirty minutes carefully setting out their tea stall – a large trestle table complete with pretty blue tablecloth and paper doilies. Painstakingly and painfully they arrange and rearrange. Exquisite china teacups and saucers, pretty milk jugs, original 40s teapots, handles to the right, spouts to the left. Every piece it seems has to be checked and admired before being allotted its pre-destined space.
Barely acknowledging their audience from the outset, save to offer a sneering glance, by the time the table has started to groan the ladies are totally immersed in their task.  Oblivious to the growling mutterings and increasingly restlessness the ladies continue to stack and build their tower of respectability to the point of precariousness.
When it seems that the tower cannot grow any higher and the audience have almost forgotten what they are waiting for, the ladies quietly unsheathe their weapons of destruction – a frying pan for Morris and a rolling pin for Oben. Without ceremony or warning and with enviable abandon they systematically destroy every carefully placed delicate object on their stall. China crashes and fragments fly. The stunned audience squeals and claps hands to mouths and ears. As the ladies’ smashing and bashing reaches a crescendo the audience is on its feet cheering and egging them on. They may not be getting their nice cup of tea after all but they seem pretty happy about it.
When the table and a good deal of the floor are covered with broken crockery with the audience are still cheering, the ladies exchange their weapons for sweeping brushes. Not until the fragments are swept into a neat pile do they rest, their moment of rebellion is over, order is restored. Time for a nice cup of tea perhaps?
An exhilarating and exhausting performance by Morris and Oben who played their parts to perfection. Their timing was superb, their poise impeccable and their tapping into that dark china-smashing side of us all was a triumph.
David Evans    

For a second, more extensive review please follow this link: http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/656451