before i got struck down by some hideous cold/flu like bug last week and took to the sofa under layers and layers of duvets to sound like darth vader trying to breathe, I did have the chance to go to the opening night of the November exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery in Bedminster, Bristol. 
Favourites of the night had to be Welsh sculptor Barry Lewis’ works in metal, floral and fauna sculpted from refashioning everyday metal objects. Things you’d find in your kitchen-pots, pans, toasters, ovens and some more heavy duty items like cement mixers.
The alternative to the mounted head of hunting trophies were amusing and ironic, especially the boar being sculpted from gravy boats and a meat mincer. the sea scape framed by an old cast iron bed frame held suspended hammerhead shark, sawfish and various other wonders from the sea, a collection captain nemo would envy . it also reminded me of the huge victorian wooden and glass cases of stuffed animals held still in field museums and here in Bristol’s City Gallery and Museum. Displaying old relics of victoriana with their beautifully landscaped background paintings, attempting to recreate the natural landscapes the hunted and stuffed animal in the foreground would have originated from. Certainly showing how our morality towards nature and art has so changed in a century. Particularly evident in Lewis’ recasting of an ivory/bone tusk from all the cutlery, letter openers etc that the tusk was originally cut and carved and fashioned into…
even talking to the artist left you with that impression of mystical victorian attraction to collecting and cataloguing floral and fauna and even further back with the story of Durer’s rhino, the woodcut (1515) . based on a sketch of an Indian rhino, Durer himself never actually seeing the rhino, it had been the first living example of a rhino in Europe since the Roman times. However, as the story goes the touring rhino was put out of its misery perhaps when it was lost in a shipwreck off Italy. And yet Durer’s depction of the layers of armour of the rhino echoed throughout the exhibition’s pieces with their metal layers of protective and defensive armour, even on the gladiator, (a living model- very nice chap).
on one level quizzical recycler, making art out of disused metal, another the egalitarian- all of the items could be found in an average kitchen:these are the artist’s materials and then still a traditionalist- art inspired by nature, made by man, made by items made by man….
And then there’s Totoro… If you’re in Leeds go see his first UK exhibition at the White Cloth Gallery…
i’d love to be able to get up to Leeds (White Cloth Gallery) to see the first ever UK exhibition of OLLY MoSS’ fantastic art work. I’ve always had a thing for vintage film posters prompted by Saul Bass and mostly all of the Hitchcock film posters. Especially as nowadays film posters are not always very imaginative: a churn them out blah rather than actually being a piece of art. And Olly Moss’ work really does have that vintage seventies graphic design quality for me as he reinterprets cult films none other than Star Wars…
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