Chronologicallyours: The two lost shows

The Two Lost Shows

Not lost as in "gone" but in that they both went out on a cusp.
Almost as final statements as I was just finishing doing mural projects with infants, my son had arrived at a more self reliant age & I was beginning to feel that just pumping out paintings without an awful lot of contemporary contact was beginning to lead to progressive implosion - a major factor in my taking on an M.A. course.

Also (of course) I had accumulated a large pile of work that I hadn't seemed to have done anything with. (Never mind all the stuff that came out of the four year stay in Istanbul)

http://whitemoustachestreet.blogspot.co.uk/

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On hindsight I feel they weren't particularly strong shows, but in the same breath, they weren't too bad.
In a way, they were let down by the inclusion of some weaker material, which maybe detracted from, rather than informed the general gist of the shows.

I feel that the M.A.course * coming from a completely different angle of academia from where i had been * did help to group themes, whys, wherefores and put me into a more helpful position as to where I was going to pitch, comment and to who.
Or, indeed, identify what was being created "just for the hell of it"

It was a sign of those times (1999) slightly akin to what was going down with "Art & Language in the early 70's.
This time; what are we going to do with Po Mo?
Interestingly, there seems to be more of a trend toward "suck it and see" work out why - after an experimental stab at present. A complete about turn for many to claim to be in the know.

"Stories"

An exhibition of painting Nuneaton Museum and art gallery. May 1998.

The story of the poster and title.
As represented in the poster, I wanted to name the show
"You caught me floating in my sleep last night"
This was considered too risque and seeing it to be a kind of local family location, I succumbed and renamed it, feeling that "stories" fitted the general theme.
Since then, the number of shows with the same title that I have passed has astounded me!

Guardian kite over a Himalayan village in H.P.

The curator at the museum at the time was Gina Quant and a pleasure to work with. There was a handy man there name of Alf or similar with whom I could have worked without friction for a considerable period of time.
He got the poster printed for me, unfortunately he took it on himself to insert an extra "stories" onto the page. He was suck a nice bloke I couldn't say anything!

Ganesh at home, Karnataka.

Nuneaton Museum is about the prettiest place I could imagine to hold an opening in. A lovely building situated in the middle of a park with running water.

There had been a drought for about 6 weeks and the start date was in the beginning of May. I rubbed my hands in anticipation.

The morning of the big day woke me with intense rainfall - a deluge in fact! On turning on the radio, I was informed of five separate bomb scares centered on roads in that general ares. You could say that that was a bit yin!

It was a quiet opening, but I do remember the event and the conversations with friends that had turned up. (& they had to be friends to do that!)

A good venue, especially if all you wanted to do was turn people on - reinforce existing mind sets or maybe even slightly change them.

-But not being local to that area - not a lot of reason to show there. Although, I would if it was handed to me on a plate, maybe with a few quids worth of expenses.

Dogbayasit. N.E. Turkey, very close to Iran,

Carousel Left Panel

Middle Panel.
And the seasons they go round and round and the painted ponies go up and down.
We're captive on a carousel of time.
Emerging as an idea in sketches with the birth of my son Aydin.

Carousel, right panel.

" Lucky"

The show kind of moved onto the Queens Hall in Narberth, West Wales.
In Nuneaton, it basically hung around the Carousel and other stuff I had produced in Istanbul, then (embellished). Also stuff from a trip to India.

"Johnny Eidetic"

In Narberth art Centre at the end of 1999