Damien Hirst, Myth and Legend, by the entrance to the hall at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

The first Damien Hirst piece, Sensation, is encountred while driving to the carpark. From the car it look looks like something from an amusement park or fun fair. Looking like brightly coloured plastic. On closer inspection, it appears to be a magnification of a section of skin complete with hairs.

This concept is carried through several works. Myth (unicorn) and Legend (Pegasus) are built with clean precision but at the same time highly stylised. The ‘outer skin’ is painted white, a stark contrast to areas where the skin is ‘peeled away’ to reveal the insides horrifyingly red with touches of pink and yellow.

The same graphic depiction of this scientific disecting into parts of the figures is seen in the oversized torso Temple and the massively grotesque The Virgin Mother. In the gift shop, you can recognise the same general feel in the type of anatomy books which inspired Hirst.

Damien Hirst, The Virgin Mother, in the Pleasure Grounds at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

The monochrome works may be subtle as far as colour goes but definitely not in content. Anatomy of an Angel in Cararra marble, carved with mechanical precision exposes sections of the anatomy to the bone. Wretched War – The Dream is Dead in silver shows a decapitated pregnant woman with baby exposed in the womb as already seen in The Virgin Mother. Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain in black is poignant at first glance but the use of scalpel and tailor’s scissors give an unexpected twist on a theme already blatantly conveyed by Marco d’Agrate in 1562.

Also on the grounds are Charity the oversized replica of a collection box in the shape of a sweet girl with a leg brace has been ripped open with a crowbar, coins strewn on the ground and The Hat Makes the Man after Max Ernst’s collage of 1920.

In the house, all Walpole and Cholmondeley family portraits were removed from the stately rooms of Houghton Hall and replaced with Hirst’s Colour Space painings. A total of 46 paintings are being displayed for the first time at Houghton. We were told by the guides that these were selected from the 300 paintings in the series made with the help of assistants.

The red walls of the Saloon provides an excellent backdrop for the first 8 paintings on display. What is striking about the paintings is the complete contrast to the sculptures outdoors. The dots are happy.  They are taken out of the rigid grid of the earlier Spot paintings. They interact. They make you smile.

Damien Hirst, Colour Space series, in the Saloon at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

Hirst says of his work: “I originally wanted the spots to look like they were painted by a human trying to paint like a machine. Colour Space is going back to the human element, so instead you have the fallibility of the human hand in the drips and inconsistencies. There are still no two exact colours that repeat in each painting, which is really important to me. I think of them as cells under a microscope. It felt right to show them somewhere historic rather than in a conventional gallery space and Houghton’s perfect. It feels totally right.”

Damien Hirst, Space, Time, Form, Matter, Substance, Change and Motion and Observe, Identify, Reason, Analyse, Measure, Modify and Reproduce, in The Stone Hall at HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
Photo by Pete Huggins

Space, Time, Form, Matter, Substance, Change and Motion and Observe, Identify, Reason, Analyse, Measure, Modify and Reproduce are a kinetic translation of the spots into three dimensions. The balls dance randomly through the box for the 5 minutes when air is blown through. Then they rest and then the cycle begins again.

One of the many very helpful guides told me, “There is one thing about this exhibition, everyone is smiling. Some because they think it’s a joke and others because they really love the work.”

It’s well worth the visit to Houghton Hall to make up your own mind. The exhibition runs until 18 July. The outdoor sculptures will remain until September.

Visit the Houghton Hall website for more informaiton and booking.

All images ©Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2018

Episodes

I went to the Fermoy Gallery in King’s Lynn to see Alison Dunhill’s exhibition ‘Plaster, Parquet and Pillars’ with great anticipation. My first impression was, “I love it!”

In this beautiful space with natural light coming in from above, the predominantly small scale work was excellently curated. Each piece is an island of discovery. An element of play is present.

Microcosms under glass. Scrolls concealing stories. Clouds floating above carrying their secrets. Intricate objects and collages.

It is in the surrealist ideas of chance and found objects that Alison finds her inspiration.

Satellite of Love II

Alison says “I owe a lot to Kandinsky and his ideas of dynamic and static form and to the poetry of objects in Joseph Cornell’s Boxes. I am enjoying the discipline and the disordering of geometry in abstraction.”

