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.

Art History: 20th Century 'Isms' at Exeter Phoenix

For the past few weeks I have been attending a short course of classes at Exeter Phoenix on modern art 'Isms'.  It's only a couple of hours a week for 5 weeks and so is inevitably selective. The course is run by Nicci Wonnacott, whose work includes performance stuff like this:

Before Xmas I did a one-day life class which Nicci tutored (advertised by the Phoenix as a chance to explore the face - so a couple of us were a bit surprised to find it was a full life-drawing class) and the discussions with her and the other artists from various backgrounds - all competent artists - were really interesting.

Richard Hamilton

The discussions in the 'Isms' class are, of course, part of its appeal. Those attending include some who are studying art, some who are doing or have just completed art degrees, and others who have art experience or simply have opinions - sometimes strong ones.

Marcel Duchamp

In the first three weeks we covered a lot of ground. Highlights included: Constructivism, Jenny Holzer, Kurt Schwitters, Barbara Kruger, Shepard Fairey, Dada, Surrealism, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Dali, Man Ray, Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, The Stuckists, Rita Donagh, Gee Vaucher, Fluxus, Mark Wallinger, Jeff Koons, Abstract Expressionism, Neo Dadaism, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and so on ...

Meret Oppenheim

Last week - week four - we covered almost as much again. Nikki is keen to redress the under-representation of the role women have played in developing art in the 20th century and one of the interesting things for me is that previously I was unaware of the work of many of the women we have considered.

Barbara Kruger

There have been a few other things that have surprised me. Such as the important role that the Constructivists had in the 20th century revolution in art. I went to the Rodchenko and Popova exhibition at Tate Modern in 2009, which was pretty comprehensive, but it is not until you put each movement into the wider context that you can appreciate the true impact.

Rodchenko

I am also a little surprised to find how directly derivative the work of some of our 21st century artists is. As we know, little is new under the sun, and most art references back to Art History, whether knowingly or not. Nevertheless, for example, work by the Faile and Jacques Villegle appears very closely related:

Jacques Villegle

Faile

And some of Sarah Lucas's work seems thin and derivative when you look at similar work produced by Dorothea Tanning in 1967:

Dorothea Tanning

Sarah Lucas

And don't get me started on Damien Hirst - just refer to the Stuckists ...

Damien Hirst - Toy or Art?

Earlier this week the tour guide at Tate St Ives told us that conceptual art is on the way out and figurative art is the future! Our final class is coming up this Thursday - I'll let you know how it turns out ...

Incidentally, if you can't get to art classes at the Phoenix you could always try this book: Isms - Understanding Art by Stephen Little which I came across in the Tate shop. It does a pretty good job of covering art movements in a few paragraphs, from the Renaissance to Neo-conceptualism, and is well illustrated with examples. A snip at £7 from Amazon.