countertext09

countertext09		back to electricbackroom

All art is process. All art is processing and always rising to its end and beyond, always rising into ruin. The obvious analogy is with architecture. In reality and in art, buildings always rise into ruin. Art, along with most things, including all language, fails in the end, ending in ruin. In architecture, art and language, there is always a magical or optimal moment, or at least the promise of one, but it never lasts. For art to be rising into ruin means it is always falling away from its beginning and becoming something other than itself, unwanted even. Art is always rising in this way and perpetually rising into what it will become, which is ruin. No one wants to know this about art, which does not at all alter it or anything about its heading for ruin. We shore ourselves against too much reality, so the here and now of art, its numinous self, its presence, we hold dear. We fail to see the creep away, the fade of the numinous, the shift from now to then, the sea change into something strange. We cannot say these artists are united or share a purpose. They are distinct, one apart from the other. But they come together in countertext09. What do they share? Some love language, their own or other’s, yet never expect it to come up trumps, tell the whole story, fill in the picture. Some seem indifferent to language, to say the least. They seem suspicious of it, whatever its form, however it is printed, on whatever material for whatever purpose. They are rightly suspicious, for it too rises, promising much, jabbing and hammering here and there, before trailing off, heading towards its own ruination, a route close to its heart, inherent in itself, the inevitable reduction to shards or shreds. Joe Stevens, in Outtakes from a Conversation, is succinct ‘How long before we get to the point, you know, um, but no’. Language will fail us. The beauty of language, even if half-grasped, will enthrall us, but in the end it fails us. It tends to shred itself, start something then stop. So many of the artists here re-stage in images the way language slides away from meaning full-on and clear, moving instead into the opposing camp: language is already in tatters, already broken apart, already fully risen into ruin. Instead, the artists put in place discomfort, ambiguity, enigma. All their works show beauty, yes, but beauty clouded or compromised. Beauty trembles at its own instability, before the slow murmuring or fast screaming realisation of its utter ruin. Can anything be saved? Yes of course: the process leads to finished works that, in most cases, save the lack of a solution, savour irresolution, uncertainty. The finished works are what they purport to be. The surreality of the everyday and the enigma of arrival. They are themselves proof of what they perform: the beauty of art rising into ruin. Quod erat demonstrandum. John Taylor		Tuesday 10th - 28th November Bridport Arts Centre Allsop and Café Galleries Electric Palace Café Wednesday 11th November Electric Palace Artists film night 8-10pm Friday 13th - 21st November ALL venues open [programme below] artists: Benedicte Clarke-Roland [EP film night] Sarah Miles [EP film night] Marc Atkins Nigel Slight John Miles David Rogers Charlotte Loving Joe Stevens Mike Shaw Andrea Crociani Samuel St.Leger Steven Will Ed Jones Eva Fahle Clouts Gigi Sudbury Carolyne Kardia Anna Best Lesley Slight Jessie Plantagenet Ford Tabatha Andrews Laura Mulhern Cleo Evans Karen House

Supported by PVA mediaLab \| Comben Electrical \| Electric Palace \| Creeds the Printers \| Fowler Hire and Sales


From the Negative Marc Atkins and Nigel Slight in collaboration with Bridport Foundry digitally manipulated photographs [2009] The concept into binary code venue: website taken down

Gone Wrong Dreams John Miles mixed media “So new to him,” she muttered. “So old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us” Miss Haversham venue: Electric Palace Café

Magnificent Ray Sarah Miles 23mins - 16mm and DVcam [2003] A world of emotional and sensory experience eddying endlessly in atmosphere of the mind in twilit regions of memory where past and present blur and complement each other. ‘life is mysterious a luminous halo a semi transparent envelope surrounding us from beginning to end consciousness is the end.’ ‘a shock will access the reality behind the appearance,’ Virginia Woolf Dreamwork cleansing the wound venue: Electric Palace Cinema [11th November only]		photo by John Miles

