Waste State

Bearspace Gallery
152 Deptford High Street
London SE8 3PQ

PAUL CATON
RICHARD DUCKER
JORG OBERGFELL
CAROLINE ROTHWELL
CONRAD VENTUR

DATES: 2 MAY – 31 MAY 2008

OPEN: WED – SAT 12.30-5 PM

Wastestate brings together five artists whose work can be identified within the theme of rubbish & landscape. For this exhibition BEARSPACE will exhibit artists working in a range of media from watercolour to installation with materials as diverse as felt and concrete.

JMW Turner said when speaking about his industrial landscapes, "If I could find anything blacker than black, I'd use it."

The tradition of landscape in art practice is one of difference. Renowned painters of this tradition referenced a particular social framework, often relevant to a particular genre and therefore, seen as a progressive practice both then and now. Landscape is also often viewed as the domain of the amateur painter, limited by form and content; it is an impression by the artist of a particular sitting or view. This type of landscape representation is often non-confrontational and focuses on the ‘dreamy’ or ‘moody’ aspects of the scene.

Wastestate references both the Great Masters and amateur painting in exploring contemporary and future landscapes. Landscape is a place of freedom, evolution, darkness and light. Today a key element to rural and urban locations is the parasitic layer of rubbish. Landscapes are littered with public bins, rubbish bags spilling out into streets and fields.

Our landscape has changed to include rubbish, rubble and residents amongst the ruin, composing new experiences for artists to draw upon. The predominant use of monochrome as technique in this exhibition reflects the lurking industrial materials and packaging, contrasting the bright or pastel palette of the traditional landscape painter. In this new palette of the man-made and manufactured, artists often use found objects, recycling rubbish to create artworks, physically creating a new landscape using by-products of our throwaway society.

In Wastestate these landscapes evolve, morph and are tangled with rubbish and demise. Like uncomfortable bedfellows, rubbish and landscape become hopelessly linked, creating a layered experience built with each debris intervention. This evolution is present in many of the artists work, almost predicting the victory of rubbish over landscape. This type of artwork allows us to add a new section to the history of landscape art and deconstruct the social framework that this new work is referencing.

www.bearspace.co.uk

Greenwich Beer & Jazz Festival

Jonathan's kindly let me know the website address for the Greenwich Beer and Jazz Festival

www.greenwichbeerandjazzfestival.com

There - didn't take much working out really, did it.

See you there...

Local Cash-In-The-Attic Boy

Robert, from 16 St Alfege's Passage, will be on the telly again

23 May 11.30 am BBC 1.

I'm told "After the success of THe Hotel Inspector.Actor and B and B owner Robert Gray was asked to appear in Cash in the Attic.The show is usually 40 mins long ,but after the first day of filming the Beeb were so pleased with the footage they extended it to an hour,which they have never done before.Robert says there should be some funny bits and one or two Greenwich faces."

Personally I can't stand the programme - but maybe, just for Robert, I'll set my video so I can fast-forward that annoying woman...

Friends of East Greenwich Pleasaunce Summer Fair

The Friends are holding another shinding on Sunday 8th June. All the usual fun plus the photography competition. See www.fegp.typepad.com for more.

100 Cauliflowers

The finale of the 100 Cauliflowers art project on the peninsula is currently taking place - check out

www.100cauliflowers.com

Rowan Newton

Local artist Rowan Newton is the latest exhibition at Paul McPherson Gallery in Lassell St. I can't find a website for him and no openign and closing dates showed on the file he sent me - PDFs really don't work well with googlemail - but I'd guess from Monday 19th May onwards for a couple of weeks.

I managed this off the PDF:

"Rowan’s pieces use striking bold strokes of paint, and brash dashes of spray paint, completed with his distinctive illustration style drawn over the top. Demanding the viewers attention with their bright, strong, young, sexy and cool content."

www.paulmcphersongallery.com will have details soon, I'm sure.

Greenwich Underground Walk

This guided walk, lasting about 2 hours, covering 3 miles and a hill, will now take place on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month - price £5.

Further details www.undergreenwich.co.uk

The next one will be Sunday 18th May, 2.00pm. Meet by Greenwich Foot Tunnel.