Day One of the Plymouth Arts Weekender: The Barbican

I know I usually use this blog for posting my old and new poetry, however, this piece (and the two that will follow) does not quite fit the parameters of my other blogs, thus I give you Day One of the Plymouth Arts Weekender: The Barbican.

Today I learnt that I was missing out big time. Last year, the Plymouth Arts Weekender meant virtually nothing to me; however, this time, even just from today, I found out I had deprived myself of so much local artistic talent. 

The 100 Most Watched

I started my expedition at the Plymouth Arts Centre to take in Danish artist Katya Sander’s exhibition ‘Publicness’. This consisted of ten pieces created from the material of the streets – graffiti, finance, the ‘public subconscious’ – which brought the city into the gallery. The two pieces on the ground floor were stark and simplistic, ‘The 100 Most Watched’ chaotically scrawled across one wall. The second floor was more of a burst of colour, as seen in the

Some Statements in Relation to
a Bank

complicated ‘Some Statements in Relation to a Bank’ which conveyed an ignorance and a lack of trust for the humble banker. Two installations were audio videos and, as art in this form goes, a little confusing, but ‘Exterior City’ made me feel as if Sander were trying to say ‘we are all actors within the manuscript of our city’.

Sue Willis

My next stop was Only Originals on White Lane where the works of Sue and daughter Christie Willis were being displayed and sold. I spoke with the artists, though at the time did not know it. The acrylic floral paintings of Sue Willis struck me as possessing a pastel-shaded vibrance which almost seemed to glow, while her serene country and maritime scenes captured the varying levels of sunlight perfectly. Daughter Christie’s work focused primarily on animals, lacking slightly in depth or character, but the brushwork remained soft and practised. It was the perfect scenery for a typical country poem. Check out their shop on White Lane, Barbican.

Christie Willis

Up next was the Barbican New Street Artists at Studio Two, New Street. This collection of art belonged to local artists Glyn White, Dave Crocker, Keith Simmons, and Caroline Mercer. Unfortunately, I missed the work of the latter, but what I saw did not disappoint. Keith Simmons displayed a series of maritime pieces in acrylic, a piece entitled ‘Spirits of the Sea’ capturing water in motion with surprising detail. Dave Crocker favoured an almost photographic approach, painting local buildings and people with a degree of soul and personality, evident in ‘The Girl with the Silver Tongue Stud’. However, it was the moody maritime and moorland scenes of Glyn White’s ‘Blanc on Blanc’ which stole my attention. I was fortunate enough to meet the man himself and give my feedback on his

Diogenes at Night in
the Studio Window

work, stunning him, I think, with my view that the water in his paintings looked almost like stone, while the stone looked rather like water. Check out his Facebook to see what you think. 

My fourth stop was at the New Street Gallery for prominent South West artist Robert Lenkiewicz’s ‘Diogenes Show’, a series of projects based on his friendship with and the life – and death – of vagrant Edwin Mackenzie, or Diogenes after the cynical Greek philosopher. The series depicts Mackenzie as the embodiment of chaos and death through paintings, sketches, photography, and 3D masks in plaster and thermoplastic. I saw these as ways to immortalise and spotlight this otherwise invisible man and all that he stood for. Two particular pieces caught my eye, the first, an immense painting of Mackenzie entitled ‘Diogenes at Night in the Studio Window’. His blue eyes were so alive, the light glinting on his unkempt hair to great effect. The second was two photographs of a dead Mackenzie entitled ‘The Putrefaction of Diogenes’. It shocked and fascinated me, but also reminded me of the fate of any other vagrant.

Tim Pearse

My final stop was at the Comma Five Art Space on Southside Street to see the local talent in Comma Five fullstop. They were setting up when I arrived, so I was unable to get the full experience but, for the second time, was able to speak with the artists present. The first to catch my eye was a series of simple yet thought-provoking urban photographs by freelance photographer Alexander Kanchev. They made me want to know what lay beyond the pictures’ borders. The second was Tim Pearse’s more disturbing and introspective photography which, after a short chat, I learnt contained pieces of his own inner self, the monochrome and distortion effects only enhancing this and endearing the collection to me. Check out his Facebook page and see how it makes you feel. The third set I viewed

James Wells

was a series of ghostly and industrial black and white photographs by James Wells. One image appeared to be have been laid over another as if showing the past and present in one shot; again, something I could appreciate. The fourth installation was from Sarah Fitzpatrick of Fitzy Pawtraits, a neat set of colourful cartoon scenes of Plymouth. Not generally my cup of tea, but the clean style and inclusion of a colourful canine made the set noteworthy. 

Sarah Fitzpatrick

A brief explanation that I was writing for the Plymouth University magazine even got me a little postcard for free. The final instalment came from Josh Greet and was a lenticular poster board which I was unable to figure out. That’s not to say I had no concept of what it could mean – there was something in there about the technological age as it bore the dreaded Internet Explorer logo – but again, it wasn’t quite the kind of art I found myself drawn to. 

And with that, day one of the Plymouth Arts Weekender draws to a close.