Stains and Traces III - Hastings Arts Forum

Stains and Traces has become a tradition for Hastings Arts Forum and the third exhibition on this theme opened on the 7th February.

The idea of "representing the presence or absence of a figure,  as well as anthropomorphic echoes and resonances", originated with former HAF chairman, Ian Welsh, who does in 2014.

Curated from open submissions,  this edition of the show has thirteen participating artists who once more encompass the diversity of mediums and messages that seems to be a hallmark of the Hastings Arts Forum.

As might be expected with such a theme, there are dark resonances in some of the work here. Jo Welsh presents object, collage and print works that communicate trauma and loss associated with illness and death. Her references to X-Rays and personal objects in the collaged print works are delicate and moving while ‘Widow’s Weeds’ and her object boxes have a much starker impact.

Sally Meakins’ photographic series also depicts objects and scenes associated with an absent person. It  signals not only their physical absence but also the complex emotions relating to such a  oss. This is very effective particularly in the large and haunting image ‘Your shirt on my chair’.

Lorrain Mailer addresses issues of post-traumatic stress in two very different pieces. ‘The Elephant in the Room’ is an intestinal tangle of knotted sheets suggesting both the physical and mental impact of alcoholism. ‘Blow a kiss, Fire a Gun’ is an empathetic homage to the desperation of refugees attempting to escape from the trauma of war.

Caroline Sax uses her multifarious mediums with sublime delicacy to draw attention to the amount of packaging waste that ends up in the ocean. Detailed statistics are stencilled onto treated and painted fabric and then covered with objects that instantly communicate the sheer volume of container shipping that is on the seas at any given time.

Artists who focus specifically on the human figure in this show include Raymond McChrystal whose ink and graphite portraits and nudes are subtle, sympathetic and occasionally seem to morph seamlessly into physical landscapes.

This merging of nature and figure is also apparent in the work of Kathleen Fox who has placed long strips of Australian paper bark against vibrant backgrounds allowing for multiple visual interpretations.  Trisha Neve’s delicate silk paintings similarly have multiple possibilities.

The remarkable tale told by Nigel Oxley needs some time to fully appreciate. In a series of 6 images he tells of a love affair conducted across a gulag wall in Poland and recreated here using the letters, objects and photos found after his fathers’ death. He has provided folders for viewers to read that provide not only the background to this story but also translations of the letters and words that appear in the image series.

Brian Rybolt’s photographs are very much about the stains and traces that are left behind in the structures of abandoned buildings and on walls. In many of these beautifully presented images, places and spaces often regarded as sad, neglected and ugly are shown to be resilient and full of their own defiant character

There is not much painting in this show but Sean Madden’s confident use of colour and paintwork provides an anchor against which Yvette Glaze’s architectural ceramics sit beautifully. Mark Glassman’s traces of figures almost washed away by the browns of the shingle and the sea work well with the more conceptual pieces in Gallery 2.

The final artist in this show is Jacob Welsh but I had to leave before his work was hung so I’m afraid he’s missing. If anyone can send me an image I will put it up.

7 Feb – 19 Feb 
Private View: 10 Feb, 6.30 - 8.30pm 

Click on names for links to artist websites where I could find them:

Brian Rybolt

Caroline Sax

Kathleen Fox

Mark Glassman

Nigel Oxley

Jo Welsh

Jacob Welsh

Ray McChrystal

Sean Madden

Trisha Neve

Yvette Glaze

Lorrain Mailer

Sally Meakins 

Kate Gritton, Valerie Grove, Wheel N Come Again!

Kate Gritton works with oils, acrylics, sometimes plaster and all sorts of other things to create deeply layered works in which mesmerising surfaces emerge from a long process of painting and working on the canvas. Her prints and collographs likewise emerge from such a layered process. The suggestions of movement in her work are on a large scale. Slow and powerful shifts of the forces of nature that are never still but are only noticed when they become so dramatic they impact on human life.

As well as the paintings there are a series of prints each contained within identical, square white frames. The contrast between the whiteness of the frames and the deep, earthy colours and shadowed darkness in these prints works is very effective with each piece a window into another world.

These are really two very interesting artists to put into the same show. Their work complements the other beautifully.  Both use contrast in light and dark very effectively and both use a lot of earthy and natural tones. In the case of Valerie Grove these tones are direct, as her working substances are barks, leaves and wood fibres with the thickly applied paint steeped in natural materials to create its own unique and delicate shade and texture. As you approach each work the textures come into focus and this creates quite a spectacular impact especially with three stark, geometric monochromes.

