Agnes Denes makes her mark at Firstsite

The clean contemporary space of Firstsite in Colchester was a nice breathing space between the excesses of Christmas and the New Year with its hopeful resolutions and quickly broken promises. On show were the works of Agnes Denes http://www.firstsite.uk.net/page/agnes-denes, her drawings mathematical and meticulous recalling the works of Leonardo da Vinci, beautiful, repetitious and profound. The exhibition also showed the photographic records of some of her environmental projects, in particular the planting of a field of Golden Wheat in Lower Manhattan in 1982. Amongst these philosophically challenging exhibits there was an unexpected flash of humour, a small sequence of body prints; smudgy, uncontrolled and tactile their presence in the exhibition added a corporeal earthiness. I really like that, the unexpected adding its edgy touch.

Baubles

Mad and chilly at The Freud Museum.

A nippy wind followed my friend and I,still in high spirits after our lunch alfresco ( in December!!) and a visit to the delectable Margaret Howell shop, to The Freud Museum for their latest exhibition. http://freud.org.uk/

Mad, Bad and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors is based on a book by Lisa Appignanesi which charts the treatment of women with mental health problems from 1800 to now. The exhibition includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas, Helen Chadwick and Alice Anderson. Their works cannily placed amongst Freud’s possessions echoing sympathetically with the disturbing stories of so many women. The straight jackets and leather mitts, buckles and shackles, the wrapping copper wires, the rhythmic rocking and droning voices, the distorted body drawings.

As we slipped away to the bright Christmas cheer of Hampstead I was unable to shake off my chilly thoughts. It seems that there is barely a dividing line between sanity and insanity, a line so shakily drawn and redrawn over time, a line so easily crossed even in my own secret history.

aghast

Poor ‘bag’ was left on the shelf at the charity auction in Cambridge and didn’t even make the reserve price. But like Cinderella…and with Christmas just a short time away I can surely be excused for drawing on this analogy, she was swept off her feet and purchased later. She may have sulked in the corner for a little while sad and humiliated, her ego bruised but she will now bring a little magic as a Christmas gift!

Now…her ego bruised…or mine? The friend who bought the piece commented about my choice to go in the opposite direction of the accepted norm. Of course I know this but it struck me again that as this is a choice I need to stop whimpering ,feeling sorry for myself and face the truth with a bit more courage.



dry the tears