I went to 2 exhibitions yesterday. Alice Anderson at Wellcome Institute, Memory Movement, Memory Objects left me cold. Lots of objects (from a car to a nail file) had been wrapped in copper thread. Apparently it was about our ability to weave memories now. I had a chat to the attendant but was none the wiser about the purpose of the exhibition. I understand someone wrapping a personal object, e.g. their father's tools as an act of remembrance but not as an art exhibit. The copper wire was used because copper conveys energy.
However the Jerwood Drawing Prize was excellent. Mostly black and white images - colour seems very out of vogue. My favourites were:
Emma Douglas. Cato Marble graffiti. Her son Cato died suddenly aged 21 when he was moving into a new flat. They had cut a piece of marble, to give space for a cooker, so his Mum used the marble to graffiti an artwork for him. It was positioned on the floor, to look like a headstone.
Pennie Elfick. Beam. She had taken a decayed wooden beam where she liked the fragility of the decayed surface on one side, and drew abstract black squares on the back, and mounted it vertically on the wall so both attractive surfaces could be seen.
Sue England. Productivity of Absence (Hairnet). Pencil drawing of a hairnet with tiny script with her frequent, worried, phrases of her mother who has dementia. They are a family from the Lancashire cotton industry and the thread links to the unravelling of a mind and life. The hairnet is worn by her mother every night - holds in anxieties while her mind unwinds. My personal best in show.
Lois Longmead. Pelvis. Machine embroidery on dissolvable fabric. 8 spools of thread to draw the female pelvis. Reflects on attitudes about female abilities which remain in modern society. Parallels between medical nursing and women sewing and repairing. Representation of women - tension of feminine and private pastimes, and the darker political problems present today.
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| Pennie Elfick, Beam, left hand side |
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| Pennie Elfick, Beam, right hand side |
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| Sue England, Productivity of Absence (Hairnet) detail |
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| Sue England, Productivity of Absence (Hairnet) |
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| Lois Longmead, Pelvis |
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| Lois Longmead, Pelvis, detail |
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| Emma Douglas, Cato Marble Graffiti |
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