Sometimes it’s Nice to Be In Danger, With Friends
MERLIN BETTS gets in Harm’s Way
Below the cliffs beyond Rock-A-Nore, it’s late afternoon and a boulder tumbles down the hillside, rolling into the sea. There are three people walking along the pebble shore between the encroaching waves and the sandstone rock. One of them harangues the hillside in a rhyming volley of verse, arms flailing to the gods. Another crouches some distance away, close to the sea, peers over a rock pool, petting a small crab. It clambers over his hand and walks across his shoulders. The last lounges on a slab of stone despite the light and heat being lost behind the cliff, perfectly framed by the little shade his silicate perch provides, as though sunbathing.
I’ve always been a bit of a mirror, so I’m somewhere between them, taking a knee, fondling a shapely stone and a piece of seaweed, occasionally mumbling to myself. The sea is getting closer, and we won’t be back in time. We knew this setting off, choosing not to fold back into the country park , safe behind the edge of the land, because what fun would that be? What kind of person walks back exactly the way they came? No, we must make the circle, or perhaps the spiral, and so the waves push up and the land pushes down.
Meanwhile, back…
This is roughly how I’d describe the work of this group of artists: Oli Spleen, Wolfgang Dubieniec and Mark Walter. Three friends cutting across the space where one world ends and another begins. I reviewed the first part of In Harm’s Way last autumn, when they were in the Landing Gallery (where this year Ouroboros will be showing). This time they’ll have a larger, more exposed space, and include a live music performance on the night of the private view, featuring some of our moodier favourites from Oli’s solo albums.
While there is a degree of separation from Ouroboros upstairs, the creators there are also friends. Trusted with use of the space, Mark wanted to help curate a show of work from artists who get fewer chances to exhibit, or haven’t shown before. From this, Ouroboros evolved, a talented all-female group who match the sometimes strange and otherworldly energy emanating from In Harm’s Way.
Connections
There’s a thematic connection here, because there’s vulnerability involved in presenting to others that which you’ve created. And there’s often a peculiar mix of anxiety and celebration in the knowledge that most of the art we make now is built from, and based in, everything that came before – the snake eating itself, constantly growing so it must eat more.
In the need to communicate something to the world through art, something that could be an essential part of the way you view this existence, or maybe something that could stem from personal trauma, there’s often a duality. It’s masochism and sadism. As much as art is a kind of therapy and a pleasure, it can also be an assault on yourself and on the minds of others. This may reflect something of the viewer’s, or art collector’s, desire to find the emotional extremes a work invokes. It should celebrate or commiserate, it should affirm or terrify. We want art to do something to us, don’t we? It can’t all be left to office hallways and starkly-lit beige cafes, or for that matter, collectors’ vaults.
And so you are invited, dear reader, to put yourself at risk. Join a deliciously bedlam whirl of artistic contemplation: new work from those you know, and those you don’t.
In Harm’s Way II shows from 15-17 November at Electro Studios, TN38 0A1, along with Ouroboros, a show of new work from emerging artists. Private view for both, 15 November, 18.00-21.00. Other days open 11.00-17.00.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply