door to expression

Added: (Thu Oct 08 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - DOOR TO EXPRESSION
MEDIA RELEASE – 9-9- 2009
A Victorian cell door from Dartmoor Prison - metal plated and heavily graffitied with names and deeds of the interned – does not make an art-work for the faint-hearted. Even artist Paul McGowan found he could not bear to have it in his home for long. But this somewhat macabre portal has inspired a triptych of panels of astonishing depth and power which will provide a centre-piece for one of the country’s most interesting Art auctions this year.
McGowan and his Bath based team are among the scores of artistic luminaries – including Damien Hirst and Stella Vine - who have pledged work to Spectrum Art 2009 to support the Spectrum charity in helping people with various forms of Autism and Asperger’s syndrome find ways of communicating their thoughts and feelings through art.
Mary Simpson, Spectrum’s CEO says, “There is no such thing as ‘typical’ with Autism – just many, many people whose needs are simply not catered for in mainstream schools or the life outside, and who are not able to communicate in the same way as most of us do.
“We offer many different services to people of all ages and abilities – and we want to explore further our theory that art, and working with artists, is an important key to expression for very many of our service users.”
Paul McGowan, Lucy McLaughlan and Stella Vine are among the artists who have been working with Spectrum’s service users aboard the charity’s so-called “Art Ark” – a restored barge moored against a quay looking straight down the River at Penryn in West Cornwall. It was to this idyllic spot that the completed triptych - known as The Divinity of Monsters - was delivered and unveiled after a two-year-long artistic journey. McGowan was visibly moved.
“I was completely overwhelmed to finally see it,” he says. “I’ve had the images in my head for so long – I had a clear idea how the three panels would look – but it’s an emotional moment to see them framed and in all their glory for the first time.”
McGowan, who grew up on the streets of Margate, left school at fourteen with no qualifications and joined the Parachute Regiment, before going on to study Fine Art at four different universities. his work has always been cutting edge and confronts issues that affect us all every day. His 1996 work "Friday night Saturday morning", named after an old Specials song, pre-dated Tracey Emin’s “Bed” by two years.
For this latest work the cell door - which bizarrely enough came with a signed certificate of authenticity from the Warden of Dartmoor Prison - acted as a platform for McGowan, along with his three collaborators in a long-term project known as BLOCKHEAD, to explore themes of incarceration, chastity and denial. The graffiti – which makes for deeply unsettling reading - covered only the inner side of the door available to prisoners locked inside the cell.
“It’s too disturbing,” says McGowan, “and in the end I didn’t want it anywhere near my family. But for me it’s become such a potent symbol of everything that’s wrong with a culture that’s losing its dignity and self-respect”
“The first step was for Chris Stocker and me to photograph the door in detail. I then gave illustrators Mark Lascelles Thornton and Michael Cole individual briefs and left them to interpret their individual scenarios.”
Mark Lascelles Thornton says of the work, “Paul called me up in the autumn of 2008 and explained my brief in just a few words. I knew exactly what I was going to do and Paul was adamant that I interpret the brief in any way I saw fit.
“The drawing explores themes of mortality and isolation. It took a little over two months to complete before I handed it back to Paul for reconstruction. I like the idea this drawing was almost two pieces of work merged onto one sheet of paper. It was the perfect collaboration”.
The illustrations and photographs, along with various drawings and paintings from McGowan’s “Mask” series – created during a period as Artist in Residence for the environmental charity The Eden Project – was handed over to Chris Stocker who placed everything through a series of treatments. He and McGowan then worked on the final composition of the piece.
After the Spectrum Art auction – scheduled for October 31 at the Headland Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall – The Divinity of Monsters triptych, along with the original prison door, will be on display at the Eden Project as part of the BLOCKHEAD exhibition.
All money raised from this and other artwork sold in both live and online auctions will go directly into Spectrum’s ongoing work with Artists.
Mary Simpson says, “Spectrum Art is an amazing project and we never cease to be astonished at the generosity within the artistic community – both in terms of donating their work and working with our service users on the Art Ark.
“This is very different to traditional art therapy. With the Ark studio we have a perfectly peaceful place for people to come and express through art what they cannot easily describe in words.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:-
Spectrum was formed in 1982 – originally as the Devon and Cornwall
Autistic Community Trust based in a converted rectory near Truro with
ten service users and a staff of eleven. The charity now helps almost 100 service users from around the UK, with 23 homes in Cornwall, a special school and almost 400 staff.
Paul McGowan won the Tate Magazine Award while still a student at Winchester School of Art under Professor John Gibbons and Jim Unsworth and became the youngest designer ever to have sold a collection to the fashion house Browns. He is now Artist in Residence for Spectrum, until he returns to the Eden Project to finish his residency there and complete the BLOCKHEAD experiment.
Spectrum Art was first held in 2007 and raised more than £50,000 towards the charity’s SAFECARE project.
Contacts: -
Mary Simpson, CEO Spectrum - 01326 371000
Paul McGowan – 07712 884752
Louise Midgley Communications – 01326 316678 / 07831 696093