Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth 19 May – 22 July
Reviewed by: Joann Drew
Overlooking scenic Poole bay, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum is an extravagant architectural mix of Italianate villa and Scottish baronial mansion, with a no less eclectic collection of work inside. The loftier pretensions of the nineteenth century romantic painting in the upper galleries of the museum are brought into question by Emma Stibbon's expressionistic woodcuts aptly hung in the lower galleries' down-to-earth location.
Stibbon's dark and brooding works generate a foreboding vision of the rural and urban landscape, comprising monumental woodcut prints plus a small number of charcoal drawings (some are commissioned works relating to the Dorset coastline). A deliberate tension is set up between the confined space of the gallery and the epic scale of the work. This cohabitation enables something strange to emerge; the monumental images, placed in such a compact environment, inspire a dual feeling of claustrophobia and agoraphobia. The viewer's sense of place is dislocated, uncertain of the geography not only of the rural and urban landscapes, but the relationship between the work and its space within the gallery.
Stibbon's landscapes defiantly resist a singular interpretation. Perhaps this tension lies in the artist's ability to combine a range of styles – from the Northern Landscape tradition through comic-book imagery, to the neo-expressionistic context of her work. This blurring of distinctions forces a re-evaluation of the landscape in general. It is possibly the style of Stibbon's work that it does not allow itself to be possessed; this successfully enables the generic and public landscape to be experienced in a way that is both intimate and specific.
Writer detail:
JOANN DREW
is a lecturer in Fine Art and theoretical studies at the University of Portsmouth
Venue detail:
No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?
To post a comment you need to login
Back to top