Category: Art

Art, Film, Uncategorized

Responses: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1977)

I first came across Cindy Sherman’s photographic series, Untitled Film Stills (1977), when looking for photos of film noir titles. The series is designed around fakery, seeking to recreate the feeling of stills from 1950s and 1960s American films but also, in producing the illusion with general key-notes as to the roles of women in these films, comment upon the basic norms prescribed in Hollywood … Continue reading Responses: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1977)

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Art, Uncategorized

Responses: Keith Arnatt’s Gardeners (1978-79)

In the late 1970s, Keith Arnatt embarked on an unusual series of photographs collected under the title of Gardeners (1978-79). In the years before, he had produced a similar series of works looking at dog walkers, such was the draw of the ordinary for the artist. Essentially, however, it is what Arnatt found in this seemingly everyday scenario that tapped into his usual sense of … Continue reading Responses: Keith Arnatt’s Gardeners (1978-79)

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Art, Film, Uncategorized

Still life in Margaret Tait’s My Room (1951)

I was wandering around the National Gallery recently when I came across Jan Trek’s Still Life (1648) and its wonderful rendering of ephemera. Within it sits a skull, some books, manuscripts, the helmet of a suit of armour and other such seemingly random objects. I had been thinking about similar paintings for some time, not least because several books of interest (specifically Robert Burton’s The … Continue reading Still life in Margaret Tait’s My Room (1951)

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Art, Landscape, Literature, Uncategorized

Responses: Poems On Landscape And Melancholy (Volume 2)

Throughout 2017, I have continued with the responses form of article to works of art and other miscellanea.  Like last year, I found that a more interesting way to assess a piece of work was to not simply write an essay but to pair it with a poem; condensing the essence of the reading down into a basic selection of key notes, reactions and atmospheres.  … Continue reading Responses: Poems On Landscape And Melancholy (Volume 2)

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Art, Landscape, Uncategorized

Responses: Eileen Agar’s Butterfly Bride (1938)

“Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly.  I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi.” Looking at Eileen Agar’s Butterfly Bride (1938) is to look into the dreams of insects.  Or perhaps these are our dreams of insects, where our waking moments are … Continue reading Responses: Eileen Agar’s Butterfly Bride (1938)

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Art, Landscape, Uncategorized

Responses: Eric Ravilious’ Cerne Abbas Giant (1939)

A naked man lies on a Dorset hill whilst another is painting him, quickly.  Eric Ravilious is on a fleeting trip to just north of Dorchester and the war, already broken out, is on his mind.  He paints the man, the land around and the humanity of the hills, quickly.  The man is the Cerne Abbas Giant, a mysterious earthwork of a primitive man with … Continue reading Responses: Eric Ravilious’ Cerne Abbas Giant (1939)

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Art, Landscape, Uncategorized

Responses: Hole In The Sea (1969, 1970), Barry Flanagan

I have never seen Barry Flanagan’s short video piece, Hole In the Sea (1969), yet I’m not quite sure if I ever quite want to.  The short piece, filmed by Flanagan with Gerry Schum in Holland for a Land Art TV exhibition, currently exists in colour and in black & white, contained variously in the Pompidou archive in Paris and the Stedelick Museum in Amsterdam.  … Continue reading Responses: Hole In The Sea (1969, 1970), Barry Flanagan

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Art, Landscape, Uncategorized

Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

As World War Two loomed, Paul Nash’s obsessions leaned towards more esoteric forms.  The landscape became a fantastical entity, the realm of old magic that had already been of much interest to the artist, but one that gradually heightened as reality darkened around him once more.  He moved more to photography as a medium in itself, as well as to take reference material for his … Continue reading Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

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Art, Literature, Uncategorized

Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

A few months back, I visited the retrospective of Vanessa Bell’s paintings at Dulwich Picture Gallery.  The exhibition is still ongoing and an essential visit for anyone with a passion for those strange groups of English rebels that seemed to flourish in the arts around the Fin de siècle.  It confirmed for me Bell’s position as one of the most underrated artists from that period, … Continue reading Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

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Art, Folk Horror, Uncategorized

Responses: John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror

Late last year, I became obsessed with visiting a certain item in the British Museum.  Deliberately choosing to work in or near Bloomsbury, I would often wander into the building in between working, making my way straight to one of the room’s (on the right of the building) with a confidence and determination that clearly unnerved my various tourist companions.  I would stride into the … Continue reading Responses: John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror

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