Being Human,
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 2.10.20
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 2.10.20
I found this exhibition rather disappointing, sadly. I felt that the pieces of work selected were limited to a very specific kind of sculpture and material - metal and casting - and it was also disappointing that almost all the artists were men! There were just 3 women artists represented here: Elizabeth Frink, Mary Reid Kelly, whose work was a video performance, and Yee Sook Yung. The exhibition was also in two separate spaces and the second gallery was very hard to find and, in fact it appeared to be a very poorly lit corridor!
The most interesting piece to me was Yee Souk Yung's Translated Vase number 8. She has used the Japanese art of kintsugi to join discarded, broken pieces of ceramics with gold. The bizarre form is like an abstract body, roughly but beautifully mended. She has also made installations with multiples of these forms, which are compelling. I think that this method of mending porcelain with gold is extremely poignant.
Mary Reid Kelley's macabre performance is refreshingly different. The artist, as a cadaver who has died by suicide, lies on an autopsy table while her cartoon like, animated organs debate the reasons behind her death around her.
Visiting this exhibition makes me realise that I'm much more interested in abstraction than figurative work. I knew that anyway, but this experience reminded me. Although there were aspects of the other forms that interested me - casting techniques, the use of welding etc - I felt that the exhibition was rather limited for such a potentially exciting title. I believe it was curated from the museum's collection, which maybe highlights what is valued in this particular world, or maybe it was just the particular taste of the curator? Elsewhere in the museum I found one of Barbara Hepworth's stunning sculptures, for example. Maybe that could have been included, instead of yet another traditional metal bust?
The most interesting piece to me was Yee Souk Yung's Translated Vase number 8. She has used the Japanese art of kintsugi to join discarded, broken pieces of ceramics with gold. The bizarre form is like an abstract body, roughly but beautifully mended. She has also made installations with multiples of these forms, which are compelling. I think that this method of mending porcelain with gold is extremely poignant.
Mary Reid Kelley's macabre performance is refreshingly different. The artist, as a cadaver who has died by suicide, lies on an autopsy table while her cartoon like, animated organs debate the reasons behind her death around her.
Visiting this exhibition makes me realise that I'm much more interested in abstraction than figurative work. I knew that anyway, but this experience reminded me. Although there were aspects of the other forms that interested me - casting techniques, the use of welding etc - I felt that the exhibition was rather limited for such a potentially exciting title. I believe it was curated from the museum's collection, which maybe highlights what is valued in this particular world, or maybe it was just the particular taste of the curator? Elsewhere in the museum I found one of Barbara Hepworth's stunning sculptures, for example. Maybe that could have been included, instead of yet another traditional metal bust?