Two

She is led by the materials she works with. Found objects and re-cycled materials are part of her repertoire but cut paper, painterly elements or even canvas wedges can be found in her constructions. Sometimes these elements settle onto a bed of setting plaster. The textures, shapes and functions come together but it isn’t all chance. Alison makes the final aesthetic decisions in the work.

The studio space Alison had while she was artist in residence at Largo das Artes International Art Residency Programme in Rio de Janeiro,  Brazil in 2015 further inspired the discoveries she was making in her collages. Alison began collecting twisted and crushed metal debris from the streets of Rio.

The roof rafters of the space gave Alison a means of hanging work. A new opportunity for creativity presented itself. The piece Rio Road uses this locally found debris. Often the same or similar object is sewn to each side of the piece creating a soft shadow or reflection. There is no front or back. Everything is in balance.

Not only does Alison play with objects, she also plays with words. The titles of Alison’s work are chosen in such a way as to allow the viewer to wonder about the piece without conveying a particular meaning. The titles are given after the work is completed. Perhaps this is Alison, the poet, coming through.

Alison pictured with Seventh Cloud, Three Swans and Rio Road.

This poetic aspect is further demonstrated in her work Three Swans which is a visual interpretation of her poem of the same name.

There was so much to see and experience in this exhibition, all quite diverse and pleasurable. It seems to me though, that a golden thread of exploration passes through Alison’s  work and that Alison is dedicated to that exploration.

Visit Alison’s website
Email Alison

Esther Boehm

Artwork © Alison Dunhill and Esther Boehm

2011: Sea Weed Printing Fund Raiser for St Nicholas Chapel

It was an exhilarating and exciting experience, as a new arrival to Norfolk in 2008, to be leading screen painting and printing workshops in St Nicholas Chapel. There was no water but an enormous table with enough space to accommodate 20 people and large screens and squeegees. I was very surprised by being in a church environment for the first time as a practising artist – gradually it dawned on me that coming to Norfolk was going to church! Everything seemed to be happening in churches all over the county. Continue reading →

When Annie and I set off to Paradise Island the sky was threatening. We had planned our trip to coincide with low tide. The Bounty Bars were packed, we were wearing our waterproof trousers and nothing was going to stop us.

Leaving the car at Ongar Hill out on the Terrington marshes we turned left along the sea wall. Depending on your point of view, there was either nothing to see or there was an amazing vista of salt marshes bisected by saltwater muddy creeks where the mouth of the river oozes into the Wash. The sky was huge and constantly changing, grey chasing blue. I had my trusty Lumix camera but had recently been on an iPhone photography afternoon and was interested to try out some new photography apps.

As we followed the path, part of the Peter Scott trail, we could see our island from a long way off as a small mound on the otherwise flat horizon. There are two islands. The first is some half a mile out from the sea wall and connected by a soil causeway. The second is visible nearly two miles out into the Wash near the bombing range. They were made in the mid-1970s when there were plans to build a sand wall across the Wash and turn it into a huge freshwater lake. These two trial banks were apparently made to test the theory. A friend had named the closer one Paradise Island as on Google satellite view it has the appearance of a pacific atoll!

It was about 4 miles walking to the island. The causeway turned out not to be the raised thoroughfare we had expected but a wet muddy path across the marsh, so hidden in the flat land that somehow we walked straight past the start of it and only spotted it sloping down the bank when we turned back. A line of white posts had distracted us — we imagined they marked the way but they just stretched in an enigmatic line far into the distance. There were wooden plank bridges across muddy creeks and we sloshed our way to the start of the rise, pausing to pick and eat some samphire growing along the way.

I enjoyed experimenting with the iPhone apps manipulating the pictures into instant “paintings”.  The results give a different way of looking and inspiration for art works. Apps I used included VSCO, which has a focus and an exposure button, which you can split on the screen. If you push the exposure button to different areas it changes the appearance dramatically. VSCO also has some editing tools. Enlight app offers “artistic” editing tools that are fun to use. The Waterlogue app turns any photo into a facsimile of a watercolor.

We puffed our way up to the top of the Island and were rewarded with a view expanding in the distance to include the whole coast from the mouth of the Ouse along to Hunstanton, with visible landmarks such as the church at Snettisham. Behind us the flat fenland fields were a patchwork of browns and green. Immediately in front of us rocks were piled in a protective crescent halfway around the base of the island and the creeks formed intricate patterns through the mud flats.