The Unsure Day Marc Atkins 27:37 mins The destination is light, on an unsure day. Where you stand stay quiet. Grasp a small breath. Watch the alien light crackle and fragment. The world is emptying before you.Step from the water and leave behind a wake. Climb steadily across your discordant thoughts. Feed on the effigies of your abased ancestors. In the semi-shade a sleeping rook looks into a disconcert eye. You are now where the rainwater washes war mud from the abandoned pavements. Reid your feit. Reed your feint. Read your fate.Consider the air on such a morning. Quiet. Damp. Grey. Here in this room the silence cannot be broken. Of leaving: Find a way on this tragic day. You turn and answer the cries from the empty square. Through the distorted glass again I see you. I stay the flow of light around your insoluble eyes peel the fluid from your ungated mouth and drive away the doubt about your deft ears. A journey. For as long as we remain still. venue: Electric Palace Cinema [11th November only]

Buddleia Anna Best
venue: Electric Palace Cinema [11th November only]

Goodbye to Berlin David Rogers Super 8 film transferred to DVD 8mins [1997]
Jewellery Box Charlotte Loving DVD 4mins [2007]
Wind Sock Joe Stevens DVD 5mins [2009]
Respiro1_2 Mike Shaw DVD [2009]
Impasse Marc Atkins DVD 11:20mins [2009]
Archiving is a Bourgeois Art Andrea Crociani DVD 18sec [2000]
venue: Electric Palace Café

High Stoy Charlotte Loving digital video - DVD 38mins “...The spot is lonely, and when the days are darkening the many gay charioteers now perished who have rolled along the way, the blistered soles that have trodden it, and the tears that have wetted it, return upon the mind of the loiterer...” Thomas Hardy ‘The Woodlanders’ venue: Electric Palace Cinema [check with venue for times] and Waterstones

red lips David Rogers and Nigel Slight digital video - DVD [2008] venue: Electric Palace Cinema [check with venue for times]


Pot Nigel Slight suspended gilded bronze / audio

venue: Malabar Trading

cope/marsh Samuel St.Leger oil on canvas [2009] ‘fragments of visual language float like disembodied limbs, forming mutations and mismatches...’[1] …‘surely something’s awry here’ [2] [1/2] Marc Hulson, text from Out Of Science - works by Hiro Sugiyama, Pocko 2002 venue: Toymaster

Moth Bowl Steven Will Press-moulded white earthenware, black slip, incised text, clear glaze. [2009] “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt” Matthew 6:19 venue: The Book Shop

Safe as... Ed Jones & Nigel Slight mixed media [2009] venue: Wild and Homeless Books

pulp fiction? David Rogers vitrine, shredded daily newspapers [2009] Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists. Norman Mailer venue: Bridport Arts Centre entrance

a German table Eva Fahle Clouts made from a table from the former DDR [East Germany] and a table from the former BRD [West Germany] ‘a table is a table...’
venue: Bridport Arts Centre Café Gallery		East meets West - West meets East

Finland Station Nigel Slight mixed media venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Bestiary of animals Gigi Sudbury oil on board 10’’x 8’’ Animal and human figure occupy a single space, the space an aspect of the animal’s character found in the process of painting. I want the picture to force a stop, to distil a moment of clarity only made possible by letting go our need for explanation. A counter to our need for fast and linear thinking. venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Intimation Carolyne Kardia plaster [2009] approx size 6ft x 3ft x 2ft The plaster pools itself as it slowly flows, edging, streaming finding its surface against the smooth polythene. A line forms, twists, is drawn, then sets fixed in space. Another pouring, gravity pulls it into another line or is it a form — lengthens, fragile edged, with a quick movement of the wrist, the plaster shifts, dances, turns in on itself, playing the gesture. Yet again, beginning mixing, it flows but this time the pour slips forming a swelling pool, measuring, counting time. The lines are cast, constructed — a melody, counter-point, rooted in themselves, a layering, a simultaneous utterance. Woven forms inscribed in space, balancing responsive — the whole a coherent texture folds in on itself evolving. venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Vanitas Nigel Slight mixed media venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

