Is this the 'truth' about women?

I went to a private view at Leeds Gallery on Friday to see the Ashley Karrell exhibition, Expression of You, The Divine Feminine. I met Feisty Fraulein J , Bill Parker and Suki there. It was a great evening and I got into a lively discussion with Bill about the exhibition. I found myself wondering - is this  arrogant, pretentious and manipulative... or?  It raised lots of issues for me, starting with the title of it, and what it claimed to do. The concept supposedly behind it was that this was how the women wished themselves to be presented, their 'truth'. If these representations really were the women's 'truths', then I am very unhappy with the way many young women wish to be portrayed.

Insofar as the exhibition stimulated much discussion,  it was very worthwhile. I had a brief chat with Ashley and still felt that there were some issues with the concept - though enjoyed the debate it created. Later Feisty Fraulein J described it more eloquently than me on Suki's noticeboard this week, but summed up some of my thoughts.

I felt the exhibition as a whole was more stimulating than the individual photographs but Suki has bought one. I'm not sure she has bought one of mine yet!

There were at least five photographs of women in tears. I wondered who I should go to see if I want to cry. My therapist or a photographer?

life model

I had two of the poem pictures I made of Suki's poems exhibited at the Domestic Cherry exhibition at the Artsite & The Post Modern Gallery in Swindon. I think this one is my favourite.

Swindon Literature Festival

Suki, Helen Peyton and I were in Swindon at the weekend for the Literature Festival. Suki and Helen toasted the weeked with a glass each of red wine before we set off with me driving. We stopped at a service station on the way and had a picnic off the bonnet of the car in the car park eating the red caviar sandwiches that Suki had packed - she said it was all she had in the fridge!

On Friday we went to a lively poetry night for the launch of Hilda Sheehan's poetry collection 'The Night My Sister Went To Hollywood'. Beforehand we made lots of new friends in a small Portuguese tapas bar. Afterwards we drank lots of champagne to celebrate at Lower Shaw Farm where we were staying - Suki particularly liked the champagne!

On Saturday we were busy setting up for a performance of Under The Gaze. Suki also read from her poetry collection Kunst. Suki and Helen were brilliant. The audience loved it and there was a lively discussion. There is a review of the event here. If you missed it then do try to get to Grassington Arts Festival where it will be repeated.

Hilda drew a lovely picture of Suki at the event. When her young daughter, Flo, saw it she must have decided it was rude as Suki was naked so kindly gave her some clothes.

I like it!

PS A big thank you to Michael Scott for all his help.

Dean Clough Life Room

Suki and my first LIFE ROOM was exhibited on a permanent loop at Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, UK over the weekend. It can still be seen there on request - just ask at reception. I've now also put it online on my website here.

This picture is from that audio-visual presentation. It is of Doug Binder, Artist in Residence at Dean Clough, organiser of the life-drawing class there every Monday and curator of the current exhibition.

The First LIFE ROOM

The LIFE ROOM is an ongoing audio-visual and creative writing project between myself as a photographer and the poet and life model Suki.

We are gradually producing a series of three minute audio-visual pieces representing around twenty life-drawing groups plus the studios of some individual artists, mostly from around Yorkshire in the north of England.

The first audio-visual piece, 'THE LIFE ROOM I: Dean Clough' will be exhibited at Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, UK, on Saturday (4th May 2013), where Douglas Binder is Artist in Residence. Doug organises a life-drawing class there every Monday (to which anyone is welcome: see details on Suki's site here - scroll to Halifax). Our piece will be projected in a room close to Reception - do ask if you cannot find it. It is a series of photographs of the artists drawing and painting Suki, accompanied by a jazz track chosen by Doug. The context for our piece being shown is the launch of an exhibition by Doug and his life drawing group, plus exhibitions of the work of all the Dean Clough Studio Artists.

I will upload 'THE LIFE ROOM I: Dean Clough' both on this blog and on my website next week. In the meantime, here is a photograph taken from it, of artist Keith Hanselman.

Chester

Feisty Fraulein J and Calm Nick invited Suki to accompany them on a visit to Chester and I went along for the ride. April weather - lovely sunshine and sharp showers. The showers drove us into the shops and galleries. Suki needed to buy a button. Then we went for a latte and cake.

 

Suki and I stood outside a gallery being critical of a large oil painting given central space in the window. It was a female nude, seductive and coy, breasts hidden by an arm, her hips draped in silk. Ok for a footballer's wife's bedroom perhaps who could afford the £5000 price tag. It was by Mark Spain. I cannot find a copy online of the particular painting we were looking at but it was similar to Morning Light on this page.

It seemed kitsch, soft art porn. Why did it seem like that to me? What makes this so different from the many images prduced by artists of Suki? Suki does not generally pose to be seductive and coy.

Blatant, open, challenging perhaps, but rarely coy.

The art work of Suki somehow has more character - but trying to identify why was difficult.

The painting in front of us had been created with some skill. What was missing from it? What was at fault? The pose, the model, the artist or were we just being downright snobs?

Man Ray and Lee Miller

Suki and I had planned to visit the Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery while we were in London. However Suki was busy scribbling. Poems or a new blog post I suppose. So I went on my own.

I stopped off at the V&A. They claim to have an "internationally renowned collection of photographs". However they only exhibit a few in a small gallery. They did show four by Man Ray.

Though my favourite in the gallery may have been Women spreading out their saris before the sun by Heni Cartier-Bresson.

The other reason for popping into the V&A is of course that they have a great cafe. However as it was Easter week it was completely packed. I managed to get a place at a table opposite a skinny (skinnier than Suki - really) art student bashing out something onto her battered Apple MacBook. Her iPhone was by the side of it and looked so damaged it could have been through a war zone. How do you get your stuff so bashed about visiting art galleries? It must be more dangerous than I thought. I need to take more care.

Intermittently I looked at her strangely shaped face when I wasn't busy scraping the lathering of mustard off my pastrami brioche to make it edible without sneezing the contents of my sandwich and my nose across at her.

I did get a quick snap of the cafe.

I went on to the National Portrait Gallery and decided not to go into the Man Ray exhibition after all. It was nearly half past four and I was meeting a friend from work soon after five. £15 seemed a lot to pay for a quick look round. I spent my time instead first of all in the bookshop going through all the Man Ray books they had there. The best one was of him together with Lee Miller (Partners in Surrealism.) Lee was in turn his student, his collaborator and his lover. That period at the end of the twenties and beginning of the thirties gave rise to some great work from both of them. He of course is more famous because he is a man.

However Lee Miller was a fantastic photographer in her own right. As well as the surrealist work she created with Man she later became a war photographer and a fashion photographer. She was at the liberation of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. That had a lasting effect on her - she toured Europe unable to understand after the war why everything could not have been made so much better. 

Some of the photographs attributed to Man Ray were taken by Lee Miller. She deserves greater recognition.

The book about her and Man Ray cost £25. I thought how much better value that was compared with £15 to look round the exhibition.

I had a quick sprint round the contemporary galleries while deciding whether to get it then found myself walking through Trafalgar Square on the way to Embankment tube station, still trying to decide. Perhaps someone will buy me it for my birthday.