Abi Rhodes' Zigzag Wanderings

A Tale of Mother’s Bones: Grace Pailthorpe, Reuben Mednikoff and the Birth of Psychorealism

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea 6 October 2018 – 20 January 2019, and Camden Arts Centre, 12 April – 23 June 2019

I discovered this exhibition quite late in its run at Bexhill so only got to see it this week. I have to say it was one of the best days out I've had for as long as I remember.

Dr Grace Pailthorpe (1883–1971) was a surgeon at the Front during the  First Worls War and subsequently became interested in the psychoanalysis of young offenders and how art allowed them to express their unconscious characters while working at Birmingham [UK]  Prison,

In 1935, 29 year-old young poet/artist Reuben Mednikoff (1906–1972) met the 52 year-old Pailthorpe at a London party and so began the working relationship in which she psychoanalysed him and through painting they both explored their stories, got involved in the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition alongside Duchamp. Kiee, Miro, Ernst and Magritte and many more. By the early 1940s, they found themselves expelled from the British Surrealist Group because they refused to go along with the alliance with the Communist Party, believing it better to understand and modify one's own psyche and behaviour before trying to change the world.

Consequently they came to call their own artistic niche, Psychorealism.

Most of their work looks like Surrealism, much of it being a fairly naive version of Dali's drawing style, while some of their pen and ink work looks as it probably influenced the work of Gerald Scarfe and Ronald Searle. Many paintings ate annotated on the reverse of the paintings and relate to the difficult relationships both painters struggled with in their respective families - strict father in the case of Pailthorpe who was brought up in a Plymouth Brethren family and Mendikoff's feelings of jealousy and abandonment when his mother had another baby. The pictures are explicit as is the descriptive language on the reverse. Pailthorpe modified some of this when she wrote professional papers and delivered speeches to learned bodies, but its forthrightness makes one aware that Gilbert and George were not necessarily exploring new territory other than using actual faeces in their work rather than representing it with paint.

The exhibition is so well curated although in a quite traditional format, that anyone walking in on spec would be able to understand it and empathise even at the lowest level of enjoying the humour and crudity depicted in so many of the works.

The sad thing about this exhibition is that there is no catalogue to accompany it. The background stories are so important to so much of the work, but there is next-to no literature widely available on this very important branch of surrealism and its clearly pivota lrole in the development of 20th-century art.

If you're in Sussex do try to get to Bexhill while the show is still on - you;ve got a fortnight from the date of writing. If you're anywhere else, make a note of the Camden dates and get along at the earliest opportunity.

Paul Lansky. Contemplating Weather

Paul Lansky. Contemplating Weather

Bridge Records BRIDGE 9447  2015

This album consists of 3 works, dramatically illustrating the wide spectrum of different musics that Paul Lansky is renowned for bringing us:

1. Tracks 1-11. Contemplating Weather (2013), a choral cantata based on poems by Jonathan Greene, performed by Western Michigan Chorale and Birds on a Wire, conducted by Kimberley Dunn Adams
2. Tracks 12-15. Travel Diary (2007), a percussion work performed by the Meehan/Perkins Duo
3. Tracks 16-21. It All Adds Up (2005) a piano 4-hander, performed by Quattro Mani

 

 

Contemplating Weather almost immediately has one thinking of the scenic wilderness scenes conjured in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ using music by Ligeti, one also thinks of Penderecki  masses and the divine ‘Threnody  for the Victims of Hiroshima’. Sometimes like Gregorian Chant: sometimes reminiscent of Scott Joplin rags, George Gershwin tone-poems or even Aaron Copeland landscapes , this piece darts from one style to another: now dark and threatening, now jolly and dancing – one begins to see the relevance of the work’s title – how weather has different moods which create light and dark skies, sunshine, rain, hail, snow etc. if one has travelled in countries such as Wales or Iceland, one is often told the weather can run through its complete repertoire in a single day – bright sunlight one minute; blizzard five minutes later…. There are pure contemplative moments which have one wondering what weather this represents and I come down to the conclusion that it’s describing Humanity’s relationship with The Weather when one simply sits looking out of the window watching the clouds go by, watching the cumulonimbus build up & wondering if there will be a storm or will it just skirt by taking its wrath somewhere else…. ‘Contemplating Weather’ is both a painting in parts of the different moods created by weather and a kaleidoscope of the feelings and reflections we experience when observing the  landscape presenting different facets according to how Thor, Zeus, Horus or Indra are feeling at any particular time. It’s an excellent and significant work which is a welcome addition to the canon of expressive music.