Wheel N Come Again - an Afro-Caribbean Arts and Film Programme

Gallery Two is full of stories. 'Wheel N Come Again' is a programme of connecting films, paintings, photographs and installation that creates an environment to reflect on the human and familial experience of migration over generations. As such it looks at identity as a construct of individual relationships and experiences in and between different national contexts. The title is a Jamaican expression that relates to the past and how it is remembered, perceived and interpreted to provide knowledge and to allow a continuity of individual and collective memory. This can be distilled into three words: Rewind. Replay. Review.

The multimedia 'Border Ritual' which is a pastiche of the interrogative repetition of border encounters, is set out in its own little retrospective and very atmospheric scene. Each individual aspect of the project is presented in several different but interlinking forms. This includes a zoetrope, revolving on a vintage Bush turntable, which contains images repeated in video and as prints. The audio soundtrack to the video is also accessible by placing the needle on the record which is quite a thrill.

The dialogue between the past and the present here is very clear as it is in the series of photographs hanging throughout the centre of the gallery, each of which have a very personal accompanying letter that relates to the people and the time in each image. What strikes you most as you enter the gallery, however, is the very contemporary drama and life that leaps out of the bright and vibrant colours of a wall of paintings although these too have links to the symbols and motifs of cultural history.

 

This is an ongoing project in which the four artists (Carla Armour, Farah Way, Tokini Fubara, Akila Richards) create and develop work in response to the film programme which includes full length features and documentary pieces, as well as several shorts. All are available to view in the gallery and there will be evening screenings next week. For more info and screening times check here: Wheel N' Come Again.

Surface Tension
Wheel N' Come Again
Hastings Arts Forum
November 1st - 13th
Private View November 4th - 6.30 -8.30 

Robin Holtom and Michael Wilson

Both artists in the current show at the Hastings Art Forum present an impressive mix of painting and sculpture. Robin Holtom’s seven sculptures of dancers and nude female figures are cast in bronze or ingeniously made from plaster reworked and painted to give the surface appearance of bronze. The exception is a white plaster head between two mostly white drawings, themselves exceptions to this show's rather beautifully coloured rule.

The almost exclusive use of darker toned blues, purples, oranges and greens creates an atmosphere of restfulness and stillness in this gallery that also emanates from the buildings and figures in each of the compositions. Skylines at sundown have an early evening hush while the natural and reflected abstracts of Venetian architecture are shaped into blocks and lines of colour. 

Groups of female figures and dancers are composed without physical detail which gives them a slightly ghostly but still sculptural quality. When there is an occasional hint of movement it is slow, gentle and considered. Using combinations of the same colours to depict hard surfaces like walls and steps in one piece, alongside the soft surfaces of the human body in another, is a lovely juxtaposition completed by the seamless transmutation of the human form into bronze.

Michael Wilson’s sculptures are very different in style, subject and substance. Made of light coloured stone, each depicts a biblical story or figure. Surfaces are smoothly worked and the solidity and suggestion of weight gives each piece a strong and captivating presence. The colour and work in the stone is enhanced by the bright airiness of the landscapes around it.

Michael Wilson lives locally and the majority of the paintings are recognisable Sussex landmarks, views or rural scenes. Many are perfectly executed with a scale and perspective of somebody moving through the scene depicted. This is particularly effective in the paintings of the Seven Sisters, the view from West Hill and some of the rural scenes.  Trees also feature strongly in many of the paintings and I particularly liked the almost electric blue of the trees in ‘Out of the Valley’.

However, there is a very strange anomaly in Michael Wilson’s exhibition. Displayed on the end wall is a five piece asymmetric panel depicting the story of Oedipus. Although foundational Greek myths are perhaps a natural historical companion to biblical scenes, the work itself lacks any harmony with the other paintings in the room. It is almost as if a less accomplished artist sneaked into the gallery and installed it when nobody was looking. Incongruity can be interesting but here it detracts attention from the rest of the work which is unfortunate.

The predominant focus of Michael Wilson's paintings also restricts the colour palette but the lighter, brighter and more expansive feel is a perfect complement to Robin Holtom’s minimal colour range next door. There is a link also in Michael Wilson’s pastel studies of nudes, one of which is a female figure reclining in similar pose to one of Robin Holtom’s sculptures. The differences and the similarities in these two shows communicate much about how art is both created and viewed. Each of the artists in this show are mostly painting or modelling a place, a person or a scene that they have observed or are observing. The experience of the audience is that the viewer remains the intimate observer in Robin Holtom’s work whereas it is possible to almost step inside the paintings of Michael Wilson. 

Such combinations of 3D and 2D work in one space are always very satisfying to view. They make the exhibition more interesting to navigate and the visual interaction between the two can create other unexpected observational delights.

Robin Holtom and Michael Wilson

Hastings Art Forum

August 23rd - September 4th 2016

Private View Friday 26th August