Mother

Many of the works in Martin Creed exhibition at The Hayward Southbank What’s the point of it? are caught between their innate humour and absurdity, and the seriousness of the questions which he poses in the making of his art.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/martin-creed

The huge revolving neon lit sign ‘MOTHERS’ raises many questions about our relationships with our mothers as well as being a brilliant piece of ‘performance’ art involving each visitor who entered the exhibition space, every one automatically ducking to avoid her long shadow! Accompanied by the mesmeric beating of a 39 metronomes marking off time and a wall of 1,000 broccoli prints, a reminder to eat up our greens, the mother figure looms large!

Although some of the works shown are not considered appropriate for young children and some do indeed seem rather pointless he has to be admired for his confident fearlessness…a scary mother maybe but she did a good job!

 

Off with her...legs!

It was with a certain amount of satisfaction that ‘body’ became ‘trunk’. On Wednesday rather unceremoniously my scissors dispensed with both legs. It is with some pleasure that I am now left with the core, the nub.

 

stump

 

 

'body' wrestling.

I am still puzzled by the discrepancy between what is selected for exhibition in public galleries, for example Camden Arts Centre and how the ‘man/woman in the street’ views what art is.

http://www.camdenartscentre.org/whats-on/view/ex-nc

 I must be honest here and say that this is a personal issue for me. For many years I have sought to question my work, to undermine it and to revere experimentation pushing myself to the limits. And this I believe to be the point of ‘art’ to a certain extent….but I still find myself having to answer ( well meaning) questions…’what are you doing at the moment?’, ‘how is your art going?’, ‘are you selling much at the moment?’ and these questions upset and unsettle me…particularly as the only answer is to carry on wrestling and shedding the odd tear over ‘body’ in my studio.

 

'body' pick

Bird Watching!

 A flock of debating, chatting, filming, singing, laughing, thinking and observing girls from NFTShttp://nftsfilm-tv.ac.uk/  paid a flying visit this weekend. A bit of bird watching to capture some footage of birds ‘of character’ on the river was their intended aim. And for me another kind of bird watching as I listened, a fly on the wall, quietly fascinated by the difference in their characters as they danced and negotiated their way towards the achievement of their goal. A gradual unwrapping of each unique personality.

 

Bird Heads

 

 

 

 

 

In stitches at Centre Pompidou!

Pouring rain, howling wind and the dripping queue of umbrellas stretching up the plaza in front of the Pompidou Centre Paris could not dampen the long anticipated pleasure to see Le Surrealism et L’ Objet. The exhibition was devoted to a weird and wonderful collection of surrealist objects and photographs many of which had been shown in previous exhibitions in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.

My daughter and I were frequently unable to quell our laughter and sheer joy at the absurdity of the humour that so evidently motivated many of the artists at the time, Dali, Man Ray, Oppenheimer to name but a few! There were a number of works by contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman but her photographs in particular seemed crude and obvious next to the rather more subtle works of her forerunners.

It would be hard to pick out the highlight but I guess if my back was up against the wall I would choose:

 

Salvador Dali
Venus de Milo with drawers
1916