'Strange Days and Some Flowers' Exhibition
Multiple artists.
The Storey Gallery, Lancaster.
Due to the gallery's copy right restrictions, I am unable to put up photos of the artwork. There are photos on the web site www.storeygallery.org.uk/programme.php?item=000029 and the flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/storeygallery/sets/72157621388108098/
Although I would say this small exhibition isn't worth making any special trips for, I would recommend having a gander if you're around the area, as it's free entry and I quite enjoyed it. It includes paintings, installations, pottery, architecture models and sculptures by the following artists- Dan Baldwin, Don Brown, Laura Ford, Matthew Holding, Robin Mason, Jock Mooney, Mika Rottenberg and John Stark.
The relevance of the title is rather unclear to me, other the the word 'strange' which describes it quite accurately. To me, the link between most of the work apears to be: a surreal and distorted vision of nature and reality that is often a playful and/or dark take on modern society. A good example of this would be Don Brown's 'Yoko XIX' and 'Yoko XVII' sculptures, which are exactly the same apart from the material and the colour- the first one is black and the second white. They are sculptures of a figure that appear to be draped in cloth material. The drape contors are sculptured really realistically and work well with the medium surface texture, as initially I thought it was a shiny latex material draped over. What I found interesting though was that a simple difference of colour can make a big differnece of perception- the black one immediately looked dark, dangerous, threatening and evil, and the white one looked pure, heavenly and peaceful. This colour difference may sound obvious but it made me think about how it relates to the world and our society- due to individual past experiences and social stereotypes, people often differ their views and judgments for two similar situations that have a slight degree of difference, such as age, sex or background for example. It also highlights the importance of colour as a graphic designer, as it can really alter how people decode and view our designs.
Another interesting piece was an installation by Jock Mooney titled 'Discontinued'. It features plastic models placed on and around a large, permanent statue within the gallery, of Queen Elizabeth I (?). It creates the playful and distorted vision of nature that I referred to earlier, with various little models of animals and toy-like figures. My initial perception of it was that it was an immature illustration of life. However, as I looked closer I notised hidden, dark aspects that resebled death and violence including a reef of bones and eyeballs and body parts scattered behind the statue- this was clearly a much more blunt and significant outlook on life than the 'immature' outlook I initially thought. The overall style of the models reminded me of the E4 'Hotel Room' and 'Beach' idents, which caused me to lack admiration for the installation, as I got the strong feeling I'd seen that style before. I have much more admiration and respect for artists and designers who create their own style, so this just gave me a 'nothing special' attitude towards the piece.
I would recommend this exhibition, as it had an interesting variety of work. But like I said- it's a very small exhibition (just 24 works) so not worth any extra trips.
Multiple artists.
The Storey Gallery, Lancaster.
Due to the gallery's copy right restrictions, I am unable to put up photos of the artwork. There are photos on the web site www.storeygallery.org.uk/programme.php?item=000029 and the flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/storeygallery/sets/72157621388108098/
Although I would say this small exhibition isn't worth making any special trips for, I would recommend having a gander if you're around the area, as it's free entry and I quite enjoyed it. It includes paintings, installations, pottery, architecture models and sculptures by the following artists- Dan Baldwin, Don Brown, Laura Ford, Matthew Holding, Robin Mason, Jock Mooney, Mika Rottenberg and John Stark.
The relevance of the title is rather unclear to me, other the the word 'strange' which describes it quite accurately. To me, the link between most of the work apears to be: a surreal and distorted vision of nature and reality that is often a playful and/or dark take on modern society. A good example of this would be Don Brown's 'Yoko XIX' and 'Yoko XVII' sculptures, which are exactly the same apart from the material and the colour- the first one is black and the second white. They are sculptures of a figure that appear to be draped in cloth material. The drape contors are sculptured really realistically and work well with the medium surface texture, as initially I thought it was a shiny latex material draped over. What I found interesting though was that a simple difference of colour can make a big differnece of perception- the black one immediately looked dark, dangerous, threatening and evil, and the white one looked pure, heavenly and peaceful. This colour difference may sound obvious but it made me think about how it relates to the world and our society- due to individual past experiences and social stereotypes, people often differ their views and judgments for two similar situations that have a slight degree of difference, such as age, sex or background for example. It also highlights the importance of colour as a graphic designer, as it can really alter how people decode and view our designs.
Another interesting piece was an installation by Jock Mooney titled 'Discontinued'. It features plastic models placed on and around a large, permanent statue within the gallery, of Queen Elizabeth I (?). It creates the playful and distorted vision of nature that I referred to earlier, with various little models of animals and toy-like figures. My initial perception of it was that it was an immature illustration of life. However, as I looked closer I notised hidden, dark aspects that resebled death and violence including a reef of bones and eyeballs and body parts scattered behind the statue- this was clearly a much more blunt and significant outlook on life than the 'immature' outlook I initially thought. The overall style of the models reminded me of the E4 'Hotel Room' and 'Beach' idents, which caused me to lack admiration for the installation, as I got the strong feeling I'd seen that style before. I have much more admiration and respect for artists and designers who create their own style, so this just gave me a 'nothing special' attitude towards the piece.
I would recommend this exhibition, as it had an interesting variety of work. But like I said- it's a very small exhibition (just 24 works) so not worth any extra trips.
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