- Venue
- Beverley Knowles Fine Art
- Location
Approaching the bright pink façade of The Beverley Knowles Gallery (specialising in the work of modern and contemporary female artists), I experienced a relieving sense of irony. I had initially felt apprehensive when approached to write a review for the current show Transitions, wondering whether the necessity still remained for gender specific ventures. Shouldn't we stand up with the boys and be counted? I was concerned that this space would provide either a safety zone for flaky, emotional artworks, or a den for crusading women's-rights activists. The mere fact that as a woman I was applying such stereotyped ideas needed rebuking. Why shouldn't these women be taken seriously?
My initial feeling of light irony was flattened as I entered the gallery to find myself faced with needlework. Was this very daring curation? – Or was this a dreadful cliché?
Miranda Argyle has meticulously stitched silken words onto linen – one work repetitively reads ‘two and a half billion heartbeats' (the average number of beats made by a 50 year old heart), another simply reads ‘heartbeat' over and over. Argyle's work falls effortlessly between the visual and the textual, and as we find ourselves falling into her steady rhythmic words, one becomes aware of the continual passing of time – of transitions. These small, unassuming works highlight the coexistence of the finite with the infinite. The press release states that Argyle's work "overturns our preconceptions about domestic uses of embroidery, subverting traditional expectations", but with this I must disagree. These values have been subverted many times before, with far more strength and conviction. Argyle remains unconvincing on this point. Rather than considering notions of domesticity, I felt that the work was more obviously connected to the practice of psychoanalysis.
Upon reaching the paintings of Marguerite Horner, my preconceived notions of gender were lifted. I was able to approach the work with a completely open mind. One might assume that this was merely due to their more traditional painterly format (and subsequent lack of gender, in comparison to Argyle's needlework), but I would argue that it is because these works are stronger pieces. Horner's paintings are evocative and absorbing. Buildings emerge slowly from the canvases with discerning suspicion. Stylistically, these works could be described as filmic, and slightly unearthly or uncanny. There is an uneasy dynamic between the painting and the viewer, which is created by one's sense of being voyeur to an unknown event. Something is obscured in these works, and although it is unlikely that we will discover it, we do not feel alien from it. These works slow one down to a state of contemplation (one experiences a slight removal from the everyday), which follows smoothly from the steady rhythm of Argyle's work.
As we reach the work of the final artist, Claire Fahys, the tempo of the exhibition jumps from a contemplative state to a frantic pace (an interesting shift, which cleverly knocks one back into to a more ‘everyday', worldly state if mind). Fahys uses oil, gouache and ink to develop chaotic cityscapes that interpret the overwhelming presence of urban architecture. Her heavily layered imagery takes a great deal of influence from cubism, and yet also manages to add an element of fashion into the equation. With the look of being over-worked, these illustrations offer an honest, albeit ‘trendy', and slightly unoriginal impression of city life.
I wonder whether it would be possible to write about this show without considering the gender specific context of the space. Context can have a huge effect on how a work is viewed, and thus interpreted, so the artist must carefully consider the implications that this might have on their work. The Beverley Knowles Gallery is most definitely a positive venture in that it ignites the debate not only about the progress of female artists (without being even slightly flaky or activist) but also about how context effects an artwork. I was concerned that this gallery might reinforce any existing segregation between the sexes, however, upon visiting the space one becomes aware that the issue is less about a necessity to stand up with the boys and be counted. It is just about standing up and being counted.
MA Aesthetics and Art Theory
