Reflect Crediton Exhibition - ends Saturday 9 August

I went to Crediton today and visited the exhibition 'Reflect Crediton' which features the works of Tim Backhouse, Paul McCullough and Nicci Wonnacott. To quote from Tim Backhouse in the Crediton Courier: "The work is based upon social, historical and cultural aspects of Crediton and touches upon a wide variety of themes such as the Link Road, World War One and aesthetic considerations in and around Crediton.” It is an installation-based show including film, sound, sculpture and drawings.

It's been some time since I was in Crediton and there have been some significant changes. The town seems quite vibrant and less shabby than I remember. But it also has a massive Tesco store on its doorstep and a ring road which is not yet open. As an outsider, I can see that these developments are likely to have been contentious - and this forms one of the themes explored in the show.

When you enter the old town hall, which is now the town museum, there is an exhibit marking the anniversary of the first world war and reflecting the involvement of people from Crediton. The 'Reflect' exhibition flows on from this, starting with a 'WAR DECLARED' banner and a moving video of wounded soldiers returning from the front, overlaid with a modern soundtrack of children at play.

The main hall contains a number of works by each of the exhibitors. The hall is dominated by a 30ft nude by Paul McCullough - a 'panoramic drawing which echoes the rolling hills, valleys, hidden woodlands and open fields of the Mid-Devon landscape'. It is a beautifully executed work.

Another McCulloch work explores people's feelings about the routeing of the Crediton bypass:

Amongst her four works on show, Nicci Wonnacott is showing her contribution to the Neoreplicants exhibition at Exeter Phoenix - a representation of 'The Woman in White' decorated with the 'white man's bones' and invoking the Ghost (and Death) of Capitalism:

Another piece is 'White Rocks, the Borderline':

But my favourite piece of Nicci's is 'White Rags, MH17-298, Homage to the innocent victims of war':

Tim Backhouse was stewarding on the day I visited and I am grateful for his insights. The most striking of his works is the film showing a continuous journey around the unopened Crediton bypass which is accompanied by opera playing on an old record player. The film is mesmerising, the more so because the highs and lows of the operatic soundtrack appear to accompany the action in a meaningful way, even though they are not synchronised.

In all, this is an excellent and thought-provoking exhibition. If you get the chance to catch it over the next few days, then I commend it to you ... and you can enjoy a day out in Crediton, like I did today.

Neoreplicants at Exeter Phoenix + Iain Matthews

Currently showing at the Exeter Phoenix is Neoreplicants where South West artists explore 3D printing - the process where a laser is used to 'print' models by welding successive layers of nylon powder material into a 3D polygonal representation of an object (the process of laser sintering). This is technology which is on the verge of becoming more widely available - What was once science fiction will soon become reality.

The exhibition shows the work that SW artists have produced in partnership with Exeter University's Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM). The results are impressive and varied. They are an indication of new avenues that will open up for artists as this technology becomes more widely available. The contrasting ways in which the various artists have made use of the laser process is also fascinating - for some the laser technology is simply an extension of their current digitally based work, while others have harnessed the process to their more traditional work.

This is an exciting exhibition - particularly if you love gadgets or perhaps have just been wondering whatever happened to the promised brave new worlds of hovercars, robots etc that we were promised in the 1950s and 1960s. It's a glimpse of the future.

 

 

The exhibition is on until 19th January. The explanations of the pieces are equally interesting and the artists include Nicci Wonnacott and Gabrielle Hoad. Unless you go along you'll have to guess who contributed which piece and you'll miss out on the future ...

Matthews Southern Comfort

Last Sunday Matthews Southern Comfort appeared at the Phoenix. They played a mixture of old stuff (mainly from their second album) and newer material. I wasn't familiar with any of their material apart from their sole hit, the Joni Mitchell song: Woodstock. Unfortunately they chose to perform this in a Dylanesque style - ie perversely different to the original. The band's personnel are all new apart from Iain Matthews himself. Two of the band, Bart Jan Baartmans and Bart de Win, are highly accomplished instrumentalists in a jazz-based style. However, many of the numbers - both old and new - seemed dated and the gig did not have the nostalgic charm of the final Plainsong outings earlier in the year, when Iain reprised a style akin to his early work with Fairport Convention.

There was a very small audience for the Matthews Band due to the bad weather, and the support act, Drew Nelson, attracted an even smaller number. This was a shame as he did a great show, supported by Jack Leaver on guitar. Drew has a vocal style somewhere between Tom Waits and Springsteen and I liked it so much that I bought his CD: Tilt-a-whirl. I video'd parts of both the Drew Nelson and Matthews Southern Comfort sets but don't have the time to download these to YouTube just now. Will catch up and post stuff from Sunday gig and the Plainsong gig in a couple of weeks, though.

Off to see Madness at Plymouth Pavilions on Tuesday ... And Laura White has an exhibition, We Can Have It All, starting at Exeter Spacex from December 8th - Looking forward to that.