REVIEW
Gordon Dalton - Idiot Convention
Motorcade/Flashparade, Bristol
28 June - 7 July 2013
Reviewed by: Martyn Cross »
In John Kennedy Toole’s novel ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, eccentric protagonist and flatulent anti-hero Ignatius J Reilly is on a mission against the world. Throughout the duration of the book he rails against authority and expounds views on the degeneracy of modern humanity, even taking his own mother to task for being, well, his poor, long-suffering mother. He is quite unlike any other character in the history of literature.
If one were to give the paintings in Gordon Dalton’s exhibition ‘Idiot Convention’ a voice, they would undoubtedly sound like the loquacious Ignatius and his every eructation. Eyeballing you from the wall they mock every thought about painting that runs through your poor, pretty head and stare down your pitiful views on art. Behind your back they laugh knowingly and puff on tabs; bilious smoke hangs thick in the air. Even Dalton himself wonders what the hell his paintings get up to when he’s not in the studio, hence the title of the show, so the question is are they laughing at us, or with us?
Crammed into the gallery are twenty-one works, each shouting for attention and demanding your eyes – it’s hard to know where to look. As you digest this visual clobbering the smog begins to clear: the chaos is obviously intentional and this is as much a lesson in the history of art as it is a simple exhibition of paintings. Everywhere you look are references to the work of some great artist or other: Philip Guston here, Martin Kippenberger there, a nod to Tal R… Victor Willing… René Daniëls… Giorgio Morandi… even Pierre Puvis de Chavannes - the list goes on and on. But this is not some pastiche or mimicry of the aforementioned artists. No, Dalton is creating his own language that openly begs, borrows and steals from the past and ultimately says ‘I’m just having fun’. By being wilfully obtuse, repetitive and curmudgeonly, he is actively exposing the truth in his work; that these are honest paintings by an artist who wants you to know what he knows but doesn’t give a damn if you get it or not. It’s a refreshing approach that would normally be distilled in other artists work by the quest for originality or a bid to seem unique. Such off-putting trivialities are of no concern to Dalton: this exhibition is unashamedly about painting and he wears his art on his sleeve.
The paintings themselves revel in what they are: coloured mud on canvas. It’s as if they’ve been dragged out of a swamp. ‘Juicy Lucy’ and ‘Serious Fun’ sweat gunge. Every so often occasional pops of colour break the primitive ooze and we are treated to sickly greens or limp yellows. ‘Last Night I Missed the Fireworks’ exemplifies this melding of colours and styles as we are treated to blood-red gallows against a brooding apocalyptic sky. Like the last man on earth, we’re tripping out. Everyday motifs such as trees, tennis-balls, pipes and smoke belch out of the paintings; you can imagine the back pages of Dalton’s school exercise books were once littered with similarly dumb iconography. They add a degree of humour to the work but at no stage do we laugh out loud, not unless we want to get a kicking.
At times you do crave some cohesion. It’s definitely there somewhere but Dalton wilfully disrupts the flow by placing stylistically opposing works together – he can’t help himself. In reality this could’ve been divided up into several smaller shows, but the artist has chosen to glue them together with a huge dollop of punk attitude and macho posturing. In this case more is more. It’s utter anarchy – but what a ride!
Writer detail:
Martyn Cross is an artist based in Bristol
Motorcade/Flashparade National Open 2012 winners
Three artists share £1,500 prize fund.
BY: JACK HUTCHINSON
NEWS: 10 Dec 2012
[+]
Tom Bayliss, TRIBECA.
The winners of this year's Motorcade/Flashparade National Open have been announced, with three artists each receiving £500 in prize money.
First prize went to David Theobald for his computer generated video work 'Walking Holiday in Grindelwald'. He will also have the opportunity for a solo show at the Motorcade/Flashparade project space in Bristol. Second prize went to Ellen Wilkinson, with The Urbis Bursary Award going to Tom Bayliss.
