Thursday 27 May 2010

Collage Education

Apologies for being so lax with this blog. It's just that Mr.Goldmark has had Lord Carrot running about delivering and picking up art all over the place. Everywhere from Maldon in Essex to Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. Anyway, as is so typical here, your back's turned for five minutes and you find there's even more people wandering about the corridors. One of them is Alex J.Wright (don't ask about the 'j') and he's installed in the Red Room making films. Of course I grind what's left of my teeth because film is one of my passions, but Mr.Wright is right on the snap of a clapper board. I've spent this morning having a butcher's at his film of Francis Davison, and have to say it was a real eye opener. Being a lover of collage it's made me look again at his work, much of it gathering together on the gallery walls for a show starting here this Saturday. Francis Davison (1919-1984) had a major exhibition at the Hayward a year before he died, and didn't give them titles. So it was his wife that called the above Green, Black, Yellow, Pink & Blue. He was also averse to explaining his work, and the only clue those near to him had as to which way up they were supposed to be, were the position of drawing pin holes in his studio wall. But something he did say was: "People often ask what is the aim, what is the meaning of the collages, instead of looking to see what has been made with paper instead of paint". Exactly. Come and see what he means.