Monday, March 24, 2014

Visit to Manchester Gallery Thursday 20th of March 2014

Joana Vasconcelos - Time Machine
This exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos is absolutely huge; the first sculpture we looked at covered an area from the second to the ground floor. The exhibition organisers even had to suspend a man from the ceiling in order to secure it. Natasha, the curator, who was telling us about the exhibition handed out items of fabric and similar items have been appliquéd to the sculpture by Joana's large team of staff. Had these items been looked at in isolation they would possibly have been regarded as pieces of tat but under Joana's direction and artistic ability they transformed the sculpture into an item which made you want to touch it.
The next sculpture we looked at was what Joana called 'the war machine'; it was an old-fashioned boxy car very neatly covered in toy rifles. Inside the car were lots of lovely cuddly toys who looked as though they were going out for a happy jaunt.
The next sculpture we looked at was a helicopter; it looked as though Joana had dipped it in pink ostrich feathers and gold leaf. The interior had also been beautifully upholstered and dressed. Natasha the curator told us that Joana called it 'Marie Antoinette's escape pod' it was absolutely beautiful to look at.
We moved on to yet another amazing set of three sculptures, these were the result of a three year consultation by Joana with an engineer and the manufacturer Bosch who had supplied all of the steam irons. In this sculpture the steam irons were arranged to represent flowers growing from the ground and the power of the steam activated the flowers beginning to bloom. It was an astonishing idea which had been so cleverly constructed by everybody concerned.
We were unable to look at other sculptures by Joana which were dotted around the museum because our visit was at an end. We had a hot drink and biscuits in the education suite and there we gave our thanks to Anne Hornsby for her superb descriptions of everything we had looked at and to all of the gallery staff for making it possible for us to enjoy this most extra ordinary exhibition. Thanks to our volunteer drivers who look after us so well and also to Mary for her wonderful visits that she works so hard to organise. Many thanks to everybody and we look forward to our next gallery visit.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Visit to Jack Chesterman's exhibition called Boat Stories at Oldham Gallery on Thursday, 27 February 2014

We had a very lively visit on Thursday to Gallery Oldham and the exhibitor Jack Chesterman is a printmaker, painter and sculptor. There were a number of very large canvases all quite dark but one of the gallery staff had taken photocopies of these and my driver Bernie was able to describe the detail to me. The sculptor had also made models of the various boats under discussion; some were copies of war boats and others were copies of transportation and trawler boats. My driver Bernie is a very skilled carpenter, he even makes his own ukuleles, and he understood the construction of the boats and told me about the way the planks were laid and the screw and the propeller. There was a story about each of the boats we viewed; many of them harrowing war stories and the number of lives lost in hand-to-hand combat was very very upsetting. Anne Hornsby's inspired descriptions of the very dark canvases was able to hold everybody's interest as she did in her descriptions of the sculptor's boats. After a lively conversation about all of the exhibits we retired to the education Suite for a hot drink and biscuits, Dinah had arranged for some new pots recently purchased by the gallery for us to look at but unfortunately because we were running late we were unable to have the benefit of a description of them and their source. Jack Chesterman is based in Leeds and also has studios in Halifax but as Dinah explained to us at the beginning of our tour he has a very deep interest in everything to do with boats.
Thank you as always to Mary and the drivers for helping make this visit happen.