I don’t know how typical this is of fellow artists, but I have become aware that I have a rather bad habit. I will prepare work for an exhibition (or find an exhibition that is suitable for the display of my latest project), but after it has been shown it will find its way onto the storage racks at home, and I will move on to the next project. Very few of my projects have received a succession of exhibitions. The major exception to this is the series of pictorial reflections I produced on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, which I believe has had seven outings now. Over the past couple of days I have become aware of the folly of this. I have a load of good material that rarely sees the light of day. Perhaps the reason for this is that if the reception of a group of works is less than thoroughly enthusiastic I become discouraged. Another possible reason is that I am always enthused by my current project, and want to ensure that it receives exposure, at the expense of other possible offerings. Whatever the reason, this week-end I have begun to examine the wisdom of this.
My now orientation has come about because of two simultaneous opportunities to display my work. As I explained in yesterday’s post, the forthcoming summer group exhibition in Unit 9 is to be on the theme of “current obsessions”. I have interpreted this as permitting also permanent obsessions, and although I will show one of my latest pictures of Almscliff Crag I will also be showing photographs of several of the long series of images of that location I have produced since 2002. I have to admit that several of these items are “pot boilers” of no great distinction, but several are really quite interesting and worth another trip to a gallery.
I made a more dramatic discovery, however, when I was invited to put in some work to a show which will review the work of artists who have been associated with the South Square Centre since its opening in 1984. The organiser told me that they are working around several themes, one of which is “life and mortality”. When I asked my wife what on earth I might offer, immediately she reminded me of a set of 3D “boxed constructions” I had prepared and shown as long ago as 2006. She was right! Some of these pieces are exactly right for the exhibition in question, but they have been sitting unregarded for years on top of one of my racks.
There are two items I have identified that are of particular relevance, but both of them had received slight damage in the past. Small pieces of the constructions had become detached, as the glue had not been strong enough to withstand the rough handling they must have experienced. So I set to work and removed them from their frames, and I’ve done a fairly creditable job of restoration, in one case with very delicate materials (dried seaweed). It has been an interesting experience, and at one level quite moving, as it has felt like a kind of resurrection, bringing these pieces back from the dead …. which I suppose is entirely appropriate for an exhibition addressing themes of life and mortality. (See today’s featured image.)
I think that the lesson of this experience is that over the next few months I will be scrutinising my collection to see if it would be possible and advantageous to allow some other elements to find a new life.