Julie McCalden, director of Motorcade/Flashparade commented: "We hope the prize money will impact positively on the artists and their individual practices. The solo show for David Theobald is also a fantastic opportunity to work towards developing a cohesive exhibition in what can be a challenging space and we look forward to seeing this project develop."
This year's selection panel were Emma Cocker, David Trigg and Brian Griffiths. Explaining the judging process, McCalden said: "They had a difficult task selecting the first and second prizes as there were several strong contenders. The decisions were finalised and we are pleased with the selection."
For prize winner Tom Bayliss, the financial element of the prize will help fund future projects. He said: "Winning the prize means an acknowledgement for everything that I have done this year. The piece has been shown a few times nationally to a great reception and this rounds it off nicely. The money means that I can fund materials for shows at the beginning of next year and develop projects in the future."
In addition to the financial prize, Bayliss will also have the opportunity to exhibit at the Robinson Building, home to Motorcade/FlashParade National Open sponsors Urbis Development. He said: "I am looking forward to producing a site specific work as part of the prize and bursary. I am very grateful to the team at Motorcade/Flashparade for the opportunity."
______________________________________________________________
REVIEW
Gordon Dalton - Idiot Convention
Motorcade/Flashparade, Bristol
28 June - 7 July 2013
Reviewed by: Martyn Cross »
In John Kennedy Toole’s novel ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, eccentric protagonist and flatulent anti-hero Ignatius J Reilly is on a mission against the world. Throughout the duration of the book he rails against authority and expounds views on the degeneracy of modern humanity, even taking his own mother to task for being, well, his poor, long-suffering mother. He is quite unlike any other character in the history of literature.
If one were to give the paintings in Gordon Dalton’s exhibition ‘Idiot Convention’ a voice, they would undoubtedly sound like the loquacious Ignatius and his every eructation. Eyeballing you from the wall they mock every thought about painting that runs through your poor, pretty head and stare down your pitiful views on art. Behind your back they laugh knowingly and puff on tabs; bilious smoke hangs thick in the air. Even Dalton himself wonders what the hell his paintings get up to when he’s not in the studio, hence the title of the show, so the question is are they laughing at us, or with us?
Crammed into the gallery are twenty-one works, each shouting for attention and demanding your eyes – it’s hard to know where to look. As you digest this visual clobbering the smog begins to clear: the chaos is obviously intentional and this is as much a lesson in the history of art as it is a simple exhibition of paintings. Everywhere you look are references to the work of some great artist or other: Philip Guston here, Martin Kippenberger there, a nod to Tal R… Victor Willing… René Daniëls… Giorgio Morandi… even Pierre Puvis de Chavannes - the list goes on and on. But this is not some pastiche or mimicry of the aforementioned artists. No, Dalton is creating his own language that openly begs, borrows and steals from the past and ultimately says ‘I’m just having fun’. By being wilfully obtuse, repetitive and curmudgeonly, he is actively exposing the truth in his work; that these are honest paintings by an artist who wants you to know what he knows but doesn’t give a damn if you get it or not. It’s a refreshing approach that would normally be distilled in other artists work by the quest for originality or a bid to seem unique. Such off-putting trivialities are of no concern to Dalton: this exhibition is unashamedly about painting and he wears his art on his sleeve.
The paintings themselves revel in what they are: coloured mud on canvas. It’s as if they’ve been dragged out of a swamp. ‘Juicy Lucy’ and ‘Serious Fun’ sweat gunge. Every so often occasional pops of colour break the primitive ooze and we are treated to sickly greens or limp yellows. ‘Last Night I Missed the Fireworks’ exemplifies this melding of colours and styles as we are treated to blood-red gallows against a brooding apocalyptic sky. Like the last man on earth, we’re tripping out. Everyday motifs such as trees, tennis-balls, pipes and smoke belch out of the paintings; you can imagine the back pages of Dalton’s school exercise books were once littered with similarly dumb iconography. They add a degree of humour to the work but at no stage do we laugh out loud, not unless we want to get a kicking.
