Day 1 11/02/2012
Filled with excitement and doubt I arrived at the gallery, wondering what the final outcome of residency would be. I decided not to worry too much about this and tried to take in as much information from the collections and the exhibitions as possible.
Having done all the introductions of the staff a week before, I was happy to be working and surrounded by friendly and approachable staff. My first half of the day began with planning a timetable and also talking to Jane Morrow about my previous work and goals for the residency. Jane is the exhibitions curator at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery (WAVE) and is leading on the programme. This opportunity has been supported and made available by New Art Gallery Walsall and Deborah Robinson.
The second half of the day involved a tour of the Victorian and Edwin Butler Bayliss exhibition lead by Rob and Rachel from the education team. They did this to compare the rural landscape against the urban more industrial landscape by Bayliss. They also made the primary school students aware of differences and the contrasts between the subjects, styles, and context. With the majority of the paintings in the Victorian and Georgian depicting romantic views or elaborate and grand narratives compared to Bayliss who’s paintings were of industrial landscapes filled with dark and black imagery apart burning fires that draw your eye. The exhibitions could not be at further ends if they tried. Though the both derived from a similar time period.
One of the paintings that Rob used as an example was the ‘View of Bristol’ by Patrick Nasmyth. The painting is predominately a rural landscape painting with the horizon of the landscape drawing a focal point towards the urban view of Bristol. The painting at first glance can be viewed as a romantic and peacefully landscape, until you notice the smoke rising from the city, further information about the painting can be carried out by referencing the statement next to it. During the time of the painting, Bristol was populated by 2 ½ million slaves that were brought into erect elegant houses and construct ships. This sinister underbelly completely turns the subject and the initial thoughts about the painting on its head. Is the artists and painting teaching the viewer not to judge things on first appearance? Is the painting hiding its true meaning beneath an idealistic setting?
The rest of the day I decided to look at David Hancock’s exhibition and carry out research into the some of the artists that I had seen that day. Hancock’s work is made of watercolours that depict characters and individuals carrying out their fantasies in Cosplay. The work offers an insight into individual desires to be someone they are not, the individuals are posing for the artist in costumes, this offering a double portrait of both the individual and their character or ego. When viewing the work you are drawn straight to the painting of the character due to the blankness and white space that surrounds them. The artist has chosen not to paint the real environment in which they are posing, and acting in. Instead he choices to show an imaginary reality, one that the individual’s alter ego has chosen to adopt. The everyday becomes apart of the individuals game. They are taken to a hyper reality.
A quote taken from exhibition introduction reads as follows:
“The imagination of the individual has the ability to transform the mundane into the sublime”.
