Between The Forceps and the Stone

23 Jul-26 Sep 2020

Overview

‘I know no one is going to show me everything, We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial, Between the forceps and the stone.’ - Joni Mitchell ‘Hejira’ Although these words by the Canadian poet, singer and songwriter relate to human beings and the impossibility that any single person can convey all the ultimate truths about life, it applies equally well to our extraordinarily multifarious contemporary art world. This exhibition will bring together 5 artists hailing from 5 different countries and will cover painting, both abstract and figurative, sculpture and installation. Each quite distinct, they will, in, an inevitably restricted way, illustrate a few of the many, many truths which exist in today’s contemporary art cornucopia. Although there are inevitably connections between some of them, such as the importance of nature, no one element unites all five. If one lived in fourteenth century Florence, the absolute harbinger of artistic truth would have been Giotto. Likewise Leonardo and Michelangelo in the following two centuries. Similarly Titian in sixteenth century Venice and Velazquez in seventeenth century Spain. Although less so in his lifetime, Rembrandt is the epitome of artistic truth for seventeenth century Holland. However, today no one figure holds the beacon to being that symbol of absolute artistic veracity and that makes our contemporary world far more difficult to decipher from an artistic point of view but ultimately both more intrinsically fascinating whilst also being truer to our human existence. In a world where many of the most industrialised nation’s leaders masquerade false truths as definitive and objective, the contemporary art world is a beacon for absolute freedom with a multitude of voices from all over the world displaying their own particular understanding of what is truth for them, and where we, as individuals, must each of us discover what resonates within us and thus negotiate our own personal paths.