‘Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery’ – The first Year

We meet on the first Thursday of the month, usually to listen to a speaker, followed by question and answer session/conversation I will discover  from this blog as it progresses, how to go about it, how to write it. This posting about Julian Rowe’s talk has thrown up some initial problems for me. Central is the need to be succinct, (as always perhaps) when and how to be conversational, how to be descriptive and to put a finger on things that keep moving or changing shape. In the talk, the notion of ‘aboutness’ (below) struck me as an apt term for a kind of structurally knowing imprecision, a form of ‘more-or-lessness’ that leaves room for manoeuvre and is open to refinement. It is to do with the feel of things. My hope is that this post offers a feel of Julian’s work, which is visually rich and multilayered both physically  and metaphorically.

Julian Rowe paints but is not strictly a painter, uses sculptural techniques but is not strictly a sculptor, uses video but is not strictly a video artist; he is a meticulous researcher in pursuit of what he terms ‘Psychohistory’ bringing disparate techniques, materials, and processes to bear on historic objects and events. His Axisweb statement states that ‘My practice is a form of cultural archaeology, seeking contemporary resonances and metaphors in the ideas and cultural baggage of the past.’

‘The Ice At Europe’s Heart’ Image courtesy Julian Rowe

‘The Ice At Europe’s Heart’ (a provocative title?) is a three part piece built from research of a painting, ‘High Mountains’ by Caspar David Friedrich, destroyed in a fire in 1945. Rowe’s piece follows the twists and turns of its history and connections to a photograph of it, a drawing of Friedrich’s original and a painting of the same mountains, by Carl Gustav Carus, and further still to a linking of the same view with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the genesis of whose novel Rowe connects implicitly with climactic disturbance caused by  volcanic ash from the explosion of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies in 1815. Staying by Lake Geneva, in 1816, Mary Godwin and was with a group which included Lord Byron. Unable to venture out because of  poor weather, he suggested that they each write a story of the supernatural.  Rowe at one point raised the notion of the ‘aboutness’ of his work and his wish that  the experience of it should not exhaust a sense of mystery that resides in the works as things in themselves; ‘Aboutness’ seems to refer to the feel of things, the manner of the making, what might be called ‘style’, formal integrity, thingness, something lurking on the surface of content, and to an engagement with Romantic appearances.

PERK & ROWE has a comforting Savile Row sound of the bespoke about it. Created in collaboration with Terry Perk,http://(www.terryperk.com/projects/centipede/) is a scientific spoof, tailor made.

‘CENTIPEDE’  Image courtesy Julian Rowe

Housed appropriately in an adapted cargo container, it was installed on the beach at Folkestone and was open to the public from 30 Aug to 2 Nov 2014 Its genesis followed an opposite path to that of ‘High Mountains’. Its history is constructed. Ostensibly a replication of a 1970’s secret Ministry of Defence project, its technological paraphernalia and the outrageous claims made for its achievements have a feel of possibility about them and a foggy incredibility. It is supported by a text written by one Nigel Ember. ‘THE FOLKESTONE NON-LINEAR PARA-SPECTOMETRY FIELD STUDY’ edited by Terry Perk and Julian Rowe is a scholarly piece with full references describing  the discovery of a ‘….massive, transitory structure, levitated directly over Folkestone ferry terminal, and named the ‘CENTIPEDE’. Scientific sounding terms – ‘Nonlinear Para-Spectomotry Detector’ (NPS) and evocative names such as  ‘H. Fleischmann’ and ‘F.W.Märklin’encourage us to doubt our doubts. Describing speculation as to the origin of the CENTIPEDE, it points to disagreements within the scientific community as to the validity of the  project. In the discussion that followed, the question was raised by Julian,  of the ethics of a work of deception. The installation was open to the public and offered as truth (an anticipation perhaps of our contemporary predicament)  As  is the nature of many such discussions, it remains, like the CENTIPEDE, hanging in the air……..

This gallery has been the meeting place of SVAF since 2009. A lot has happened along the way through its exhibitions, discussions and friendships. This year it becomes our home.
It is a pleasant white space small enough to maintain an intimate atmosphere and large enough to mount substantially sized works and shows. (to look at some of the work exhibited in the past, see my Review section for a taste of shows and artists)
I came to SVAF quite by chance in 2009 when I met Franny Swann, whose small group, meeting in a studio in Hextable (Kent) was the seed from which SVAF grew. I was in the Sir Peter Blake Gallery in Dartford, looking for an exhibition and was showing some drawings to the librarian. Franny by coincidence had business there also with a group show currently in the gallery and happened to look at my work. Some time later I contacted her and joined the group, run then by Franny, Sue Evans and Rosalind Barker, and which now met in the Stag Community Arts Centre in Sevenoaks. Duncan Brannan, Kent visual Arts Officer, came to a meeting to discuss an exhibition at the Kaleidoscope, and we were later invited to meet in the Kaleidoscope Gallery. Subsequently Duncan continued to provide encouragement to the group and to individuals, his invariably supportive approach providing sensitive underpinning to the continued development of SVAF. Duncan left the KCC in 2015.

The future of SVAF in the gallery was uncertain at a time of financial difficulty for local authorities, and given that such an ideal setting might not come our way again, the notion arose that SVAF might submit a proposal to run the gallery.
Having met with success, SVAF, now managed by Rosalind Barker and Sue Evans (as an unincorporated association) runs the Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery as an artist led space. As they acknowledge, it is a huge undertaking, being an interface between KCC, local groups, schools, individual artists. Adjacent to the Gallery is Sevenoaks museum with which SVAF will also work. A small museum on a human scale, it is very user friendly, does a lot of work with children.‘SVAF has already worked in collaboration with the museum on ‘ECHO’ an exhibition based on objects from Knole House, and shown in the Orangery at Knole. ( It shocked me to see how much time had passed when I looked up the date for this and found that it was in 2014!!)
Early days as yet then, but the new arrangement is off to an encouraging start with its first project, ‘WHISPER’, (including work by SVAF artists Rosalind Barker, Margaret Barrett, Anne Bridges, Louisa Crispin, Elisa Hudson, Diana Poliak, Franny Swann, Maria Turner and Jane Tyler.), an exhibition and community project inspired by and contributing to Hilary Lorenz’ call for ‘CROWD SOURCED PAPER MOTHS’ which is itself her response to an invitation to contribute to a group exhibition titled ‘Cross Pollination’ curated by Valerie Roybal at ‘516 ARTS’ in Albuquerque – see
svaf.co.uk/exhibitions/current-exhibition/
and CROSS-POLLINATION

This show is a gentle pleasure on the eye and has proved ideal as a ‘soft launch’ for SVAF as it builds connections and a presence. Already there have been two drop-in sessions for children and many moths have taken flight. Schools are using it broadly as support for Maths, Science, Natural history, as well as for Art. The individual crowdsourced moths will find their way to the show in Albuquerque by 15th July. More to come.