A while ago I went into a gallery in Ipswich to see what was going on, on the off chance, and what did I find? Not just any exhibition, but This Me of Mine, an exhibition organised by Jane Boyer.
I had to rush off after a while, but I had quite a lot of time to talk to the curator and also Darren Nixon. The exhibition resonates with issues raised in a book by Glenn Ward on Postmodernism that I had been reading, so it seems good timing that both things coincided recently.
It seems to me that my research had been revealing that we are now in a situation where older values had given way to a new way of relating and thinking that perhaps left the art object somewhat displaced, and the idea of authorship equally questioned. Ward’s book built on writings I have read by Hal Foster, Verillio etc, and further confirmed ideas I had been working on. This exhibition related to some of those ideas particularly to do with the identity but also regarding the digital age.
It has occurred to me at times that perhaps by that looking back to those issues arising out of post structuralism I was perhaps referencing too far back for my work to be contemporary. But this exhibition seems to suggest otherwise, as many of the issues are evident in the work and ideas in the exhibition, so that is good confirmation.
I like the work of Jane and Darren who I spoke to, and also I was interested in the work of Shireen Qureshi, Sandra Crisp, David Minton, Sarah Hervey, Annabel Dover. Now that I am back to my art with more time to focus on my work, I will be researching further into these artists and following the progress of this exhibition, I hope it continues to gain momentum as it has so far. Marvellous.
This exhibition created a good context to frame the work to be seen. I think it is time to pursue one or two of the ideas I have lurking in mind for collaborations.