I have been immersed in the final preparations for my Royal College of Art MA degree show. Consequently the updates to my thoughts here have not happened recently.
Along with tidying my studio after this intense period of activity I need to tidy my thoughts.
The last time I posted here I had just been to Paradise Park Lane, Cheshunt, looking for clues.
It was muddy but illuminated.
I found Paradise Nursery was not lavishly planted with beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers. It was Eden after the expulsion.
It was those outside the walls, for whom it was unattainable, who called it Paradise.
Those inside found it a confinement.
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
I found the waters of Paradise feeding into a glutinous green pond
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
and a touching roadside tribute to a lost son. These ideas fed into my work. I spent many weeks in the screenprint room.
Printing the circles took up all of my time, each one has 14 layers. They are on 50cm diameter mirrored acrylic.
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
I had found the tree of life in Paradise Park, Bethnal Green.
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
The fruits of temptation in Paradise Walk, Chelsea.
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
There were promised riches in Rue du Paradis, Paris
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
as in Paradise Row – will it be riches on earth or in heaven?
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
Jacobs Ladder was found in Paradise Industrial Estate, Hemel Hempstead.
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
Holiday dreaming in Holloway’s Paradise Park
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
and a taste of the tropical in Paradise Street, Southwark
Susan Eyre everydaymatters
where there was also the tender nurturing of a garden, however small.
I did manage to see a couple of shows. The First Humans exhibition at Pump House Gallery had some interesting work. The curator Angela Kingston was interested in the number of artists in recent years who are investigating the prehistoric and the primeval and wonders if this is a return to raw materiality, a response to ecological crisis or a dystopic analysis of what might be the last humans – us.
I enjoyed the playful nature of Jack Strange’s primitive boulder with video insert where Doctor Who type aliens peer back out at you.
Jack Strange
Andy Harper’s The Threefold Law looks like a mash up of insect, tribal mask and tropicalia.
Andy Harper
Ben Rivers’ film, The Creation As We Saw It, recounts the myths of a village where straw huts exist alongside mobile phones.
It cuts scenes of geological activity with mythological tales and contemporary images of people, tracing a line from spectacular eruptions to present day mundanity.
Ben Rivers film still from The Creation as we saw it
‘Adams Hut’ Paradise Park Lane
Nicky Coutts look at mimicry in her exhibition My Previous Life as an Ape at Danielle Arnoud threw a light on our animalistic tendencies and questioned our evolution and the commonalities we share with fellow living creatures. Through film, staged photography and commissioned portraits from a court artist she explored our need to fit in, our use of guises and disguises, the lies and deceptions evolved to hide from predators and the predatory nature of the lies and deceptions practised in our courts of law. Her series of photo etchings Mimics were stunning.
Nicky Coutts Mimics series 1
Susan Eyre 