Travel Diary So…..how to describe this? Gamelan meets Zdeněk Miler’s Mole character? I’m really not sure. There’s a wide variety of percussive effects going on here sometimes individually, elsewhere in concert – and every aspect of it is interesting , effective and, most importantly, musical. But, unlike ‘Contemplating Weather’s impressions of highly visual material, I’d say this piece is almost entirely abstract, any pictures conjured drawn from one’s knowledge of, say, the aforementioned Mole’ various adventures. The moods are generally quite light [even when the percussion is heavy, if you see what I mean] so none of the seriousness of Steve Reich’s ‘Drumming ‘ for instance. Interestingly, however, the abstraction is somewhat lacking in emotion  - it’s rather like a dream which is neither fairy-tale nor nightmare – it just happens – maybe like the view from the window of a train – one has no connection to the place one sees passing before one’s eyes – it’s just there…. This means one hears it without the commitment that Contemplating Weather evokes. It’s in another dimension. One doesn’t feel part of it and therefore one reacts with a neutrality that is unfamiliar – yet one can still appreciate it, like it even – and I do. A stranger in a strange land can still enjoy what he experiences although it does not equate with his normal existence. Curious….

It All Adds Up  This piece reminds me of a soundtrack to a silent movie. I have heard similar music by Josiah Wordsworth – but this being a four-hander means twice as much content is possible per unit time. Once again Paul Lansky illustrates hid diversity and ability to change not just with the wind but it the blink of an eye – just the precise requirement for a fast moving film with constantly changing subject matter and scenery. Totally gripping fascinating stuff – just supply your own pictures.

So we have an album of 3 extremely different works here. One wonders if such variety is acceptable to every listener even if they do have a liking for the offbeat. All I can say is: ‘It works for me.’

 COMMENT

from Becky Starobin at Bridge Records.....

 

Dear Abi,

Yours is the only review I have seen that captures my feelings about 'Contemplating Weather', which I
consider a deeply important musical statement.  Thank you!

 I have forwarded your review to Paul Lansky and the performers.

May I have your permission to tweet and facebook it?
With appreciation,
Becky

The Architects of our Downfall and Depression

Do you remember these 2 villains. They're called Raymond Baxter [left] and James Burke. From 1965, in a TV programme called 'Tomorrow's World,' they bombarded us with futuristic designs, ideas and inventions which would free us from wage slavery and bring increasing leisure to all our lives. We could expect a future of prosperity, idleness and pleasure.

Well, many of us have the idleness although not in the way we were led to expect. Others do in fact have the pleasure and prosperity - but number only a measly 2-3% of our population. Many of us are being forced to spend the evenings of our lives as drudges or searching for jobs that do not exist.

These men stand accused of selling us similar dreams to those peddled by the likes of Mao, Stalin and Hitler.

They have betrayed generations. They should be rounded up tried for treachery of the highest order.

Social Work @ The Komedia

Social Work @ The Komedia

I’m glad to see the local council have at last seen some sort of sense and brought their services to places where their potential clients are eking out their miserable existences instead of sitting in ivory towers waiting for the sick and needy to come to them.

I have experienced this imaginative new service in the form of Social Work being delivered to the Komedia in Brighton by the very proficient team styling themselves Bourgeois and Maurice. I believe them to be close associates of that other wonderful team of public benefactors Wallace and Gromit.

Together with a couple of hundred fellow sufferers these two experts took me through all the dubious behavioural deviancies that befall us as we stumble through the confusing midden that is everyday life in an effort to liberate us from the procrastinations we endure whilst trying to see out through the miasmic fog of our own psyches.

They achieved this through the very useful tho’ oft-neglected media of song, dance, dramatic re-enactment and the presentation of photographic evidence and the display of video footage, illustrating the manifold errors in our dealings with this hazardous world.

Mr Bourgeois, his startling appearance akin to those dangerous exemplars Frank N Furter and The Thin White Duke, took the role of main protagonist and role model of how not the disport oneself in public places. Meanwhile, his companion Ms Maurice, complete with beehive a la Mari Wilson et al, provided suitable background material in the form of musical accompaniment, clarifying remarks and other back-ups rather in the form of the more familiar Powerpoint Presentation.

All these was done with consummate ease and the clients all left feeling somewhat relieved of their burdens, quite refreshed, but looking forward to their next round of therapeutic input.

