“Images Moving Out onto Space” (Tate St Ives)
This exhibition featured art
works that relied upon movement to produce their effect. Old and new works by
almost 20 artists were featured, with a series of kinetic sculptures from the
1960s by Cornish artist Bryan Wynter (example: Image 1) lending the exhibition
its name. Wynter’s sculptures involved placing rotating mobiles in front of
a refracting lens to achieve a pleasing, constantly-changing abstract effect.
Sadly, Wynter died before he could fully realize his concept.
Image 1: “Imoos 6” (Bryan Wynter)
Elsewhere, the gallery featured
abstract, minimalist and kinetic works of art by (mainly) living artists. I was
particularly taken with Liliane Lijn’s rotating conical structures, which are
wrapped in enamelled copper wire to produce constantly changing lines of
reflected light (see Image 2). As far as I could see not every work of art
moved, but the exhibition did raise the question of whether it would be
possible to produce a kinetic work of art involving moving photographic prints
(as opposed to the obvious example of the moving image) and, if so, how?
Photographs depicting change were part of the exhibition (along with several
typical works by Bridget O’Reilly), but they didn’t move!
Overall, this was a thought-provoking
and appealing exhibition.
Image
2: “Red Line Koan” (Liliane Lijn)
Exhibition Review: “In Search of the Miraculous” (Newlyn Art
Gallery)
The exhibition was inspired by
the life of artist Bas Jan Ader, who set sail alone in July 1975 from
Massachusetts to cross the Atlantic to Falmouth in Cornwall. He was lost at sea
and never seen again.
The exhibition features grand
concepts and designs, mainly involving video work, by an international group of
artists. In common with Jan Ader, many of the artists have embarked on journeys
in pursuit of new experiences and recorded these journeys for the viewer. For
example, at the start of the exhibition we see a looped 10 minute video of
artist Guido van der Werve, walking across sea ice in Northern Finland,
followed by an icebreaker (Image 3). The video is trance-like in its monotony,
but somehow manages to convey a grand picture of cold Arctic scenery.
Image 3: “Everything
is going to be Alright”, Guido van der Werve
As I live within a few hundred
metres of the Greenwich meridian line I was interested to see Simon Faithfull’s
video of his journey along the meridian line from Peacehaven in Sussex (where
he walks out of the sea) to Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire (where he returns to
the sea). In between we see him using ladders to climb over hedges and walk
through peoples’ gardens as he attempts to keep exactly to the meridian line.
Did he really follow the meridian line so exactly? I have my doubts, but
Faithfull’s work is certainly a classic example of a grand concept put into
practice. The depiction of artists’ journeys, using a variety of art forms, is
becoming more and more popular. As a keen walker myself, who is also becoming
more interested in video art, here is an area that I can consider developing as
part of my own practice.
Other videos in the exhibition
featured an Icelandic trawler going round and round in circles, creating a
circular vortex of water, and a work called “blind date”, in which a
blindfolded Mat Collishaw travels to The
Prado in Madrid to view (blindfold removed) Velasquez’ classic painting
conundrum, “Las Meninas”.
Final Thoughts
Both exhibitions feature classic,
concept-driven works of art. Whilst the exhibits at Tate St Ives are material
they are also changing. At Newlyn the art is largely ethereal, representing (artistic
and/or real) journeys, often on a grand scale. Here is “art for art’s sake”, a
pure representation of artists’ pursuits of new experiences.
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