Finding two handily placed rocks we sat down to rummage for our sandwiches and then the ceremonial Bounty bars. As we munched we contemplated the fact that we could see from our vantage point that the earth is flat and if we had the means to walk through the mud we could walk onwards and fall off the edge. The silence was profound. The few birds we could see also seemed lost in contemplation. The light changed every few minutes and again there was nothing and everything to see.

On the walk back under stormy skies we surprised a buzzard. Despite having the camera in one hand and the iPhone in the other I just took pleasure from the sight as it rose up in front of us from behind the bank and wheeled away. Walking along the top of the bank gave us great views of the contrast between the wild marshland on the seaward side and the acres of rich dark fenland soil ploughed on the landward side.

We made sure we went at low tide but I think it is only on the highest spring tides that the causeway is covered. The whole Peter Scott walk is about 10 miles from West Lynn to the lighthouse at Sutton Bridge. If you like huge landscapes where the only features are man-made sea defences, experimental islands and mud all overlain with huge skies then I can recommend a walk to Paradise Island.

Michele Summers

Piet Mondrian
Composition with red, black, yellow, blue and grey. 1921
Gemeentemuseum

The Hague:
• Home of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima.
• Residence Huis ten Bosch.
• Seat of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. (tweedekamer)
• International Court of Justice.

In mid-September I visited The Hague; the purpose of my visit “Discovering Mondrian” an exhibition at the Gemeentmuseum in the city. The Gemeentemuseum houses and owns the largest and best collection of Mondrian’s’ in the world.

As a devotee of Mondrian’s oeuvre and a fascination in his unique journey from being a very competent landscape painter to the very modern abstract art for which he is better known today. Continue reading →

Greyfriars Art Space first began in February 2008, when Jill North, with a group of B.A. Fine Art students, based at the College of West Anglia, decided that there was no affordable space in Kings Lynn for emerging young artists to show their work. Jill was able to purchase the property at 43 St James Street, and together with friends transformed it into the attractive small gallery we know today.

Greyfriars Art Space is an artist-led – a not-for-profit association of members which aims to provide professional exhibition opportunities plus affordable studio workshop spaces. A modest membership fee of £20 per annum ( £10 for students ) helps to support the Gallery’s running costs. The day-to-day management is carried out on a voluntary basis by the Committee, co-ordinated by Kathy Cossins, who earlier this year received one of the Mayor’s Voluntary Service Awards.

With the demise of the Arts Centre galleries, the role of Greyfriars as an affordable artist-run exhibiting space is even more crucial now than it first started. GAS has been a supportive artistic community for many exciting artists working in a whole range of media which includes 3D, painting, printmaking, photography and textiles.

It is now almost ten years since Greyfriars began, and throughout this time Jill has very generously allowed the gallery to be used rent-free. However, it has now become necessary for her to sell the property within the next year. Greyfriars are urgently seeking sources of funding to enable the Committee to purchase the property. Members who can, have been asked to pledge £300 towards this, so that GAS can continue to develop its role in the artistic life of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk. Anyone able to help in this way, or with any fundraising ideas please contact Greyfriars Art Space at 43 St James St, King’s Lynn PE30 5BZ, via the website at greyfriarsartspace.com, email greyfriarsart@gmail.com or phone 0751 714 7444.

Anne Roberts

Colin with Ivan Potter radio operator and air gunner on Wellingtons.

60ft Wellington Bomber Aircraft Mural

Saturday 30th September 2017 at 1500hrs. The day The Wellington Wall Mural was unveiled.

On Friday morning 29th September, Forces TV arrived to film and interview the owners of The Wellington pub at Feltwell, Mr Mrs Samuels and also the artist Colin Mason from the Arts Lounge Gallery in Swaffham. The interview and film of the mural went out on Forces TV News on Saturday 30th September and Monday 1st October.

Continue reading →

The Government has just launched a new consultation on sales of ivory in the UK, which will run until 29 December.

Many highly respected galleries feel totally in favour of a ban on the movement and trading of ivory dating from the last 30 years, but believe that anything made partly or wholly from ivory over 30 years ago should be granted immunity provided it has the requisite CITES permit.

Anyone with an interest in this area should respond to the government request for feedback on the trade of ivory.

The consultation document can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/international/banning-uk-sales-of-ivory