Having turned the corner of the New Year I’ve started to look ahead to the tasks the year in front of us will bring. One of the biggest of the responsibilities I’m facing is the solo exhibition to which I’m committed in April. This will be the most important event so far in my artistic career. This will be at the Manor House Museum and gallery in Ilkley. I confess that I’m looking forward to it with a certain amount of trepidation.
Today I sat down at the computer and began to draw up a list of items which might hang together as an interesting and coherent collection under the title I’ve decided to use …. About Time. Are there themes which are suggested already in my work which might be strengthened and developed? Are there parts of my work which are better left in tasteful concealment? Some ideas are beginning to emerge. Then, as I was preparing dinner tonight I had an interesting experience which might serve as a useful lesson here.
Regular readers will recall that I am a great fan of Leonard Cohen. I like to listen to music while I am cooking, and because it is a long time since I played any of his work I decided to dig out one of his CDs. It is one I have not played very often, and as I listened it became clear why I have allowed it to fall into neglect. It isn’t a studio recording but one made at a live concert, in Cologne in 1988. I have to admit that the experience was terribly disappointing. For some of the time Cohen himself sounded bored. There was a succession of alterations to the familiar arrangements which seemed to be stuck in there just to bring a welcome change to a band which was also fed up at playing the same old stuff. Sometimes they even sounded like arbitrarily chosen musical cliches hit upon just for the sake of doing something different. It was certainly not the Leonard Cohen with whom I’m familiar. Nevertheless, the experience did set me thinking about the preparation for my exhibition.
It is vitally important to avoid the feeling that what is on view is simply a record of past experience. It has to be a fresh statement, which stands up in its own right, and engages the viewer with a sense of its current relevance. I would like to avoid the idea that the show will be a “retrospective” exhibition. The presentation of my work will need to be a project in its own right, and not a matter of going through the motions.