Lift The Lid, Sunday 3rd October

The first Lift The Lid family drop in session working with Myth, Manners and Memory was brisk and brimming with ideas and energy. This exhibition certainly lives up to its title in what it evokes in visitors to The Pavilion.

This was my first Lift The Lid session. I was working with Natalie from the De La Warr and Corin Smith, who's doing a Duke of Edinburgh award. Their enthusiasm and enjoyment was perfect for the afternoon.

I asked people to look for details in the photographs and use them to create a collage, story, drawing or poem. Loads of interesting work was made in just 3 hours. I copied 42 of them! Here's a small sample of what we made (choosing what to put on this blog was very hard!).

Myth, Manner and Memory

Myth, Manners and Memory
Photographers of the American South

This exhibition brings together a number of prominent American artists who have, in various ways, engaged with the physical and psychological landscape of the southern states of the USA.

Combining historical and contemporary works, it is a collection of memorable images of this distinctive region, its people and their lives as seen by artists including Walker Evans, William Eggleston, William Christenberry, Susan Lipper, Alec Soth and Carrie Mae Weems. Some of the artists make images from being Southerners themselves, some from experiences of spending a considerable length of time in the South as an outsider, and some informed by the region's history and social issues.

This exhibition does not set out to define the American South but explores what is perhaps indefinable - the cultural complexities and tensions, the constant but unresolved dialogues between past and present, and the varying patterns of everyday life in the South that might, however elusively, constitute its sense of identity.

Farewell to Tomoko Takahashi

We've said goodbye to Tomoko Takahashi and her Introspective Retrospective. The show has generated some hugely interesting conversations about our relationship to objects, how and why we value things (or not) and the perennial question about the nature of 'art'. That so many people found something to relate to in Tomoko's work indicates that these questions have many answers and touch on some fundamental issues within our culture.

Thanks to everyone who got involved, particularly the collectors who shared their passions at our weekly Collectors' Corner sessions.

Our next exhibition, Myth, Manners & Memory: photograhers of the American South, opens on 1 October.

Final thoughts

Saturday 11th of September was my final time in the gallery and though I didn't manage to rid myself of all the wrapped items from my studio, I did have a sense that I will find it easier to discard things in the future. One visitor said today that he felt Tomoko expressed for him the human need for order. He suggested that we define ourselves by even our basic possessions; they anchor us in some way. When talking about de-cluttering, Anna described the journey from the cupboard to the charity shop as "a difficult terrain". Sarah and Hugh each took a package but while Sarah was keen to find out immediately what lay inside, Hugh was more interested in what he imagined the object to be. He told me he will probably never open it. I like that he intends to keep it on his mantelpiece unopened, using his imagination to turn my junk into his treasure.

Many thanks to everyone who took part in playing games and sharing ideas during the exhibition.

FINAL COLLECTORS CORNER

 Visitors to the gallery examine one of Hazel's art deco powder compacts with concealed manicure set.

It was a pleasure to welcome two collectors with very interesting collections to the gallery for the final Collectors Corner.

We were pleased to see some of Harry Lyons' collection of Christopher Dresser products and privileged to be able to listen to a short talk from Harry who is an authority on the designer. Although a contemporary of William Morris and a prolific product designer, Dresser is nowhere near as well known as Morris. Harry has been collecting Dresser products for many years, writing books on the designer and organising exhibitions of his work. He was able to give us an insight into the ethos of affordable design for all behind the designs  and it was great to see not only some of the objects, but also Dresser's drawings for textile designs.

Meanwhile, Hazel Rochelle had been organising her display cases full of 1920s and 30s powder compacts. She showed us some of the beautifully made compacts with their crafted cases which opened to reveal shiny mirrors, traces of rouge, powder puffs and cunningly concealed accessories such as lipstick cartridges, manicure sets and, in one, even a jewelled watch-face. Hazel's husband, Jim gave us a short talk about the history of the compacts. Apart from having his own collection of carved model soldiers, Jim also cleans and maintains Hazel's compacts, and keeps a hand-drawn archive of the collection. He carefully records a detailed description of each compact, including details of their history and where they were acquired and and makes a drawing of each one.

