With time to spare I decided to embark on a visit to Ikon gallery, snowing heavily it provided a shelter from the elements.
There were three exhibits, Sarah Browne 'How to use fool's gold', Hamish Fulton 'Walking in relation to everything' and postcards from Japan- a message from Tohoku Artists.
There were three exhibits, Sarah Browne 'How to use fool's gold', Hamish Fulton 'Walking in relation to everything' and postcards from Japan- a message from Tohoku Artists.
Sarah Browne- an eclectic mix of pieces ranging from installations, sculpture, film and projection. Browne produces a poetic attempt to create something out of nothing, the title of the exhibit focuses on the making of fool's gold an attempt to make something of worth out of nothing = impossible. I have to admit I found certain elements of the exhibit confusing which did nothing for my enjoyment of the work (but who says that an exhibit should be enjoying!). However, within the second room there was an inspiring usage of film, slides and object usage that combined together to tell a story. This is my own interpretation, the black and white film portrays a woman making a rug. In the centre of the room hanging from the ceiling is a rug, projected onto a wall near the rug are slides of people wearing woollen jumpers. Moving from the film we see the usage such a skill produces appreciating the beauty and craftsmanship of ordinary objects- jumpers and rugs which we take for granted within our everyday lives. I found the development of a theme through the positioning of pieces of work inspiring. Other aspects of the exhibit that I thought different were the hand typed literature accompanying the works simply suck to the wall.
Hamish Fulton describes himself as a ‘walking artist’, with his work joining the two separate disciplines of walking and art. It is from 1973, having walked over 1000 miles in 47 days from Duncansby Head to Land’s End, Fulton decided to ‘only make art resulting from the experience of individual walks.’
Consisting of wall pieces, each piece is large in size painted directly onto the white walls of the Ikon gallery. Walking has remained central to his work calling for political justice, for indigenous cultures such as the Australian Aborigines and Tibetan Independence. By painting directly onto the wall the pieces become part of the space, they also become temporary. At the end of the exhibit they will be painted over and no longer exist, thus becoming the past. What does this suggest?
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