There is one danger I would warn against, however. This and similar fashionable styles of treatment should be used on the unsuspecting public sparingly and only in otherwise hopeless cases for the time being; at least until there is sufficient evidence of their efficacy and stringent safety parameters have been established. These limits should be kept under constant peer review through scrutiny via the usual channels and respectable journals such as Nature, Social Work Today and The Beano.

Stranger in Stanmer Great Wood

Last Saturday morning I was walking my dog in the region of Upper Lodges, Stanmer park when I heard an exotic bird call. It's origin seemed to be in a large Beech tree and i approached in order to identify the caller. Unfortunately a Crow arrived in the tree with the same idea and frightened the stranger away - it flew off in the direction of Stanmer village. And that was that...

...until this moerning when I was there again. And so was the bird. This time it flew across a gap in the canopy and I managed to see it in silhouette only and partially identify it as a parakeet of some sort. It then disappeared from both sight and sound. So I was not able to pursue it.

Hopefully I will come across it next time I visit the area.

There is a history of such exotics in the area. Hollingbury Woods was once [1970s-90s] as the home of upto 20 breeding ring-necked parakeets which made text books on the subject. These gradually dwindles and disappeared after the nesting tree which stood on a slope by the children's playground fell over one windy night.
Last winter, there was a bit of excitement in Waldegrave Road near Fiveways when a pair of green parrots with yellow faces arrived in the street regularly feeding on fruit of a particulalry abundant crab apple and the seed etc put out by residents. They stayed several weeks and were reported and photographed in local magazine 'The Fiveways Directory'. After disappearing for a few weeks they reappeared with a third bird in tow. Whether they had bred or not remains uncertain, but their residency this time was shrt-lived. As far as I know their present location or fate remains a mystery - as does their origin.

If you have any information on any of these matters I would be pleased to hear them. Meanwhile I shall try to keep you up to date on the Stanmer parakeet.

Defense de Fumer!

It's starting - the long-awaited clamp down on smoking

I don't smoke - never have done - never intend to

But the all pervasive desire to make other people stop doing it seems pretty evil to me and calls into question whether people really do believe in free choice or not

The spanish - bless their cotton socks - have had quite restrictive laws on smoking in public places such as bars for some time now. How have they received them?

By the brilliant tactic of letting them in and then ignoring them

There is just too much respect for the law in this country

We let the do-gooders pass stuff willy-nilly because they think they have a God-given right to decide what's good for us and then we think we have to obey their laws however crappy they may be

Why not let the prisons fill up with people who decide to flout the anti-smoking laws - then Big Brother and her cohorts can decide how to cope with real criminals who rape and murder

The only way left to stop the ever increasing number of interfering freedom limiting laws is by ignoring them and let those who want to toe the line figure out how to deal with the consequences of their fascistic actions

I may even force myself to take up the habit

Labels: politics lunacy freedom resistance smoking

Edukashun, Edukashun, Edukashun......

I think I've mentioned on a previous occasion, that I'm appalled by the frequency that education issues appear in headline news. Not a day seems to go by without this or that new announcement, initiative, review, enquiry etc etc etc being declared.
Now when I were a lad, you never heard nuffink abat edukashun from one year to the next. And life seemed a whole lot better for that.

Today's bandwagon is that old chestnut about the 'high' percentage of school-students attaining leaving age without developing a satisfactory ability in reading and/or writing.

Now while I recognise that in the UK there seems to have been a 'golden age' in school performance probably peaking in the 60s or 70s, I would contend that there always was and always will be a certain amount of school failure in the 'basic skills'.

The reason for this is obvious to me - that is they are not basic at all. In fact they are totally artificial - figments of our fertile human imaginations, pounced upon by the powers that be as a useful stick with which to beat us.

If The Supreme Being had intended us to be readin', writin' amnd rithmetisin' it'd not have waited till the Lil Ol Yuman race commed along afore it started insistin' on it.

Trilobites, Stromatolites, Dinosaurs, CumuloNimbus, Cannabis Sattiva and everything else would have been reading, writing and arithmetising well before now. But no, that doesn't seem to have happened. And even when Our Lot pops up it seems to take squillions of years before anyone thinks about these activities and lots more before it's even suggested that the majority should aquire these entirely invented skills.

Is it not possible that for any number of reasons to do with neurological development, personal preference or different priority many many many folk may just not be equipped to acquire the so-called basic skills? I think this is entirely possible.

