Western Morning News (Saturday)
Some light at the Edge of Dark art show brings hope
Hope in an age of cynicism and fear are stand out features of this show, says Frank Ruhrmund
While the series of twice yearly shows presented by the Newlyn Society of Artists in the Tremenheere Gallery since 2017 has proved successful, its current Edge of Dark, is perhaps not only its most successful but certainly its most significant show yet. It was actually proposed a year ago, long before the prevailing pandemic, when even then it felt that so much was changing. Today, as the esteemed artist Jesse Leroy Smith who has curated this show, says, it is more relevant than ever. “It now seems we are in the darkest of days, but that is when resilience, camaradarie, and hopes are forged,” she said. “One reason why I’m excited to create this show is because it was conceived before 2020. It can address the foreboding challenges we face in every aspect of our future, not with rhetoric and ideologies but with crayons and paint to paper, ink and plaster.”
A society of artists which came into being in 1896, and which now has some 85 members, no less than 55 of them, across all the disciplines from paintings and sculptures to three dimesional works and installations, are represented here. So many, in fact,and of such quality, it is impossible to mention them all. As a Cornishman, I feel obliged to welcome Peter Ward’s work made with Cornish pigments on canvas in a salvaged frame, and which comes with a title in the Cornish language Skowa yn dann a kernewek (Shelter beneath a Cornish elm). Then, too, there are a great many with titles in English that are equally striking, from
Actaeon and Hounds by Mike Newton and Checkered Out by Manon Fleur Dowse to Rachael Reeve Edwards’ And the water prevailing upon the Land and Dan Pyne’s The Death of Extraordinary Change.
As a bonus to all these splendid art works, the exhibition also includes a collection of eight short films. Compiled by Patricia Wilson Smith. She said:, “I remember 2016 when we cheerfully echoed the phrase, “May you live in interesting times.” It seems that the world has become a smaller, darker and more turbulent place since then. Is there yet a case to be made for optimism? Thankfully, artists think so.
These short films condense the beauty and the darkness of our new world and urge us continually towards creative action.” Among the film makers, and one who has recently been in such action, is the St Ives-based, performance artist Ken Turner, whose “We must not let this go on” is one of the eight, and who in September of this year took to the streets of the town to broadcast his unequivocal message to residents and visitors alike.
With Yolande Armstrong’s Now and Now, Penny Florence’s Translating the Untranslatable, Tim Ridley’s Botallack Bulls, Julia Giles’s Ark, Andrew Swan’s Causeway, Janet McEwan’s Queen, and Patricia Wilson Smith’s own Speak/Witness.
She said: “In the former, Polly is braver than me. Each week she holds a one-woman protest in support of Black Lives Matter. She has spent a big part of her life working to uphold and protect the rights of black minorities. She is not going to stop now, even though, and because the commmunity she inhabits is largely white and rural.The films and art works that make up Edge of Dark bear out curator Jesse Leroy Smith’s assertion that while this exhibition may be poor in cynicism it is rich in wonder.
A “must see” show, admission is free, and Edge of Dark can be seen in the Tremenheere Gallery, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Gulval, 11-4 daily (closed Mondays) until November 1.