 

Pages from Jim's hand-drawn archive of Hazel's collection

After the presentations and discussions about these intriguing objects, a visitor mourned the end of Collectors Corner which, he thought, had been a great success. He had experienced his first CC when Dave Valentine brought in his collection of 1980s crisp packets and had been to every session since!

BONES, STONES AND KALEIDOSCOPES

Lincoln's skulls

This week I was joined for Collectors Corner by Lincoln Taylor and Sheila Richardson.

Lincoln brought in a sample of his many collections. He collects his skulls and stones with holes in whilst out on walks or, as he says, as something to do on the beach. The stones with holes are a new collection, just started. Lincoln's not quite sure what he's going to do with them yet. The skulls caused much curiosity especially among young visitors who were keen to know their origins. Lincoln pointed out his fox and badger skulls, his sheep and deer skulls, and in pride of place, his beaver and his rhesus monkey.

We talked about the pleasure of finding unexpected "treasures" and the way many of us are drawn to collecting natural objects - driftwood, stones, fir cones and bones. Someone brought up the subject of hoarding and we tried to think about what was the difference between hoarding and collecting . At times, we agreed, the line between the two was very fine.

Lincoln also brought in part of a very different collection. It consisted of a wooden box frame, in which were carefully arranged and mounted a number of items: some coins and a £5 note, a flyer and a travel leaflet, a bus ticket, an unopened packet of chewing gum, a letter. The box was part of a year long project, a collaboration with Lincoln's friend, Danny, in the year 2000. At the end of each month that year, Lincoln and Danny would meet, and systematically empty their pockets, meticulously recording the contents, left pocket, right pocket,  and then file them away into envelopes to be stored. Eventually the whole collection was framed in 24 glass-fronted boxes to be exhibited as an archive of the year.

Looking into one of Sheila's kaleidoscopes

Sheila had brought in her collection of kaleidoscopes which were a big hit with adults and children alike. We all agreed that part of the fascination of other people's collections and of Tomoko Takahashi's work and Lincoln and Danny's millenium pocket project, is that we can so often find things within them that we can relate to or identify with; things from our childhood or that remind us of a place or a person.

Once people had looked through one of Sheila's kaleidoscopes they wanted to try them all. I think that everyone had childhood memories of kaleidoscopes, but most people had not looked through one for many years. Sheila certainly had an amazing array of them. Some just simple cardboard tubes with shiny beads or fragments of foil in their mirrored interiors. Others were more sophisticated with revolving bases or musical turntables, or tubes of oil filled with glitter which flowed back and forth beneath the lens like starbursts provoking oo's and aah's and other exclamations of pleasure and delight.

Junk and Stuff

The first person I spoke to on Saturday was Carol, who saw a kindred spirit in Tomoko. She loved the installations and said that she relished collecting, so much so that apart from a small area on the floor where she sleeps on a layer of sponge, she has given over her bedroom to storing objects. At some point she will put it all in order and use it to make things. "I don't call it junk, I call it STUFF!". Interestingly, she has an ordered, tidy kitchen where she doesn't like clutter. When her daughters go to college this year she intends to expand into their bedrooms...

It gives me great pleasure that my stash of wrapped objects is diminishing. I noticed that everyone paused a little or shook the parcels before choosing, rather like children at a lucky dip. Fiona wouldn't be drawn into the game though; she said she had enough of her own rubbish at home. Clearing fifty years worth of books in her parent's home, loft, garage and outhouse had cured her of visiting junk shops and buying bits and pieces. She said that seeing so many stacks of rotting books had left a lasting impression.

Ruth took part though and was pleased with her choice; her daughter less so. Ruth was now the owner of some small painted paper squares, whilst her daughter had the bits of plastic and netting that I used to make the painted squares. These for me are more useful than the discarded little paintings. She, like many of us, keeps things out of guilt, nostalgia, for kudos, because of the potential for usefulness and though we didn't exchange objects, she did give me the best story of the day. She told me of a friend who has kept a beautiful oak door just in case the house he should move to doesn't have a front door!