Above a rather shabby Irish-themed pub, a nice square of banquet chairs and leather sofas surround a professionally lit bit of floor, the platform for an evening of experimentation. On this floor treads a cream silk-suited creature in a hat suitable for meeting, or possibly impersonating, royalty. In one black-gloved hand she holds a camera. In the other hand she also holds... a camera, and a red ribbon, which she proffers to an unsuspecting soul in the front row. He takes it, and she moves slowly away, all the while taking photographs of herself.
Meanwhile, my photographs are being passed around the room.
This is my friend Mar Shro Gora performing the first version of a performance art piece she calls 'Taking the self for a walk', in a reworking of the famous line by Paul Klee. My photographs, a series also depicting a night time walk, are a last minute addition to this performance at Scratch Platform, held in Four Bars, Cardiff, on 31 August 2014.
The photographer Piri was also taking photos of Mar Shro, but for some reason I was not. Am entitled to the odd night off.
Photos and performance copyright Mar Shro Gora 2014.
With thanks to Fizzi Events for making Scratch Platform happen.
This blog is a warmup for my forthcoming solo show this September at the Gas Gallery / Oriel Nwy in Aberystwyth. In the spirit of thinking about landscape, here are details of two of the paintings I saw in Cardiff last week.
There is always more to learn from Monet and Cezanne.
Above: Paul Cezanne, Provencal Landscape, c. 1837, photo by Indigo Violet Larkin
Below: Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, Setting Sun (Symphony in Grey and Pink), photo by Indigo Violet Larkin
Only so much time can be spent looking through one's own back catalogue before visual refeshment is needed. Feeding the eyes, I call it. So last week a visit to the National Museum Cardiff was in order. The current exhibition in the contemporary gallery features five glorious late canvases by Graham Sutherland, as well as a glass case full of his found sculptural objects, and sketches inspired by these objects. All off bounds to the happy snappy instagrammer. However a lovely Sutherland lurks in the permanent collection, on the curvy wall featuring landscapes of Wales.
So now it's back to looking at my own permanent collection, in preparation for my solo show next month.
You want to take better photos? Look at paintings.
Above:
Graham Sutherland painting reproduced in catalogue ('Graham Sutherland: An Unfinished World') as browsed at National Museum Cardiff. Photo copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.
Below:
Painting: Graham Sutherland, Mountain road with boulder, oil on canvas, 1940 (detail). Photo copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.
'Wales Visitation: Poetry, Romanticism and Myth in Art' is on until 7 September 2014, admission free.
