Durham Brass Festival

Without knowing what to expect I agreed to spend my Sunday night in Durham and because of a spare ticket I took my friend, Kathryn. We arrived in Durham expecting to see some sort of "dance thing." We parked by the river and walked up to the gala where we were greeted by a great French band with a lot of comedy value.

 

 

After the unexpected show we went for a coffee where I embarrassingly mistook a man talking fluent itallian for being Scottish... After that mishap we worked our way to the main square where we caught more feel-good bands with uncontrollable energy.

 

We'd been tipped off to work out way to the cathedral square before the crowds so that we did and we got a great spot right in the centre of the grass beside some kind of stage with a poll in the middle of it, we exchanged fears about how controversial it would be for a poll dancer to dance in this place of all places.

The synchronised dancing started on the right (if you're facing the cathedral, as we were) at this point it was impressive to see 4 separate groups of instruments all working in time and the dancing was unusual but I wasn't overwhelmed. Dancing started on the left and though the dancing wasn't interactive, I felt as if it was because I had to turn round and keep looking for other dancers. Then opposite the cathedral two male dancers started drumming on huge drums then fastened themselves to the first weird contraption.

 

Then for the poll dancing stage, which turned out to be very different, the dancers seemed to be technicians as well because they seamlessly and effortlessly constructed a huge rotating sphere

 

By now I was impressed but I still wasn't expecting the next part of the show: in front of the cathedral the dancers were joined to more crazy contraptions and suddenly it was as if they weren't dancers any more, but human Catherine wheels, whizzing in 360 degrees. The engineering if the equipment was amazing, the dancers were able to throw themselves in any direction while spinning around simultaneously. The shadows on the cathedral were amazing too as it was harder to see the poles that the dancers were on so it was as if they were actually flying in a dizzy manner. I'll leave you with pictures un hope that they captured what I saw.

Enjoyment: 95% (would have been 100% but I the weather was a bit miserable, not that that was anybody's fault)

Robert Breer at Baltic

When first walking into the gallery space I was greeted by a woman telling me to be careful where I step as lots of people had been standing on the artwork. When I looked around I could see how people would step on the artwork but the thought of people stepping on a piece of foam with hundreds of cocktail sticks sticking out of it amused me, especially since the pieces were slowly moving. I rarely read the programme before I see an installation because I figure that I'll see what it's about when I see it and if I want more information I'll look afterwards, but I normally make up my own narrative anyway. So, I didn't read the programme and didn't know the pieces would be moving, then I saw a white dome which was almost my height and about five times my radius, it was heading towards me at snail speed. I thought I was seeing things but no, after closer inspection it was moving! I went round everything and stooped to see if they were moving, they were. Even what appeared to be a wall was moving. It was hilarious seeing people share my shock as they too realised that they were slowly being chased by seemingly inanimate objects.

Very fun but a small grievance I had was that some of the pieces were from the 60's and 70's, and it showed! There were visible bumps and scratches which could have benefited from some attention to make them more appealing. Other than the need for paint, I greatly enjoyed this exhibition.

Almost forgot to mention the sketches, if you get a chance to go, don't forget to look at the back of the gallery as there's amusing sketches, sketches that I deeply wanted to take home!

Enjoyment: 90%

Nerys Johnson “Flower Imagery Over Time” & Aether and Hemera “The Colour of Phi”

From Saturday 19th March until Monday 2nd May. (2011)

In the DLI (Durham Light Infantry) art gallery there’s a retrospective exhibition of Nerys Johnson’s work between 1970 and 1989. The exhibition looks at the progression of Nerys’ style by focusing on the work that she based on three types of flowers; Tulips, Lilies and Sunflowers. Nerys was terribly affected by arthritis since she was a child and sadly died following an operation in 2001. She said that flowers were a major source of inspiration for her work because “They grow, change, decay and metamorphose.”

Running alongside the Nerys Johnson exhibition is Aether and Hemera’s “The Colour of Phi” This is a light installation of coloured wires crossing over and creating patterns in the light. The light pattern is based on the Golden Ratio which is used by architects, artists and designers but is also found in flower petals and pine cones. Aether and Hemera (more commonly known as Claudio and Gloria) are both Italian and, now based in North-east England, they specialise in new media and lighting. 

Nerys’ style is very strong, it looks like she dived into her paintings without looking where she was going and it just worked. The thick stalks of the plants and the bright colours made her paintings seem child-like but they were done very skilfully, she seemed to know exactly when to finish painting, without adding neeless finishing touches that often spoil contemporary work. I thought the film of Nerys painting and talking about her art was very eye opening, I didn’t know very much about Nerys before yesterday but I felt like I got to know her though her work.

On it’s own, I loved Aether and Hemera’s piece. It was intriguing and I stared at it for ages  because it felt as if it was moving though it was still or like it was flashing even though the light was constant. Using the Golden Ratio couldn’t have made this piece any easier to make! Everything seemed very precise and I was impressed by the piece, though it would have been much stronger if the room was darker, a black sheet draped over the door would have sufficed...

 Individually I liked most of Nerys’ work but I think that if the whole show was curated differently it could have been really amazing. Nerys’ work was packed onto the walls, this didn’t compliment her style which is immature and childish yet boldly confident with a clear idea. With all of the work crammed into the walls it made the pieces weaker and less striking. Nerys herself used to curate exhibitions in a similar style but I think she took more care in which pieces were on the line that you pay most attention to. It would have been really brave and bold if the curator had gone against Nerys’ curating style and put only a few amazing pieces in the exhibition or played with the composition. Nerys’ playful art could have been been reflected in the way that it was put on the walls but sadly, it wasn’t and it seemed to make the individual pieces less special.

Also, the link between the two exhibitions seems strained, Nerys painted and drew flowers and the light was constructed like the golden ratio of a petal’s anatomy. In my oppinion, it’s a great shame that the two shows weren’t more integrated as they could have really complimented each other.

I felt quite out of place in the gallery space as it felt more like going to a church coffee morning than the opening of a new art show. The old socks-and-sandals crowd agitated me. It seemed as if they were more bothered by the free coffee and cakes than the skill of the artists. The adjective “marvellous” was extremely overused and a woman actually commented that I “lower the average age of this gathering by about 20%!” With a bit of advertising around Durham university or some cafes there would have been some more young people who would have probably used more interesting adjectives than “marvellous!”



Nerys’ work: 3/5
Aether and Hermera’s work: 4/5
Curating: 1/5
Gallery: 2.5/5


Overall enjoyment: 55%