Recently I moved, and had only a few items to move with, the end result is that I am being driven absolutely bat-shit by the plain cream walls. The never ending Kingdom of Numbness. Help!
It’s rented accommodation and I think my land lord may well have heart failure if he ever saw what I would truly love to do to ‘his’ walls. The solution is of course art, be that paintings, post-cards, shelves or ‘things’. All my beautiful acquisitions, garnered from my travels around the planet are sadly locked away and I do not have access to them. I find myself in the most awkward position of either trying to re-buy the pieces I truly love, nigh on impossible as most are ‘one-offs’ or I can’t remember who the artist is and anyway how do you replace those one off purchases of cloth bought in Brazil, or Australia...? So I have been trawling the internet looking for inspiration. This is not how I usually find the objects I fall in love with and buy, it is usually done in the more normal way of seeing the item, be that down an alley off a market in some far off land, or in a quirky little shop in a town I will never re-visit, I have bundles of cloth, spied in obscure places, pieces of pottery in vibrant colours, all sadly not in my reach. It makes me so sad.
I was invited to the Ferens Gallery in Hull on it’s opening night a few weeks ago, there were several pieces I admired, most out of my price range or sold, and yesterday we decided to re-visit the show as it closes on the 18th April. I wanted to take a few photies. I also wanted some names of the artists whose work had caught my attention. It was like a different show if I am honest. The loud babbling crowds were not there, the light was different and I was allowed to indulge myself if I chose too, by standing and looking at some of the pieces for a long time. Some of the pieces were even better when viewed again. This piece (for me) in particular. And yes, I know it isn’t a vibrant, colourful quirky piece of work, it doesn’t half grab your attention though. It is rather large.
Insightful by Victoria Wilson.
I couldn’t discover anything about the artist, so if anyone can send me a link to her I would appreciate it.
I could be described as disturbingly and passionately interested in the Eating Disorder Anorexia. (see my blog) Which of course means the piece I was most interested in appealed to me as something that may well resonate with women who live daily with Anorexia, or the very least, with some form of Eating Disorder, of course, it was the one that was not for sale. I loved everything about this bizarre and strange piece. Would happily have him sit in my front room, along-side my cat for the rest of my days on the planet. I was fascinated with his ‘hands’, noting that on my return visit to the Gallery that his fork and spoon had been tied together – I am sure there is a simple explanation for this happening, my friend said most likely people were picking his arms and hands up and playing with them, my head took the dark route and decided it was an even more extreme sense of hate, loathing, denial, then again, I am strange like that. His feet disturbed me as well, I couldn’t stop looking at them if I am honest, his spoon and fork and his clawed boots / feet, mute and still, sitting there silently watching as people pass him by, most of which seemed to ignore him – sums up Anorexia incredibly well. This of course does not mean this is the truth behind why the artist made this piece, I would be very interested to know where her inspiration came from.
Waiting For Alice.
Here are a selection of the pieces that I really enjoyed, the Clown is still for sale… and I was sorely tempted J
James Usher’s work was one that I also found strangely interesting, read about him here…
...and I discovered on my second visit to the Gallery a limited edition of an artist I had found between my first Ferens visit and the most recent one, I saw one of his postcards in the Beverly Tourist Information shop, read about him here, Ian Mitchell.
Jayne's Bangle by Stephen Charles Shepherd. Hullart.
I have credited the artist if I knew their name, apologies for those whose work still remains uncredited, please contact me and put me right on any information relevant….
I was told off for taking images of the Peacock, so I have reduced them almost to the point of it not worth posting them (no-one will be re-printing from these images lol) The peacock is made of cloth and sequins and all-sorts of bits and pieces, the colouring was fantastic (think of the cleaning though) I think you would also require a stately home to be able to display it to it’s best. It was a veritable feast for the eyes.
In another part of the gallery you can also see the original work for the Beautiful South’s album “Quench”, it is a mighty large fcuker, about the size of a door.
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