The Dark Monarch

The Dark Monarch
Towner Gallery Eastbourne 23rd of January - 21st of March

The Dark Monarch was interesting collection of work which takes its title from a 1962 book by Sven Berlin, The exhibition focuses on folklore mythology and occult and how it has influenced British art over the past hundred years. The exhibition includes work by a number of significant 20th-century British artists including work by Damien Hirst.

I visited the exhibition on last Saturday. I found the exhibition interesting even though I was apprehensive that it would be quite a dark heavy or gloomy atmosphere, I was pleasantly surprised by the lightness of it. There were many dark and eerie landscape paintings for sure but mainly the feeling was of a lightness for me. I especially liked ' the child's dream' by Damien Hirst. The unicorn which is encased in a tank of formaldehyde represents a powerful symbol of good in pagan mythology. The unicorn is created from a beautiful white fall with a gold horn and gold hoofs. The formaldehyde makes the hair on the uniform float as if it is `staticly charged, making it appear more alive. The tank is framed in gold, 24 carat plated. It stands in its own room like an object to be worshipped or alter emphasising a feeling of reverence, like a golden calf.(A false god perhaps?)

Precious Reclaiming Art and Craft

Precious Reclaiming Art and Craft Hove Museum & Art Gallery 30 January to 23 May 2010
Hove Museum & Art Gallery commissioned ten artists and makers to create new pieces, and nine to exhibit existing work. Precious is the result, produced from objects which have had a previous life. I went to the Precious exhibition at Hove Museum last week . Big mistake. Or rather the mistake was not phoning to find out if there were any school parties also going. There was one school party of 60 children and another of about 40 plus several groups of adult learners. So Hove Museum was busier than Oxford Street. Fortunately, the schools were in groups and I managed to see some of the exhibits in relative peace and quiet. The exhibition is wonderful. Many different artists have made sculptures out of everyday reclaimed objects. Some witty, clever, painstakingly made pieces, some that were breathtakingly beautiful. A plinth of 4000 pennies, computer speakers painted in a willow pattern style, dresses made out of commercial dressmaker paper patterns, fabric made out of stitched paper and made into dresses. Taxidermy cases filled with paper flowers made out of cereal boxes and moths made out of spectacles. And my favourite, thousands of paper holes treaded on invisible thread to give a dreamlike, cascading, draping cobweb effect.