About a month ago I went to a collective art exhibition
in Tarifa and was really impressed by the range and quality of work there:
Sculpture:
Beautifully fine stone work by Benji Lowsley Williams
Intricate wood work by Juan Sanders, http://www.bigsanders.com/
who’d spent 12
years constructing this man from scraps of wood, some of which he’d removed
completely to make the structure lighter and some by sanding away at the
surface. The wooden man was suspended on an elastic support allowing him to
move freely when touched and I was told by the artist that he had previously
been attached to a clockwork mechanism. I was particularly impressed by the
contrast between the smoothly sanded and contoured front and the rough
patchwork quality of the back which allowed you to see the ‘innards’.
The bolts were wrought iron and incredibly heavy (I can’t
recall the artist’s name), I like that combination of weight and elegance very
much. Although they’re abstract in design they have a figurative quality.
Painting
This was a fragment of the painting by Juan Sanders which accompanied his wooden man, representing the clockwork mechanism which had previously allowed him to move. It is almost sculptural in its surface relief.
I love the ethereal quality of this painting by Sophie
Roche, despite the red fleshy cheeks and lips the face has a skull-like quality
because of the dark eye sockets and the bone coloured nose, which is emphasised
by the bone colour of the flowers.
Sophie also painted these old bent wood laminate and metal
school chairs with enchantingly delicate sea- and land-scapes. I love the way
she’s divided the ‘canvas’ into areas and juxtaposed blocks of colour with different
scenes to give them a patchwork quality and also how she’s added texture to the
painted surface with her brush strokes and by rubbing and chipping the paint
off afterwards.
Although these photos don’t do them justice, these were my
favourite pieces in the whole show, I think because of the element of surprise
at seeing such ordinary, old, familiar objects adorned in such a light and
careful way.
Don Porteous painted
a series of flowers using thick layers of glossy acrylic to build up texture
and colour. This is my favourite of the series; I love the pink/green
complimentary colour combination and the free and relaxed lines (which could be
finger or brush marks) in the petals and the drips and splashes over the top.
Pere Carrizo used an air brush to create a series of paintings
each with abstract/architectural themes, apart from this one which represented his
wife and unborn child. There was a quiet calmness to these that I found quite
relaxing
But on the whole I found this other piece of his much more
pleasing visually, because the colours and forms are stronger and I like the
perspective which is emphasised by the work being split into sections. The
towers have the look of some sort of 50’s or 60’s space experiment which is
reinforced by the palette and the way the artist has chipped the surface.
Video/Photo/Installation
Karen Emslie set up a slide show of photographs of the area,
my favourites were of local graffiti as the textures were interesting and also
the colours seemed to fit well with the surroundings as they were projected
inside a big, rough work shop.
Also in this part there were an installation of an eclipse
using light projection and a rotating circle which was evocative
and a short film of a man apparently in anguish which was
shown out of sync on 6 televisions held in a stand. (I didn't get these artists' names)
The dark, bleakness of the room, the discordant soundtrack
and the disjointedness of the repeating images of the man pulling faces and moving
his hands over his face and through his hair made the watching experience both
fascinating and disturbing. It took a while to register that all the televisions
were showing the same film, and because of the close cut the hands could have
belonged to someone else. Interesting.
