Local Galleries
I've decided to take a visit to all my local art galleries, since moving to the area, (mid Cornwall) only a few months ago I have not had a chance to go around and see what is happening with this local art scene. I hope it's not all summer tourist based, or I will become sick of looking at seascapes and non imaginative ways of portraying lighthouses.
In the summer I visited the Tate in St Ives, which on all accounts was a good experience, but something I would never willingly do in the middle of summer, ever again. The gallery itself was not packed, but its lack of car parking and beach side appeal of its location, meant the streets were seemingly hell. I have never seen so many tourists so willing to sun themselves on a relatively small beach, in a small town. I will probably never understand the mindset of tourists. Inside the Gallery, (once we had parked over double yellow lines up some private housing street, like everyone else had done) I found some fairly interesting pieces of art, although the only work that stands out in my memory is the work of Martin Creed, which they funnily enough used as their cover image for all their advertising for the summer show. 'Half the air in a given space' which shows a room, half filled with white balloons. It was an interactive space and I did have great fun playing in it. It encouraged people to re think the forms of space, and how spaces can be transformed into surreal places, by the use of balloons. It was imaginative, but nothing else in the collection really stood out to me, whether it wasn't to my taste, or I just had the feeling I had already seen similar works before.
I also visited British Art Show 7 : In the Days of the Comet, which is a travelling show, and stopped for its first time in Plymouth, it was fragmented into different venues, quite a stretch apart, from Plymouth College of Art, (which had Martin Creed's work), University Of Plymouth, Plymouth City Museum, Plymouth Arts Centre, and Royal William Yard. I see going to an exhibition as an enjoyable activity, something that should be savoured and time spent, but with these all split up and literally all over the place, it was hard to view it all as one touring piece. I admit that it was good for all the venues to host their little bit, but It shouldn't become such a mission and a pilgrimage (as Grayson Perry might put it) to visit this art. No single piece of work or artist stuck in my mind in a positive way, I was disgusted by one object in particular 'Object - Our House' by Nathan Mellors, which was a severed head, vomiting into a bucket. I did not see its value as an art piece, or why it had the audacity and pretention to be put into a gallery space. It was set as a side piece for a similarly cringe worthy film 'Our House'. It was tacky for the sake of being tacky, bad taste, bad humour and I just did not judge there to be any aesthetic taste or judgement used by this artist.
Right, now reading this back to myself, Im going to go on a quest to find some Local art that I like and see artistic value in. Im going to visit all the nearest galleries to my house, and a few a bit futher a field. Using google to plot out my stopping points and best plan my routes. Here are a few places I will be visiting in the near future:
St. Blazey Gate, Par, Cornwall PL24 2EG
01726 812131 · midcornwallgalleries.co.uk
53 Fore Street, Par, PL24 2NH
01726 817317 · rittergallery.co.uk
38 Fore Street, Fowey PL23 1AQ
01726 833828 · foweyrivergallery.co.uk
10 Lostwithiel Street, Fowey, PL23 1BD
01726 832582 · toeinthewatergallery.co.uk
2 Webb Street, Fowey PL23 1AP
01726 833838 · cryofthegulls.co.uk
Quay Road, Saint Austell, PL25 3NJ
01726 67886
The Old Workshop, Charlestown Road, St. Austell PL25 3NJ
01726 70458 · charlestowntrading.com
28 Fore Street, Lostwithiel, PL22 0BL
01208 873990
21 Fore Street, Fowey, PL23 1AH
01726 832005
71 Charlestown Road, Saint Austell PL25 3NL
01726 65900 · atishoodesigns.co.uk
13 Lemon Street, Truro TR1 2LS
01872 275757 · lemonstreetgallery.co.uk
Lemon Street Market, Lemon Street, Cornwall, Truro TR1 2QD
01872 275578 · landergallery.co.uk
24 New Bridge Street, Truro TR1 2AA
01872 273747 · driftwoodgallery.co.uk
I decided I'd better visit quite a few, to make more of a chance of finding something I like, and that inspires me. I'm aware that these are mainly little individually run and owned galleries, and I won't be viewing anything as extreme as the next Damien Hirst or discover something as obscure as the next Francis Bacon. I'm just a bit fed up with all the Tate branded artists, so this is my mission, to find assessable art on my doorstep. It shouldn't be too difficult considering I'm living in somewhere that claims to be cultural and artistic, Just hope I don't get too sick of looking at too many seagulls made of driftwood.
No comments:
Post a Comment