...Whitstable Herne Bay Dover Folkestone Rye Hastings Eastbourne Brighton Shoreham Worthing Littlehampton Portsmouth Southampton Christchurch Bournemouth Poole Swanage Weymouth Bridport Lyme Regis Sidmouth Exmouth Teignmouth Torquay Totnes Plymouth Truro Falmouth St Ives Newquay Bridgwater Weston Bristol Newport Penarth Barry Port Talbot Swansea Llanelli Tenby Milford Haven Cardigan Aberystwyth Caernarfon Holyhead Bangor Rhyl Birkenhead Bromborough Liverpool Preston Blackpool Fleetwood Whitehaven Maryport Annan Stranraer Girvan Ayr Irvine Campbeltown Largs Ardrossan Greenock Dunoon Oban Stornoway John O’Groats Inverness Banff Aberdeen Montrose Arbroath Dundee Perth St Andrews Alloa Berwick Newcastle Hartlepool Whitby Scarborough Bridlington Hull Goole Grimsby Boston Skegness Kings Lynn Great Yarmouth Lowestoft Ipswich Felixstowe Harwich Colchester Clacton Maldon Southend Sheerness Faversham... Anna Best newspapers [2006/07/09]
venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery		‘…for boats catching fish like journalists catch stories, for asylum seekers looking for haven, importing and exporting...’ originally a work for Whitstable harbour, local papers draw the British coast from south, east ,north and west. I imagined a wealth of fishing and sea stories but found mostly drug hauls, car park proposals and planning battles. Almost 100 local papers a subscribed to, all from coastal locations with harbours, fishing and also hosting newspapers with the name of the town in the title e.g the Whitstable Times. People usually keep newspapers because of a royal celebration or a moon landing. This bundle are from a random moment in time, rather than for reasons of collective historical significance.

Wittgenstein's Poker Fredrick Harold bronze, stainless still and nylon venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Triptych & Trig [Installation] Lesley Slight oil on linen x 3 240mm x 300mm acrylic on polyurethane 900mm x 550mm x 550mm installation dimensions variable venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery



Tradesmens' Circle [Moonlighting] Ed Jones wood, televisions and looped dvds x 4 venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

The Little Death Benedicate Clarke-Roland microcrystalline wax venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Fishpond Samuel St.Leger Oil on board [2008/9] venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

INF 7 Mike Shaw Rip stop fabric, fan, air, digital timer [2008] “ My work has nothing to do with words, however, writing informs and supports its development” venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Temporary state of mind #12 Andrea Crociani bronze 70 x 103 x12 cm [2006] venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Lumen Jessie Plantagenet Ford DVD projection I strive to create impossible illusions using large scale video projections. This medium allows me to play with space and time, temporarily changing outdoor spaces into other worlds using nature as the gateway. venue: Bridport Arts Centre Facade [check with venue for times]

Forbitten Words Tabatha Andrews 25 bronze pieces from 1-5 inches across (2000-2002) ‘The voice is emitted through the mouth, an organ that also consumes and expels food. I made these works with my mouth, ‘blindly’, sculpting wax, vaseline and rosin at different temperatures and spitting them into cold water. Casting such works into bronze combines the revolting and the precious. The works are anti-monumental in their scale and subject matter, directly revealing the process of their making; direct traces or casts of a physical movement through time. They are, literally and metaphorically, reversals of the act of consuming, one-offs. I see these pieces as swear-words, explosions, expulsions; the kind of noises we make when we can’t express our emotions. Swear-words usually refer to bodily functions like sex or excretion, or to a supernatural or sacred experience. Perhaps these two seemingly disparate worlds, the world of the body and spirit, are more closely connected than we would like to believe’. venue: Bridport Old Books [backroom]

Fugue Tabatha Andrews newspapers [2009] ‘But by writing thithaways end to end and turning, turning and end to end hithaways writing and with lines of litters slittering up and louds of letters slettering down…’ James Joyce, Finnegans Wake venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

‘UMm and that was quite nice’ Joe Stevens audio 2:46 [looped] - wireless headphones Out-takes from a conversation. How long before we get to the point, you know, um, but no. venue: Bridport Old Books [frontroom]

