Tuesday, April 16, 2013

OPEN BOOKS at BAY ART, CARDIFF and the BUTTERFLY EFFECT

When bombs explode at the Boston marathon, an earthquake strikes deep in Iran, a gold mine collapses in Ghana and this planet daily palpitates with every conceivable tragedy it seems insanely trivial to be mentioning an art exhibition in Cardiff but if I start to weigh things according to their universal value then I might as well stop right here and forever hold my peace while the animal I call Pushkin whose owner named him Ben though his real name is simply cat sleeps on an orange chair next to me, well, this too is trivial compared to the incomprehensibly vast and shockingly indifferent cosmos but there's the butterfly wing effect, isn't there? So maybe nothing is irrelevant and it's not too reprehensible to write insignificant blog-posts. 


I arrived in Cardiff by coach on Saturday afternoon in driving rain, wind and cold so it was a relief to enter the cheerful Bay Art Gallery and see a few familiar faces among the crowd. I was greeted by Mary Husted, the artist and Open Books exhibition curator and her husband Professor Andrew Vincent who were my kind hosts for the weekend. I was also glad to see the poet Ivy Alvarez, a blogging friend who lives in Cardiff.
The sixteen artists' accordion books were beautifully displayed on individual shelves and tables or hanging on the wall, making it possible for visitors to get up close to each work. While the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth did a superb job of showing these books when the exhibition first opened there last year, the necessary glass cases do create a distance between the audience and the work which this more intimate setting eliminated. As usual in such occasions I intend to take many photos but end up with none or very few since it's more interesting to talk to people than to record the event. The composite photo below was taken and designed on her i-pad by Mary Husted's talented 11 year-old grand-daughter. 


The two photos below are the only ones I managed to take and they are, egotistically, of My Life Unfolds. I don't know who the people talking in the corner are but they make a great tableau of their own. 





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10 comments:

marja-leena said...

Sounds like it was an enjoyable event, Natalie. It's alwasy great to be able to show one's work - I just wish I could have been there.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

It would have been wonderful to see you there, Marja-Leena. Maybe another time?

Dick said...

Good to know it all went well, Natalie. And that's a fine declaration at the beginning of your account of the event. Indeed, we do have to continue to be and to do in the face of the world's worst manifestations.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Dick, a so-called parochial view might be the only defense against being overwhelmed although the awareness that we are all interconnected can never be entirely blacked out.

Jonathan said...

Natalie, what you create is what is right in the world! I'm glad to be connected to you, your show, and your work through your blog posts. Don't apologize! I wish we could have been there.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Jonathan, that's a very heartening thought, thank you!

Tom said...

Yet how we feel and think about what we may choose to call trivia, affects our approach to the bigger events in life. In the grand order of things, who is to say what is the more important, the close, immanent experiences or the more transcendent ones? They're all important and interconnected.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Tom,I completely agree and thank you for reminding me. It's just that every so often, the weight of all the tragedies taking place every minute everywhere seems to threaten the lightness and joy of being.

Clive Hicks-Jenkins said...

The two people in the right hand corner of the photograph are Rosemary and Charlie Burton, both of them artists who show with the Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff. You ask and I answer!

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Thanks for the identification, Clive. I wish I'd had a chance to talk with them but somehow time just flew by and then it was all over. I also wish you'd been there so that at last we would have met in the real world!