"the liminal crawl-space" paintings by P A Morbid

Yesterday I went to a private viewing of an art exhibition.
I have been to such things before, but this one was a little different. This was the first solo exhibition of my friend Morbid. You might gather from his name that he doesn't always have the sunniest outlook on life, and he himself confesses to being something of a "troubled soul". I knew these were not going to be happy smiley pictures. I was expecting dark and disturbing and there was a distinct possibility that I wouldn't "get" them. I am grateful to him for posting his own thoughts on his blog - and allaying my fears that he might be hugely offended if I didn't get it...  https://theblacklightengineroom.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/flying-solo/

I fall resolutely into that much disdained camp of "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like". If I am honest, that is true of many things - my maxim should perhaps be "I don't know much about anything, but I know what I like." but that's a whole other blog post.

I can't talk about artistic style and form, I don't know enough about art to recognise influences...but I can talk about content and colour and emotion. I can talk about my response to what I can see.
I saw a series of paintings filled with darkness and chaos, images in dark greens and blood reds, and black, bright oranges, blinding yellows and light, bright greens. I saw Angels looking anything but angelic, images of hunger and pain, of fire and burning, and of hell.
I felt a sense of pain, and loss, of helplessness and fear. I felt uncomfortable and bemused. I don't think that is an unexpected or unjust reaction.

The full title of the exhibition is "the liminal crawl-space" and it is accompanied by a poem "falling" written by Morbid in 1998. You don't need to read the poem to appreciate the exhibition but it does add an extra dimension. Imagine you are an angel, falling from heaven, cast out from all that was once dear and sacred to you. This exhibition is the crawl-space between heaven and hell. It is full of  doubts and fears, the memories of heaven and happiness,  the anguish of loss, and the struggle to understand. It is the moment between happiness and unhappiness, as you begin to understand the enormity and the hideousness of the transformation of your world.

Morbid joked that I would only take pictures of the pretty pictures. He was almost right. I am drawn naturally to the light. I like "easily she steps through the fire garden" with its muted greens - their coolness at odds with the fire garden of the title, I liked "these words", "there are no shadows" and "the green man", This does not mean that I didn't appreciate the others, they all tell the story but it is a pretty bleak one. My soul naturally seeks out the images that harbour a sign of hope.



My response may not be what other people experience when they view this exhibition. I know a very little bit of the background of the artist. I am also an eternal optimist. No matter how dark life gets I will always see a bright spot.

One of Saturday's enduring bright spots was the sight of Morbid proudly smiling despite all his attempts to look grave and serious like an artist should.

The exhibition runs until 30th Dec in the upstairs exhibition space, Python Gallery, Middlesbrough. http://www.pythonproperties.co.uk/galleries/python-gallery


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Balancing words and images

At the beginning of October I arranged a workshop at the Art Gallery based around the Adrian Gray "Balance" Exhibition. The group worked with Linda Robinson co-author of  Words and Pictures: Photography with a Pen Poetry with a Camera . Below as promised are some of the words inspired by the session. Thanks to the Gallery staff for their help in making the workshop possible.

Stone Sculptures

A life in balance

Are they trying to improve on nature?

Seeking a moment of equipoise,

Feeling the pull of the earth.

and saying “what the hell”
Seeking to make a mystery or magical moment.

Brings a whole new meaning to the word “Rocker”

 

Balancing Stones

I walked the beaches of Hartlepool:

Seaton Carew and the headland.

Seeking rocks for symmetry, balance and equilibrium.

Both natural and of human origin.

And all I found were covered in weed,

Slimy weed, that defies adhesion.

Human waste and industries poisonous pollution.

Green and black and yuck.

If I intend to find a point of balance

I need a wire brush or sandpaper,

To make them clean or pure.

Brian Geddes

All in the Mind

Stone 

on

Stone

in a frozen teeter

Poised

but a reluctant grain,

a scintilla shifts

a grind

as

          plates

                   shift

And new striations

Crack

          On Crack

across the face

Aeons of 

compressed energy

Spurt

From an id

Of repression

  

In the Zen Garden

One white stone on another 

Each stone a promise

Each stone a prayer

Each a memory

Like stones on a Jewish grave

Some stand upright, hard, resistant

Some ground to fragments

          like crushed bones

Some stones like pebbles

Hard, turned 

In

on themselves

Stones as many as the scattered

between

the sweated iron tracks.

Japanese general

Sitting in your Zen garden

Did you meditate this?

Tony Hey

Stoned

In a pink fizz sky

Precariously poised,

A lemon slice.

Contradiction 

Monolithic balance

in solid stone

Strength and weakness

combined.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Equilibrium

September has been something of a busy month. And as always everything seemed to happen at once.  A Hockey Club Open Day, an exhibition preview, a wedding party and three visits to the theatre. I actually had to turn down invitations because dates clashed, or I just couldn't fit them in (I do have to work, and look after three men, too!). Oh, and I had two refusals from my Other Half too, so no outing to see a band we both liked back in the day, and no Salmon Fishing either! (And to think I went along to support his Hockey Club thing! Where is the give and take, I ask you? That, maybe, is a rant for another blog!) First, let me tell you about finding the balance!

My frantic social month started with a little pool of tranquillity at the preview of  "Balance".  If you are looking for an escape from the rigours of life and work I recommend a visit to the Art Gallery in Hartlepool. It's a quiet calm place to while away an hour at the best of times, but until November 10th  you can soak up the extra calm of Adrian Gray's Stone Balancing Sculptures. These stones are impossibly balanced on one another - only held in place by the equilibrium and the friction between the two surfaces. There is no trickery involved, they are just balanced. We watched him do it - an experience which was, for me, tense yet serene. Adrian usually creates his sculptures outside on the beach at Lime Regis. I can't imagine how much patience it takes to achieve the balance out in the elements. It seemed difficult enough in the enclosed and protected environment of the gallery. I found that I was holding my breath the entire time as I watched him find the perfect balance point, tentatively release his hold on the stone, and step away. Miraculously the stones stayed in place. I breathed again, not quite believing what my eyes had just seen!

This is an exhibition that is quite different to anything I have seen in an art gallery. Reactions to it can be mixed, most people seem to find it calming, but some do find it unnerving. The sculptures by their very nature are transient, in the natural environment wind and rain and tides eventually sweep them away...

Next week I have a Workshop at the gallery with my writers' group. I hope it inspires them. I will report back and hopefully share some of the writing that comes from it.

http://www.stonebalancing.com/