Something Beyond Belief I Marc Atkins photographic prints, adhesive tape, nails The construction of a gestalt scenario by the arbitrary placement of disparate images to form a kind of story-board, intending the viewer to make connections of the images to form or postulate one or more stories or events. venue: Bridport Arts Centre Allsop Gallery

Water Table Nigel Slight Oraglass, bronze, water [2009] ‘Water never rests, neither by day nor by night. When flowing above it causes rain and dew. When flowing below, it forms streams and rivers. Water is outstanding in doing good. If a dam is raised against it, it stops. If a way is made for it, it flows along that path. Hence it is said that it does not struggle. And yet it has no equal in destroying that which is strong and hard’ Lao-Tse venue: Fruits of the Earth

“Yes” An ode to Molly Bloom/Penelope Inspired by the last chapter of Ulysses by James Joyce Laura Mulhern projected slides and DVD A series of photographs mounted onto a Leica slide projector illustrating the temperament, the impatience, the positivity and most importantly the rhythm of the voice of Molly Bloom; the wife of the tormented man. No punctuation marks the rhythm of her voice; that is up to the reader. Her stream of consciousness reigned in. We create the full stop, the comma. And so here, the viewer brings their own timing to this piece; to flick through the images at their will, pausing where they see fit, creating their full stop. A short film of her internal wanderings run alongside this imagery; the structure, the skeleton. We add the flesh. venue: Vintage at Cornucopia

Imagine Cleo Evans audio On 16th May 2009, John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ rang out across Liverpool played on the worlds’ highest and heaviest peal of bells at Liverpool‘s Anglican Cathedral. Futuresonic Festival commissioned artist Cleo Evans to produce her idea in collaboration with students from Royal College of Northern Music and change ringers to create this special event. Imagine was chosen as it an incredibly gentle, philosophical, moving and iconic song, which speaks strongly of the need for peace and religious tolerance. This was the first time a popular, and secular song has been played on the bells of a place of worship. The interpretation was ‘moving as it became a statement of being ‘civic’ as opposed to individual’. The project was originally conceived for St Mary’s Church, Bridport. venue: St Marys Church [Saturday 21st at 12noon]

Plaits Nigel Slight bronze, flax rope, velvet [2009] Double Bridport Dagger by Dee Fenton ‘You said that women, when they are going to be hanged, are quite brave?’ he was asked by Sir William Jones. ‘Very brave,’ said Mr Pierrepoint. ‘What is the attitude of the women officers who have to attend to them?’ ‘The women don’t see the execution,’ Mr Pierrepoint replied. ‘The men take over out of the cell, just before the execution.’ ‘So there is no woman present at the actual execution?’ ‘No they stay in the cell and the women don’t witness the execution? ‘Hanged by the Neck’ Arthur Koestler & C.H. Rolph. Penguin 1961 venue: Good News

Wackerman Ed Jones digital video - DVD The glamour of childish days is upon me my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance I weep like a child for the past venue: Vintage at Cornucopia

‘UMm and that was quite nice’ Joe Stevens Ceramic mug and The Conversation Ed Jones TV looped DVD x 2 venue: Bridport Music

5 interviews about religion Andrea Crociani Magazine - 500 copies [2004-2005] “The five interviews published in the magazine took place in London between October 2004 and February 2005 with friends willing to speak about their own religion.” venue: Café Royal

In Suspense Karen House Starched cotton t-shirts, woven name labels, coat hangers .....know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly. Epictetus venue: Fowler Hire & Sales

Something Beyond Belief II Marc Atkins photographic prints, adhesive tape, nails From the image we encounter a very complicated system of traps, locked gates, open roads, closed streets and silent rooms. Objectivity is just another imagined story. In the absence of people, when the traveller shows up everything comes into motion. New walls emerge and the path begins to bend. Open ways become impassable and entangled corridors become clear and easily negotiated. Distance and space seem capricious and the procedures of arrangement ambiguous. But the journey is our condition. Our only way. venue: Bradfords & Cafe Royal