Following our sell-out performance at the St Ives Arts Club last month, we will again be presenting an evening of music, poetry and spoken word exploring conflict, peace and reconciliation at Perranuthnoe Church this coming Friday at 7.30pm.

The performance will include some of my poems and stories with original songs by Annie Henry. With a repeat of Katie Kirk’s moving performances, this looks set to be a very poignant and memorable evening.

NO MAN'S LAND

An exhibition with work in progress

As we are now in the Centenary year of the outbreak of World War One I am focussing on that phase of my ongoing Evilution Project.  As mentioned in the previous blog, my two week exhibition at the Salthouse Gallery St Ives starts on Friday 2nd May. I will be showing a number of storyboxes, small framed constructions using documents, poetry and various items of ephemera related to life in the trenches on the Western Front.

The Coventry triptych and the Holocaust panel, from the first phase of my project, will also be on show along with the first of my hand made artists books and other related works.

Throughout the exhibition I will be working on a large triptych entitled ‘No Man’s Land’, depicting an area of battleground complete with barbed wire, shell cases, mud and duckboards! 

I am hoping this will generate some interaction with the public who will contribute their own stories or those of their family. I also hope they will leave their thoughts and opinions on conflict on our ‘Siegried Line’.

The exhibition will be open daily 10.30 -4.30 and runs from Friday May 2nd. until Wednesday May 14th. I will be in the gallery each day and look forward to the possibility of seeing friends old and new.

A New Year

Coventry Cathedral

 

Grandfather- third from left

WW1 Storybox

Artists Books

2013 was a year of ups and downs for me; the hassle of clearing and leaving my Island studio after 20 years, the joy of having a small custom-built studio to the rear of our house, the hassle of getting my Evilution panels back from New York and a couple of falls which lost me a lot of time and then finally, the joy of discovering the exciting world of artists’ books - which became a high point to finish the year on. 

However, 2014, is likely to be my busiest and most exciting year since starting the Evilution Project; a year during which many events will  commemorate the outbreak of World War One. My grandfather and his brothers fought on the Western Front and Phase Two of my project, which I started last year, will focus on that period with paintings, constructions and poems.  I will be exhibiting the first of these works from 1st - 14th May at the Salthouse Gallery St Ives.

During the exhibition I will be creating a large triptych construction ( 5ft x 6ft ) in the gallery using paper pulp, barbed wire and various items of detritus of trench life This will be quite challenging particularly as, for the first time, I will be working in the public eye. However, interaction with gallery visitors, with their own family histories of that period, could be quite rewarding. 

The exhibition will include storyboxes; small framed construction / collages using ephemera and photographs from World War One with fragments of poetry.  I also plan to show some of the books I have been making over the last six months or so.   I should explain : artists’ books, are usually made in the studio and can take almost any shape or form - mine use the accordion format and consist mostly of my own hand-written poems on pages created by painting, collaging and printing There may also be some talks, films and/or poetry readings in the gallery during the exhibition.

In November I will also be having an exhibition of the storyboxes in Truro Cathedral during a special week of events commemorating the Armistice.

Sometime soon, three of the five construction/panels that were exhibited in Coventry  Cathedral and at Ground Zero New York, which I have renamed the Reconciliation Triptych, will enter the Cathedral’s permanent collection. In November they were also installed in St Mary’s Church Penzance for the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I was recently interviewed by Radio Penwith for programme about the Evilution Project to be broadcast possibly this month. Although its a small local radio station, their broadcasts can be heard live anywhere at www.penwithradio.co.uk    There are a few other possibilities in the pipeline too so I will be putting out regular updates and information via  Facebook e-mail and post.