After inadvertently attending the free lunch Lottery gravy train that is being ridden by champagne quaffing free loaders on a regular basis, it was only fair that I returned after the bottles were empty and the party had moved on.
I recently found myself with time to spare in the clear light of an afternoon on Newport Quay. A space in which to step into the world of Lulu Quinn whose Tidal exhibition opening had overflowed with spectators a couple of weeks before.
This afternoon all was notoriously quiet. It was a Friday afternoon, the traditional siesta period for Isle of Wight municipal workers. Poets day by any other name.
On opening the door for me the Quay attendant warned me that inside the Michael West Gallery was dark and to watch the floor. Good advice. For as my eyes accostomed to the murky light I made out two raised platforms propped a couple of inches above floor level. Above this wood, boat shaped, platform hung a boat. For a minute I thought I had wandered once again, as a child, into my Uncle's boat shed without turning on the light. On the dinghy's stern was a square box contraption which I supposed was the source of the lights and noise that gurgled and ran along the base of the boat and the wood platform on the floor. Pete Turner, reckoned it sounded like "Someone had just pulled the chain."
Guided by the very plush brochure the intent is to invite the entrant into Lulu Quinn's world to make their own space. Wander around between the two hung boats and catch the patterns at different angles. A breaking down of barriers between the artist and the participant. Interaction.
The impression I had received from the new age limp text of the brochure was now confirmed before my eyes. As I said before I had seen this idea before, Chicago last year. A room with a boat hung, decorated by flashing lights. They seem to follow me around like piles of bricks.
Through these web pages the sharp intellect of Graham McFarlane has already attacked the pretensions of the art world, a particular gaggle he brilliantly referred to as "the chancers". Steve Double recently made an incoherent attack in the County Press which might be easy to dismiss because when he unleashes his scatter gun he never fails to shoot himself in the foot. I have heard him referred to as 'Double negative'. Not hard to reason why.
Credit to the Quay Arts who found room on their walls for the criticism of Brian Hinton and Ron Smith from Dimbola Lodge who have called for an independent arts body for the Island to monitor the misuse, sorry use, slip of the typewriter, of money. Theirs is a far more levelled shotgun at the head attack fuelled, no doubt, by Dimbola Lodge's failure to be awarded a meagre £5,000 from the money pot which seems to be swilling around.
I have two points to make. One on the art of Lulu Quinn, the other the production of art while somebody else is paying. Symbiosis might be a good subhead for this two pronged rant.
Judged purely on this one piece I found the 'art' of Lulu Quinn to be an empty vessel. For all the glorious fanfare of glossy brochure and reverential tones of the sleeve notes written about her the substance was extremely lame.
As I previously mentioned I had already seen the 'boat' idea before. The notion that Lulu Quinn has created something to blend into the celebration of the New Quay Arts Centre does not hold water. The idea is as much an insult to our intelligence as the perpretators of that horrendous ice-cream cone masquerading as art at the entrance of that Wizard of Oz, Tin man, edifice that is St. Mary's Hospital.
Stand on the bridge over the river at the entrance of the Quay Arts Centre cafe and you will find more relevance in the flow of water, the sight of swans picking for food in the river mud and children idly at play on the Quay than in anything that Lulu conjures up. For Lulu Quinn's Tidal is but an illusion, a confidence trick which needs something like arts funding and sponsorship to make it valid. Some glossy brochure, a framework from which to present itself to us. The Emperor's new clothes personified.
My gripe with Lulu Quinn is that what she has exchanged for a vast quantity of money is of little value or relevance to the Quay Arts Centre. It's shallowness is easily eclipsed by a visit to the restored Rope Store at the Quay Arts Centre. Here just a few photographs of the old Quay and a marvellous piece of video footage featuring harbourmaster Wayne Pritchett are more telling.
Lulu Quinn's Tidal is an ambience, an innocuous wallpaper background akin to the music found in supermarkets and shopping malls to shift goods and services. The idea might be better fitted to selling goldfish in a pet shop or bathrooms at B&Q.
Given the strength of culture on the Island from music to art I have to ask why the powers that be did not consider looking at their own community for ideas on a piece to fit the opening of the Michael West Gallery. The paintings of Angelina Grimshaw, already supported by an exhibition by the Quay blew anything I have seen from Lulu Quinn clear out of the water. The depth of musical creativity is hinted at on this web site. In such a vibrant multi-layered artistic community as the Island has why is the Quay Arts Centre throwing its lottery money at a one dimensional artist whose Tidal pales in comparison to that talent?
I don't have an axe to grind, however, on whether the funds are channelled to a local or mainland artist. I think there is a balance to be struck. That balance can be between local and mainland but must always look for quality and not jive. Unfortunately Lulu falls into the latter category with Tidal.
I am reminded by Lulu Quinn's work of the outspoken American painter Thomas Hart Benton. Benton never favoured hanging his paintings in art galleries because they were too stuffy. What evades most of the art critics who criticise Benton is that his art documents an era in America from the start of the moving picture through to the 1950s and is truly cinematic in its qualitys. Benton's murals adorn some of America's finest buildings though he is said to have favoured hanging them in saloons.
I make the connection between Benton and Lulu Quinn because after the Second World War Benton's work had been marginalised by an explosion of 'trendy' art led, ironically by a former Benton student Jackson Pollack. Benton called it the art of the children of muli-millionaires with nothing better to do, lacking substance, lacking in statement and funded out of vanity. These days the open cheque book that Benton attacked seems to flow from Lottery Funding. It is this funding which I would think is at the heart of Dimbola Lodge's attack on the Quay Arts Centre.
We now live under a government little better than the last we had. The money sucked from the Lottery Fund to build the grandiose Millenium Dome stands at the head of something that is probably rotten right to the core. If the waste and hyposcrisy I witnessed at the opening of Lulu Quinn's Tidal or the exhibition is anything to go dare we prise up another Lottery floorboard?
The Quay Arts Centre is sited perfectly in an area of historic charm. It is a wonderful setting for the promotion of art. It has friendly staff and the cafe serves excellent food. I have attended an inspirational evening with David Gascoyne here last year and on the same day I visited the Lulu Quinn exhibition I had my ribs sorely tickled by the local Ferret Theatre Company performance. So I want to give credit where it is due. What I am questioning is The Quay Arts Centre's use of money on a second rate exhibition called Tidal which sucked rather than stimulated.
Mike Plumbley
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