Immersion in Art

Living as I do in a small town with a village outlook in the Midlands, trotting along to see an art exhibition doesn’t often come to mind, even with the camera club’s showings at the local church.

Loughborough Town Hall has art exhibitions, as does Charnwood Museum, but I can’t take the dog in with me. So annoying. Since Basil invariably accompanies me into town, I end up not going to any exhibitions.

As an aspiring photographer, this is not good. Exhibitions of creative artwork should inspire my own work. The nearest I can get is to review a photo display online, which is nothing like seeing an artwork in the ‘flesh.’

I had a meeting with Jane this morning, at the Nottingham Contemporary on the fringe of the Lace Market. Jane wanted to know if she could model for me and if I could take photos of her for her portfolio. We chatted for an hour and then she departed leaving me with time to view the galleries.

The Contemporary is a large, open building. I’d viewed the schoolchildren’s displays downstairs. Some marvellous creativity and energy there which is to be much encouraged.

Then upstairs to see the current major exhibitions. I pushed open the semi automatic door into a gallery that at first sight seemed to be virtually empty. What looked like large frames of sackcloth hung on the walls. They weren’t sackcloth. These were linen covered frames into which had been impregnated paintings. You could sit on the bench in the middle of the room, gaze at the frames and gradually discern the shapes and patterns in the frame. This was Yelena Popova’s After Image show. She is a Russian born artist now resident in Nottingham. These works are intended to portray ‘visibility as a political stance.’

The next gallery, pictured here, housed a display of a ‘computer generated code that generates an infinite sequence of images based on Euro banknotes,’ accompanied by a sound art installation by Rebecca Lee. I sat on a carefully placed seat to view the constantly changing images and to listen to the sound. Eerie, but strangely satisfying. I was beginning to feel immersed.

On the other side of the shop is the second of this summer’s exhibitions. Pump House by Michael Beutler. This was total immersion. The artist, with the help of local collaborators had created his work on the spot from cardboard and paper, fashioning them into building blocks to represent a house. I walked through the rooms and the doors and sat on a sofa made out of paper blocks. I asked what would happen to the installation. It will be dismantled and parts of it will be recycled to create another work of art somewhere else. Next stop, South Korea. Fascinating. 

I caught the tram back to Clifton South and returned home. The weather is still warm and close but not anything like as hot as at the beginning of the week. I retrieved a lounger from the garden shed, set it up in the shade on the lawn and fell asleep there for over an hour, I was so tired.