![]() I was really looking forward to seeing his work, being pretty unfamiliar with it in the flesh and not really having seen much even in reproduction since the late 60s. This is where I find myself with Richard Tuttle’s show. When I say art has to engage us I would normally exclude irritation caused by the artwork’s failure to engage with the viewer. It may just say, “Seen one of these? Nice isn’t it?” What art might cause doesn’t have to be grand or deep, but it has to engage us. It may inform us about the world, tell us how things sit with things, communicate in visual poetry. It may ask us what we are really seeing, it may ask us what we are really thinking. Art might cause awe or disgust, amusement or puzzlement, fury or delight, relaxation or invigoration. Art should cause some kind of reaction in the viewer: it might challenge our views, make us look at things in a fresh way, ask us to look rather than just see. So in what ways might art engage the viewer? Broadly, for me, it comes down to the emotions and the intellect, ideally art would engage me with a balance of both. Not that decoration and decorative elements cannot be part of art, but I would expect such elements to be present to help convey content not be content. When it ceases to do so it becomes decoration at best. What is art for? What is it meant to do? In particular I am thinking about modern visual art art since the point when the camera freed artists from the tyranny of representation art principally from westernised culture.Īrt must engage the viewer in some way. I came away from the Tuttle wondering why he is rated as highly as he is.īut this had caused me to ponder some more about the nature of art. ![]() I came away from the Kiefer with questions and emotions and a deepened respect for the artist. In some ways I was disappointed with both exhibitions. Today I’ve been to two London shows, a Anselm Kiefer at the Royal Academy and Richard Tuttle at the Whitechapel. I always find it’s useful to go to major exhibitions – especially retrospectives – to help my understanding of what art it’s about, what art should do. Private view Saturday 12th March 12-2.30pm. I didn’t do a collage but I wrote the poem, “Something Like Francesca Did”, which you can read on the Scissors & Glue blogįor Every Cloud, Bow Street. Francesca had brought in a complex, highly textured collage she had created. I had been working with a mental health peer support group, incorporating creative writing and art, and on one occasion someone suggested our “homework” should be “something like Francesca did”. Scissors and Glue comes from a light-hearted ditty I wrote covering the art history of collage. A representative selection of these works is being shown at For Every Cloud here and the full 365 can be seen in the gallery. Not everyone finished the task, though I am pleased to say that some did including me. Printed and photographic elements 145mm x 227mmīefore long there were 9 of us round the world using the hashtag #Collage365, posting a collage a day and encouraging each other. But immediately I took each piece very seriously and although I did soon settle on a small size, 6″ x 9″, I wasn’t successful with the quick! Patti’s criteria were “a small collage a day, every day for a year…abstract, mixed media, bits of paper & scribbles.” At first I did not confine myself to a particular size and I wasn’t so sure about only abstract or just bits of paper! My definition of collage was pretty loose: paper, scissors and glue was normally involved and daubing and scribbling were definitely allowed. I was clearly a little deranged to tackle such a project! In any case, my work had begun to include found items and manipulated paper forms.Īnother thing is I hate committing myself to anything much really – even things I really want to do! So it was quite a big thing for me to make a public commitment (posted on Twitter & a blog) to produce a small work each day for a year: 365 images one after another on a daily basis. It wouldn’t do me any harm to try something new. Most likely I had done less than 20 bits of collage in my life! Well that sounded like a pretty good reason I suppose. Why would I take this on? In all my years I rarely used collage or even assemblage (I trained as a sculptor). Patti had decided to do a collage a day for a year and already she was producing some great little pieces. For Every Cloud in Langport will be showing a selection from the year’s work from 16th March to 16th April 2016 with a Private View 12noon to 2.30pm Saturday 12 March.įor those who don’t know the project started back in March 2013, on a day when I had visited the Kurt Schwitters show at Tate Britain for the second time, I got caught by the tweets of Canadian artist Patti Agapi. I am pleased to say that “#Collage365 – a year of scissors & glue” is going to be seen by a new audience.
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