EPOCH - the review.

Last week I and others, the attendees on the 2023- 2024 Mentoring programme at Newlyn School of Art exhibited at the Tremenheere Gallery, which sits in the delightful grounds of the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, just outside Penzance.  The show ran for 3 days, 21st -23rd June 2024 and marks the end of and the culmination of the last 9 months.  Exhibiting were me,  Anthony Martin, Callum McCutchen, James Cross, Jasmine Mills, Julie Marcus, Kate Morrison, Lizzie Stephens, Mala Hassett, Oren Shoesmith, Caroline Douglas, Felicia Fletcher, Zoe Burrell, Shelley Montague and Wendy Rolt.  The show was curated by Jesse Leroy Smith and Faye Dobinson (assisted by Kate Morrison, James Cross and Dan Pyne). 

Some of us, including me, had exhibited at Tremenheere before as part of previous courses with Newlyn.  For me the memory was still quite fresh having been there last year.  The sculpture gardens themselves are a specutacular place (I ramble about them here).

The week leading up to the show was a quite frantic set up, of which I was only tangentially involved.  There were several complex elements that had to be assembled, more of which later, but by 17:00 on Friday it was all up and the Private view began.  This was when most (but by no means all) of the visitors arrived, at least in the most condensed numbers.  It is also when most of the sales took place.  A small swarm of visitors, friends, families, local residents, fans of the gallery and fans of the Newlyn School of Art shows turned and  wondered around.  I was very chuffed to sell a piece the small black and white one you can see in the view top left.   The private view is fun but also tiring and quite intense.  You meet and talk to so many people. 

Let start about talking about me shall we?

It is an interesting experience having your pieces up in a show, particularly a group show.  As I discussed in the latest episode of my podcast with Mala Hassett you go through phases of being proud of your work and enjoying seeing it up, to feeling that it is not good enough and everyone else is better, and back again.  This carry's on throughout the weekend.  Now looking back at the show and having a bit of distance I am proud of them and do think they stack up.

It would take an age to go through everyone else in detail and talk about their work.  Broadly speaking we all had a little nook of the gallery in which our work was hung but then it also appeared elsewhere throughout the gallery.  Tremenheere is interesting in that the big wooden beams partition up the downstairs space.  The upstairs is, as you will see, much more open.

 Three of my co-exhibitors had installation spaces formed by these wooden beams,  Oren had a cosy little nook cut off from the main space by strategically placed duvets.  Inside was series of cushion from which you could watch his film.  Sheelagh had a similar space divided up with diaphanous hangings and inside a mock up of her work bench with casting of various tools. Anthony had a large pieces of paper on which visitors were encouraged to draw.  By the end of the show it was replete with a larger number of drawings of various kind (above right).  The rest of us  had on this floor more classical displays of paintings hung on the wall, or sculptures mounted in various places.  A couple of the later of these (one by James Cross, one by Felicity Fletcher) escaped outside. Felicity's sculpture was a large bronze Verdigris egg. small children, convinced it had a dinosaur in it kept on trying to roll it down the hill and had to be stopped.

In the back room though was set up Connor’s wonderous machine.  A series of tubes,  you put a ping pong ball into a tube and one pops up from another tube somewhere behind you or next to you, depending on where you added them.  The idea was you write something on one of the balls and receive another message from the ball that pops out. This was a big hit and it was delightful thing when you explained to people who were just observing that they could interact and how, and see the joy appear on their faces as they did so.

Upstairs was dominated by Lizzie Stevens' bamboo studio, displaying here bowls.  It occasionaly gave way in the heat and had to be persuaded up again.  It was set off wonderfully by the art on display, in this well let, church like but more open space. 

Manning a show like this is quite an intense experience.  You meet so many people.  People interested in your art, in the art of your peers.  People you know, people you don't.  At one point a coachload of kids turned up from a school near where I live and who knew someone I knew. Quite a coincidence.  There were also tutorials, one on how to present yourself as an artist, one on how to write your art statement (you can see mine here).

As I wondered round the show I was struck more and more about the quality of the curation.  How the curators had managed to bring together these different  and disparate artist and blend into a cohesive whole.  Getting them to talk each other, compliment each other or subvert each other slightly. The show also changes slightly as work is bought and replaced, or sometimes entirely new things appear (right)

It was a wondersful show and a great experience.  I enjoyed it greatly but came away elated and exhausted and I am not quite sure I have yet recovered.