- Venue
- Corn Exchange
- Location
- South East England
I have been to look at this exhibition a couple of times. I still get the same excitement every time I see it.
It is a small solo exhibition displayed in the entrance of the Corn Exchange in Newbury.
Originally I ended up viewing the exhibition by chance. I was waiting at the reception of the Corn Exchange it caught my eye and I had to walk over to take a look.
Visually the work is intriguing and my first response was a pleasant one. Despite there only being a handful of pieces on show, I spent quite a long time studying each piece individually. I found them very inviting and although the works are small the variety of textures excited me and made me want to touch and feel them.
It wasn’t the work but the title that threw me off a bit it, as I had not yet read anything about the work but I had noticed the Artist was Janet Curley Cannon, a Berkshire based artist. I argued in my mind for a while although the collages were great but where would you find Urban in Berkshire? I grew up in West London so my instant thought when I hear urban is the city and as I was looking at the work I kept getting this overwhelming feeling of home.
When I read about the exhibition it all made sense, these were actually collages inspired by the London Underground. I feel by calling them collages though it is cheating the work, because although technically that is what they are collages of torn paper, when I hear collage I automatically think of a craft when these collages are each their own stunning pieces of art.
What I liked most about her work was that although the London Collages had no order to them they didn’t feel randomly put together. Inspired by what was damaged during modernisation, she has selected and taken parts of modern civilisation, literally preserving what has been abused and making it beautiful again.
Her work ‘Observations of a Town (ringside view)’ (which is not actually in the Urban Traces exhibition) is another prime example of that. I lived in Bracknell for 4 years before moving to Newbury, and I would walk through the town quickly thinking it was a horrible sight, just waiting for the regeneration that we kept being told was taking place. Janet had used tiles from a building to be demolished and created a large fresco panel. Although to me the view of Bracknell Town’s landscape was hideous, Janet had been able to use colour, line and reclaimed material to change the feel but yet not alter or hide what was happening.
Looking at Janet’s work has actually made me stop and think and take more notice on what is going on around me. The ugly sites of a town if you look closely are in fact quite fascinating. I have also discovered a meaning to urban other than what I originally thought.
