DECEMBER 2020
Well that was the year that was. I’m not going to say anything else about that in this intro.
New artwork - ‘Anbid’
I completed my largest and most time-consuming drawing to-date in mid-December. Measuring 1.5m x 0.75m and consisting entirely of individual dots this stippled artwork marks an important turning point in my thinking, with some new themes and a lot more colour to come in 2021.
‘Anbid’, 2020, 1.5m x 0.75m, ink on paper (yet to be digitised)
'Anbid', an Old English word meaning 'Waiting, hope, expectation', is the name of my newest artwork.
As usual the length of time needed to produce the work leads to a web of meditation and additions to the meaning behind it. The title was chosen months ago but I always intended this piece to be a bridge between my Disintegration Series and what comes next. At the start of the Covid lockdown in the UK I was struck by the public reclaiming their gardens and patios. Seeds sold out, compost was scarce. There was a beautiful moment of pause and deliberation, a refocusing on what lies around us. I saw a future paradise where we emerged from a wrecked world (of a much worse cataclysm) into rewilded public/private spaces and under-tended gardens. Nooks for thinking and resting. Groves for the commons and commoners.
At the same time the snarling political discourses quietly left alone Brexit and its harkening back to the Good Old Days™ of some mis-imagined English Golden Age (which is why I started thinking about Anglo Saxon) in favour of some weird fatalistic new blitz spirit entirely of our own making. Austerity killing off tens of thousands of people under the anti-aegis of laissez-faire politics. Government could have done so much more to protect people but our electoral choices made sure that no matter how loudly we banged our pots and pans it would always fail to protect us.
I originally chose this lichen covered branch as the subject because lichen is a symbiosis. It is a bellwether and obvious indicator of environmental conditions. They are ancient and fascinating. In the first place I wanted to make a piece of art that spoke of what we need to achieve with the planet, pretty damn quickly. What I got was something that also describes my anger at how we are letting things slip all around us.
Anbid and me are looking forward to something better.
RWA Open Exhibition 2020 - delayed
Sadly but predictably the Royal West of England Academy’s Open Exhibition for 2020 has been delayed until the national lockdown ends. They have extended the period that the show will be open until April 11th 2021 though, so there may eventually be a fleeting opportunity to view ‘Kerala, rewilding’ out in the wilds of Bristol.
‘Kerala, rewilding’ will eventually be viewable until Bristol, until April 11th 2021. In theory.
Until next time, keep safe x