On Wednesday 23 September, Brookfield and Portchester students all made their way to Gunwarf Quays, via train, and arrived at Portsmouth Harbour train station just before 10am.
Once we'd arrived in Gunwarf we made our way hastily to the Aspex Gallery, which is among the Vulcan Building just off the centre of the Gunwarf Quays so it actracts many visitors from the main shopping centre.
When we got to Aspex Gallery we met Education Co-ordinator; Amy Lloyd who was working with us the whole time that we were there, in the morning. First of all, we all took part in an activity in small groups where we were to answer questions to do with art galleries and museums, after most of us admitting that we didn't go to them very often, if at all, the task would turn out to be quite hard but almost all questions were answered right. The questions were to do with funds, money, staff/employees, visitors, exhibits and artists. We all got a vast majority of the questions right, learning lots about the art gallery business and how it worked and we were then led to the main exhibition.
The main exhibition was called 'Witch Hunt' by Delaine Le Bas, and is an art work piece which is truly close to her heart - as she grew up with this type of life and experienced the pain and annoyance which is portrayed in her artwork. Delaine grew up as a gypsy and recieved the controversial attitude which is given to them by the rest of the community.
The artwork consists of paints and paintbrushes left on dust sheets along the walls, that have just been discarded as if someone were writing something and fled from something they heard - suspecting it to be someone who is going to hurt them in some way. There are also papers and news articles placed in a random, scattered fashion with the words "BULLSHIT!" written across the data. The news articles are biased against gypsies and it is blantantly shown in the articles.
There is scruffy writing, in paint, on walls, clothes and hanging plastic sheets saying frightening things about gypsies, such as; "Mother told me not to go into the woods to play with the gypsies". This is written on what looks like a home that they have created in their new location, made out of various materials that they have found.
There are discarded dolls around the 'homes' of the gypsies, which gives the idea that they have left in a hurry - possiby being chased out of town by the locals, who did not like their way of living. There are silhouettes of the witches that were not burnt at the stake, but were thrown in rivers, hung and left in cold, open fields,
Delaine's artwork 'Witch Hunt' deals with crucial issues of racism, sexism, bigotry, mis-representation, hypocrisy, transisitional displacement, homelessness and the horrors that millions of people have to face everyday in the world we live in. Her views on these subjects are obviously very strong and touch a few raw nerves in her but the artwork is, although bizarre and confusing, utterly beautiful.
Portsmouth Gallery
After visiting the Aspex Gallery and having lunch around Gunwarf Quays, we met up near the centre and made our way to Portsmouth Museum. Thinking that it would be an ordinary museum, with lots of interesting things with a few activities available for children in different sections of the museum. I was rather disappointed with the museum. I was delighted with the outside of it (being posh and well looked after) but the inside was much less impressive than I thought it woud be. There were very few exhibits and even they were disappointing - not containing much information or containing interesting objects to look at.
Their activities available for children (and other customers) were disappointing and were not fun looking at all! Although the museum was very cutural (having a whole exhibit for the Portsmouth football club) and was probably the most entertaining exhibit there, because of having a foosball table, a video-camera and recordings of old football matches where they have actually won!!
No comments:
Post a Comment