A Sunday morning walk in Hastings

Sometimes Battleaxe forgets she lives in Hastings, by the sea. Life is so busy these days, it is easy to miss out the pleasure of just ambling around… On Sunday we did just that. Started at Rock-A-Nore, walked along the seafront, back via the latest Hastings Contemporary exhibition, and enjoyed exciting sightings of the Miniature Railway, who were having their end of season gala when all the engines come out to play. Battleaxe will look at that gallery exhibition ‘Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs’, which is about still-life, a bit more closely, because she does get so very Battleaxy about the art-speak on exhibit labels. Also, what counts as still-life?

Here’s the sea where we started out. A familiar view, but always satisfying.  It has been very windy the last few days, so the sea is quite churned up. So, let’s dive straight into the Gallery. We met our friends Jenny and Peter in the cafe, which was good, then got stuck into the exhibition.

Cezanne, Basket of Apples

So, first, what is Still Life?  Here is the Wiki article, and to Battleaxe, it is art that portrays objects that are immobile. To me, essentially, still-life provides a moment of stillness… Traditional still-life portrays items that are either inanimate, eg jugs, furniture, tablecloths, immobile but captured in a state of transition towards decay eg fruit, bread, flowers etc., or creatures that are immobile because they are thoroughly dead. You might get the odd bird or butterfly to provide contrast. The painting reproduced above, by Cezanne, is an example of a more modern, yet still traditional, still-life (not in this exhibition).  Many older traditional works, often by Dutch painters, are in rich gloomy colours and feature skulls, dead animals, grapes etc etc. (Memento  Mori’ – reminders of the inevitablity of death and decay for us lot – are common). So far, so straightforward, one might think. Well, being the Hastings Contemporary, not so simple. Here is an extract from the exhibition blurb:

‘The exhibition juxtaposes world-class contemporary sculpture, video and installation alongside traditional still life painted works. It aims to challenge assumptions about this familiar genre, inviting new perspectives and asking viewers: what really is still life?’

For a start, it would have been good to have included a couple of examples of traditional still-life paintings at the beginning of the exhibition so visitors could understand what the game was. Nevertheless, Battleaxe was perfectly happy to Battleaxe round saying ‘That surely isn’t still life’, when looking at a painting of flowers being violently blown around by the wind, pictures of writhing humans etc. But then what about this?

Sleeping Fox, Elizabeth Frink

Interesting, but it’s sleeping, not dead. Am willing to have my assumptions challenged but what really got on my tits were the labels. How does the convoluted, pretentious art-speak help? In my view, it hinders. By the time you have read it you have lost interest in the object it refers to. Here are a couple of examples, with their labels:

 

All I want to know is the title, who painted it, and when. Oh, enough of that.

Me and Philosopher stomped off back to the car-park still muttering about art-speak when we came across a great sight – a line of about twelve miniature railway engines, steam and diesel, all coupled together, trundling along the track behind the gallery. Unfortunately I had no time to photograph them as they passed, but here are a few at the little station.

Perhaps I should have driven a nice little one like this instead of that huge scary great locomotive – see previous post.

 

I see the gallery are offerng a course on ‘Writing about Art’. Perhaps Battleaxe should go on it, learn how to do art-speak. No, it would play havoc with my blood-pressure….

2 Comments

  1. Valerie Poore
    October 10, 2024 / 9:27 pm

    Ha, yes! I hate the pretentiousness of art-speak as well. Really, they do climb up their own whotsits, don’t they? What a load of twaddle. It’s the same with all ‘speak’: bus-speak included. Jargon, pretentious flannel, all of it. Sorry, I’m getting carried away, but I do sympathise. I love the little trains, though!

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