My experience 'in the workplace' has shown me that in all age groups there are small numbers of very good workers who struggle with literacy and/or numeracy and it does not make them any less a valuable citizen even though the dim-witted among them might persecute them for being differently skilled.

So, I'm happy with Mr Gordon Brown to be trying to restore the place in the curriculum for methods which identify struggling pupils at the age of six or any age for that matter, but I am not happy with people who use statistics to try and convince us that things are getting worse and everybody should be getting PhDs even though they think that standards are falling etc etc etc

We should not be thinking that the system is failing just because X% cannot read and write. Rather we should be asking what else can these people be doing to help them feel included and take up useful positions in society.

In the Old Days there were tons of manual and manufacturing jobs in which they could develop other skills and feel highly valued. Successions of short sighted governments - mainly under the influence of Mrs T [a fore-rummer of mrsa!] - have demolished British Industry and only replaced it with crappy second rate service industries which most of us don't really need anyway.

Meanwhile schools still go on as if we're still in charge of the world and need to churn out godzillions of Oxbridge educated bureaucrats to keep the rest of the buggers in their proper place! Skools are an outdated relic of the Industrial Revolution. We probably do not need universal schooling at all any more. Education should be almost entirely experiential. Kids should have the freedom to explore and time to enjoy the wider world around them and creatively find out where they want to take their lives - something skools are VERY VERY BAD at. Besides real life, there are plenty of good educational tools around in the form of computers, TV & Radio, libraries, etc etc etc from which they can draw inspiration in the company of grown up more mature friends and neighbours and if they deem it useful and necessary they will learn to read and write - at least just as many will do as do so at present.

The NUT has perpetrated a grievous mendacious myth with its slogan..

'If you can read this, thank a teacher'

Teachers can and do do a lot of good but when it comes down to it most kids actually teach themselves to read and motivation is the most important ingredient in the mix which will get them there, although it should be accepted that some people will never acquire the skill, and many only barely adequately.

Please let's become a little more tolerant and imaginative about what folk need to achieve to be good citizens and stop demonising those who have different levels of skill and ability and find them good roles in society so that they can feel included and proud of their abilities and the contributions they can make.

Climb down off soapbox.....

Aahhh! Look at that.

A few years back the whole family went on an NSPCC walk in the wilds of West Virginia. It was called 'A Walk in the Woods', its inspiration being drawn from Bill Bryson's book of the same name.

We walked about 80 miles on the Allegheny Trail rather than the Appalacian Trail which is what Bryson had originally done. Bill joined us for a couple of days although we were originally told he would be with us the whole 8 days. Still he was great to talk to and just as personable as his books suggest.

Anyway this snap was taken in woods shortly having climbed away fron the Greenbank Obervatory which had been a great place to visit.

I was towards the back of the group as we wound our way through fairly dense tree growth in more-or-less single file. I was shocked when I looked down and realised I was about to step on this little critter. A good 30 folk had passed it within 2 metres without seeing it!

Our guide told us that its mother had probably heard us coming and 'told' it to play possum while she slipped away to a safe distance until we had passed on.

It was a great moment that I shan't ever forget.

Find more pix from the trip at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nutty_slack/

BTW I think it's a white tailed deer
In case you're confused as to scale - the torso was no more than 1 foot long

PRO-FUSION

Fusion is the process which powers our Sun

Hoo-ray! At Last it looks like we might be taking realistic steps to deal with the energy crisis and go some way to combat global warming in a practical way.

It’s probably not fair to suggest that this is the start of something entirely new because scientists and other authorities have no doubt been beavering away for years to make today’s announcement of an international cooperative project to develop a programme to produce energy by nuclear fusion a practical reality. But thus far this public have not been involved very much until this moment .

Now we know what’s happening we can all step forward to encourage the project by letting our MPs and other folk who speak for us know we’re behind it and want to see it succeed. I intend to write to my MP today. So at least he’ll be aware of this. Could I ask you to do the same – even if you disagree with me, at least it will raise the level of debate.