At times you do crave some cohesion. It’s definitely there somewhere but Dalton wilfully disrupts the flow by placing stylistically opposing works together – he can’t help himself. In reality this could’ve been divided up into several smaller shows, but the artist has chosen to glue them together with a huge dollop of punk attitude and macho posturing. In this case more is more. It’s utter anarchy – but what a ride!
Writer detail:
Martyn Cross is an artist based in Bristol
Motorcade/Flashparade National Open 2012 winners
28 June - 7 July 2013
Reviewed by: Martyn Cross »
Three artists share £1,500 prize fund.
BY: JACK HUTCHINSON
NEWS: 10 Dec 2012
- [+]Tom Bayliss, TRIBECA.
The winners of this year's Motorcade/Flashparade National Open have been announced, with three artists each receiving £500 in prize money.
First prize went to David Theobald for his computer generated video work 'Walking Holiday in Grindelwald'. He will also have the opportunity for a solo show at the Motorcade/Flashparade project space in Bristol. Second prize went to Ellen Wilkinson, with The Urbis Bursary Award going to Tom Bayliss.
Julie McCalden, director of Motorcade/Flashparade commented: "We hope the prize money will impact positively on the artists and their individual practices. The solo show for David Theobald is also a fantastic opportunity to work towards developing a cohesive exhibition in what can be a challenging space and we look forward to seeing this project develop."
This year's selection panel were Emma Cocker, David Trigg and Brian Griffiths. Explaining the judging process, McCalden said: "They had a difficult task selecting the first and second prizes as there were several strong contenders. The decisions were finalised and we are pleased with the selection."
For prize winner Tom Bayliss, the financial element of the prize will help fund future projects. He said: "Winning the prize means an acknowledgement for everything that I have done this year. The piece has been shown a few times nationally to a great reception and this rounds it off nicely. The money means that I can fund materials for shows at the beginning of next year and develop projects in the future."
In addition to the financial prize, Bayliss will also have the opportunity to exhibit at the Robinson Building, home to Motorcade/FlashParade National Open sponsors Urbis Development. He said: "I am looking forward to producing a site specific work as part of the prize and bursary. I am very grateful to the team at Motorcade/Flashparade for the opportunity."
______________________________________________________________
Winners of Motorcade/FlashParade Open to be announced
£1,500 up for grabs in Bristol's hottest open exhibition prize.
BY: JACK HUTCHINSON
NEWS: 7 Dec 2012
[+]Motorcade/FlashParade National Open 2012
Three artists will each receive £500 in prize money when the winners of the second annual Motorcade/FlashParade National Open are announced this evening.
The first prize winner will also be offered the opportunity of a solo exhibition at Motorcade/FlashParade, a dynamic artist-led project space in Bristol.
The competition is open to all artists and all genres of work, including MA and final year BA students. This year's selection panel features Emma Cocker (writer, artist and lecturer, Sheffield), Brian Griffiths (artist and senior tutor, Royal Academy Schools, London) and David Trigg (artist, writer and contributor to a-n, Bristol).
Investment in artists underpins the prize, with previous participants enjoying continuing support from Motorcade. Many of the artists in last year's Open have re-exhibited at the venue, with several curating and facilitating exhibitions. This includes Elizabeth Dismorr, who has also been appointed as the organisation's Marketing Manager.
The 21 artists in the running for the 2012 prize include: Gemma Cossey,Pat Flynn, Tristan Stevens, Brendan Lancaster, Catherine Knight, David Theobald and Luke Frost. Follow updates as the winners are announced on Twitter.
The Motorcade/FlashParade National Open 2012 previews on Friday 7 December with prizes announced at 7pm. Exhibition continues Saturday 9 - Sunday 10 December; and Thursday 13 - Sunday 16 December, 12-6pm. Full list of exhibiting artists here.
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