Paradox Artists’ Collective was launched at Herne Bay’s Beach Creative CIC in November 2018 to facilitate House X-odarap, a mixed media exhibition of visual art and the written word. Twenty artists were personally invited by curators Karen Simpson and VeronicaTonge to make works relating to ‘the house and its role as a theatrical setting for our lives’ by purposefully developing Dada and Surrealist concepts and working methods.
Dada was an angry art movement of the European avant garde, reacting to the horror of World War 1 and rejecting the logic, reasoning and aestheticism of modern capitalist society. Marcel Duchamp used the term “anti-art” around 1913 to challenge accepted definitions of art, whilst Dadaist practitioners played with nonsense and irrationality, expressing anti-middle class and materialistic values in collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing and found objects as sculpture.
Surrealism was a revolutionary cultural movement that began in the 1920s and developed out of Dada, first centered around Paris then spreading worldwide. It affected visual arts, literature, film and music as well as political practice, philosophy and social theory. Its influence has been with us ever since. Surrealist artists painted unnerving illogical scenes with photographic precision, often creating weird creatures by combining ordinary objects. Surrealist painting techniques also allowed the unconscious to express itself in an attempt to resolve the contradictory conditions of dream and reality into a sort of “super-reality”.
House X-odarap exhibition and related events will run concurrently with East Kent Artists’ Open Houses 2019 at Beach Creative galleries from Saturday 19th October to Thursday 7th November 2019.
Greetings,gang! More to follow but as it said 'No comments' I thought I'd get the ball rolling :-)
ReplyDeleteHi All. Just successfully accepted the invite so, look forward to reading and sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi all, just signed in and am also looking forward to reading what fellow artists are up to, and to making contributions. Jenny F
ReplyDeleteHello, I've just signed up to the blog myself having just spent most of the evening housekeeping the Mac and finding the link Nicolas shared. Unfortunately I've missed the last two meetings. My apologies for that. I like this project and I'm also looking forward to reading about what you are up to. For myself I've always been quite taken with the Dada, then of course the surrealists - no trip to the Tate Modern is complete without getting up close to a Dali the detail and his fine brush work is absolutely awe inspiring to me. I like the sentiment that if the world of war makes sense then the non sensical is a better place. That thing about making sense of the world still holds true in some respects and I think being sympathetic to that sneaks it's way into my work often. Sometimes I just laugh and go with it, sometimes I pause for thought and find myself doing some research (for eg how many plastic bottles have been found in the bellies of dead Orca and White Sharks?). I did the 'Lovely Neighbours' transparent house piece for the last House Paradox show and for this I'm planning on using resin again. It's a magical substance to me despite the stink and it being so hard to achieve what I see in my minds eye, but I love the planning, trial and error. I'm getting better as each project goes on. So House X-odarap I'm planning a framed screen print of Duchamp's face, he might have a pipe which may be 3d away from the image, maybe clamped between transparent resin lips? He'll have a 3d resin nose which has been pierced by an umbrella which hangs upside down - the notion of shelter being contrary, upturned - and in the umbrella will be a family of mice, represented by moustachioed cherries as a nod to Dali. The mice will be having a tea party, or maybe a pea party, or maybe just a pea, partly.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to any comments, advice, comparing notes and resources, and some general chatter. Cheers. Scott.
PS I've just clicked on the 'notify me' radial box on the right there so I get an email notification that someone has posted so I can keep up to date. Natty!!
loving your idea Scott, look forward to hearing and seeing its progress and end result.
DeleteGood to hear what artists are saying. It's still early days and time to try out ideas, challenge yourself and bounce things around the meetings. A surrealist way of working is to embrace a chance occurrence and incorporate it into your work. I am using an abandoned dolls house with a Gothic revival feel. Part school room, part house it has an inaccessible attic space, an external staircase going nowhere and bolted on w.c. all of which offer possibilities for subconscious narratives. Recently I transported a quantity of my 3-d dolls house related artworks in a rather too quick house move. Accidentally I dropped one and it was smashed to pieces. I later retrieved it from the bin as in its new random configuration of fragments it seemed more exciting and will find a place in the 'surreal dolls house' taking on a new meaning.
ReplyDeleteYour gothic house has a surreal edge to it, with a staircase going nowhere and an inaccessible attic. Gothic houses conjure up ideas of films where ghostly, otherworldly experiences take place. Interesting to see where this takes you.
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