Glowing plasma inside a fusion test reactor (Image: Princeton Particle Physics Laboratory)

Of course there will be resistance. On BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning, they wheeled out Friends of the Earth’s Roger Hinkman to whinge about it but luckily he was unable to raise any convincing objections and the pro-fusion spokesperson was conciliatory and sensible enough to affirm that we also need to make more progress in the development and encouragement of renewables – wave, wind, solar, geo-thermal etc – alongside fusion.[And let’s not forget the still tangled mystery of such phenomena as cold fusion.] But it is clear that there will be huge campaigns by well-meaning Luddites who really object on philosophical grounds rather than for any genuine ecological or economic reasons. They may have valid viewpoints but they cannot be allowed to stymie every positive step forward by raising petty objections thus adding years to each painful stage in progress. Let’s have an upfront debate at the outset, come to some mutually acceptable way forward and seize it with enthusiasm. [Am I sounding a bit like Trotsky or Mao?]

Maybe it’s now time to boost the advancement of renewables and fusion by discouraging the use of oil and coal etc with progressive taxes that will phase them out gradually. We will need to develop a strategy for helping the developing regions of the globe to do the same. It’s seems that most of our major UK political parties are climbing on board this bandwagon. Again they need encouragement.

Of course, the underlying problem of population control needs to be introduced into this arena, but there are lots of religious and other groups who do not wish to face up to this one, but until they do the problems will continue to escalate. As the population grows, the more resources we need, the more land we occupy, the more other species are threatened, the more the natural order will become unbalanced, the hungrier we will all get etc etc etc.

But let’s leave that one for another day…

An international consortium has signed a formal agreement to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor.
The multi-billion-euro project known as Iter - or "the way" in Latin - will aim to produce energy from nuclear reactions like those that fuel the Sun.

If successful, it could provide energy that is both clean and limitless.

The project, which will be based in France, follows years of talks between South Korea, Russia, China, the EU, the US, India and Japan.

If all goes well, officials will build a demonstration power plant before rolling out the technology to the world. Iter says electricity could be available on the grid within 30 years.

USEFUL LINKS
http://www.jet.efda.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6165932.stm
http://www.nuclearfusion.com/

DAB Digital Radio - Who Needs It?

The more I learn about digital radio, the less I think it's a good idea.

In fact, I am beginning to question the motives for it being foisted upon us.

The first thing you notice about it is it's total inability to tell you the time accurately.

What is the point of having the Greenwich Time Signal or the Westminster Bongs broadcast when the only certain thing we know about these is that if you hear them on digital radio it's not the correct time. And there seems to be no information available as to the time lag on the particular device you are listening on.

It's possible to hear the same moment on radio at least three times if you have analogue radio, digital radio and cable TV on in the house all at the same time . I guess that if you also have computer streaming and satellite TV you could get a couple more versions of what time is now!

The second difficulty is environmental. It goes against the grain to introduce a system which will cause several, if not tens of times the amount of energy to be consumed in listening to the radio than we previously needed. I thought we were making progress with the introduction of clockwork and solar radio, but even in this area the digital version is a dozen times more inefficient.

Furthermore there are issues concerning the disposal of analogue sets as they become useless as the Big Switch-Off approaches. Tons of valuable metals and crystals will be thrown into landfills or incinerators unless a monumental reclamation programme is set in train.

But my main beef is the limitations on access to radio stations imposed by the digital medium. The reception of stations is even more dependent on local relaying of stations than even FM was. The limited approach by even the BBC to music broadcasting in the UK means I often choose to listen to FiP - the Paris based French music station which broadcasts continuous programmes of very eclectic choices of styles and eras all day, every day, with hardly any intrusive talk {a couple of news updates twice and hour is about all you get - usually not even announcements about the record you just heard}. It's brilliant. Does digital radio mean an end to casual listening to foreign station and unavailability of FiP in Britain unless you can sit with your computer all day. I fear so.

Now we come to motive. And here I enter the realms of parnoid imagination. It could be thought that the government chooses to cut us off from the world of radio by imposing a medium which only brings us the stations which the local control machinery passes fit for our consumption. Hopefully there will be opprortunity for local pirate radio to develop but this will not guarantee quality. Rather it will let in the loonies with this or that axe to grind. Political, religious groups etc and a variety of fans and geeks with little or no discrimination beyond their own particular bee-in-the-bonnet or chosen interest. I'm not really knocking such people but I'd rather have access to quality professional product from around the world. It may be that the Web contiues to give us this but with the Big Brother Creep we seem to be experiencing at present I wouldn't discount the development of serious censorship of the Internet by the Government, Big Biz and so on happening quite soon and this will be a disaster.

If you have views - corcordant or contrary - I'd be keen to hear your angle on this one, but please cite any eveidence you can especially if speaking in favour of digital radio. I remain open minded and willing to be convinced but it will take some doing!