Shul: Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.

I became distracted from SYP during August and September preparing my submissions of Body of Work and Contextual Studies and then decorating reared its ugly head so I am just now beginning to catch up on my blog. This gallery visit, then, is from 3rd August when I met up with fellow Level 3 OCA student Hazel Bingham. We had come to view the Hull International Photography galleries but as they didn't open until the afternoon we decided to visit Ferens first.

Skin
Perhaps of most interest was Skin (Link here). The exhibition featured the work of Lucien Freud (painting), Ron Mueck (Sculptor) and Spencer Tunick (photographer).

Lucien Freud's 'naked paintings' as he called them were made during the 1970s and 80s. There were four paintings on show on loan from national partners. They included Two Men (1987 -1988), Naked Girl with Egg (1980 -1981), Small Naked Portrait (1873-1974) and Large Interior, London W9 (1973). These paintings were very detailed and reflected his preoccupation with surface and texture.

Ron Mueck's sculptures also reflected a fascination with surface.

Perhaps of most interest to us was Spencer Tunick's blue nudes from his Sea of Hull commission from 2016. Attracting a great deal of attention at the time (as several hundred nude people painted blue wandering around the city would!) this was the first time the images had been exhibited. As with Manet's Le Dejeuner and to whom Tunick's work has been compared, the issue of public nudity that is central to his practice remains taboo, even today. In the 1990's he had to take his home city of New York, to court, setting a powerful legal precedent for artistic rights. These works are officially the largest nude installation in the UK. Under the artists' direction over 3200 participants from across the world painted their skin with blue body paint, dramatically transforming the city of Hull and alluding to the the city's maritime history. The works are very large scale, filling, whole walls. We actually met one lady who had taken part. She was 'having a last fling' as she put it, before undergoing chemotherapy and losing her hair. Love them or hate them , these huge photographs certainly make a statement.

Offshore - artists explore the sea.

This exhibition explores the many ways that the sea has shaped our culture, imaginations and physical existence through mythical sea monsters, superstitions and seaside traditions as well as trade and travel. While inherently without borders, we have mapped the sea for exploitation, geo-political advantage and conservation. This resonates with me somewhat at the moment as I am re-reading Robert MacFarlane's Old Ways as it is especially pertinent to Shul, my work on walking and footpaths. Macfarlane writes about the way that seaways are just as much ancient trackways as footpaths. Living on the coast as I do, especially adjacent to a large estuary, I am fully conscious of the use of the the sea as pathways used for all manner of reasons. I am currently involved in some work on our local coast and am beginning to think of it as a development, or an offshoot, of my body of work. I am in the early stages of thinking this through at the moment.

I was fascinated by the first exhibit in this show which filled the foyer of the gallery and is is featured in the two images below. They look like and, at first, I thought they were a pile of water worn rocks.rocks. Closer inspection, however, revealed them to be abandoned pieces of polyurethane foam. For over a decade artist Alexander Duncan has been collecting them from around the coastline. To date he has collected over 10,000. He describes them as " 'hyperobjects' that carry the energy and trace of a violent churning, an everyday process. Erosion on fast forward." Lost in the sea, they have returned to the land reminding us of the waste and pollution for which we are all responsible. When looking at this installation, I was reminded of my work on flotsam and Jetsam whilst studying for my PWDP course. (Link to blog entry here.)