Buzz Magazine April 2014 | Page 30

art JONATHAN BALDOCK: THE SOFT MACHINE Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Fri 18 Apr-Sun 29 June Monstrous sock worms, rooms that resemble nurseries instead of exhibition spaces, objects at once strangely familiar and totally alien. These are just some of the weird components of Jonathan Baldock’s art. In this new exhibition, items of everyday significance are transformed into mystic sculptures that call through time and evoke artefacts of both the recent past and the ancient world. Baldock sees himself as a craftsman of life’s basic materials. Thought-provoking art needn’t come from the ‘high’ end of culture. Rather than trying to alchemise low culture into high culture, Baldock interrogates what makes them so different, and what makes them so similar. He is a post-modernist in every sense of the term, taking cues from modernism while simultaneously throwing its conventions to the wind, all the while bringing to the surface the flotsam of popular culture. He is a master and making you question your own instinctual reactions. Is that mask really horrific, or is it our own minds, corrupted by hundreds of slasher films, warping innocence? Do those models represent occult symbols or are we too easily deceived? But deceit is built into Baldock’s Machine as an indicator of truth; the mask, or the masque, is a way of reaching the heart of things. Costume and coverings are the vehicles for movements that represent reality more than bare bodies, or bodies in the clothes of the everyday, ever could. While you could just marvel at the interplay of fabrics and other materials, to understand Baldock’s work you only need to see the movement and stillness of the pieces. A visit to one of Baldock’s exhibitions can be an experience of childlike wonder that can snap in an instant to the unease of the child left alone in a dark room. The Soft Machine, the mechanics of the biological and the malleable, is a perfect description of what the artist achieves. Admission: free. Info: 029 2030 4400 / www.chapter.org LUKE WEBBER pic: KATE GILLILAND TONY HEALD Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea Fri 4 Apr-Sat 10 May This is the year of inspiration, especially of the Dylan Thomas variety, and the world of art is no exceptions as painter Tony Heald illustrates and interprets a summery Thomas favourite: Fern Hill. As the sun starts to turn our way (hopefully not too briefly), the poem of Fern Hill seems all the more appropriate. Lines such as “All the sun long it was running” and “happy as the grass was green” feel fitting on days when the sunshine graces us with is appearance. This warmth is a quality not missed by Heald as he presents his colourful drawings and large oil paintings. Some of the characters in Heald’s images look like they have been plucked out of the streets of a carnival, which is unsurprising given his previous exhibitions exploring German carnival and masquerade traditions. As Thomas’ poem turns dark – contemplating ageing, loss and memory – so does Heald’s work. Descending into darker colours, misshapen silhouettes and the eerie forms of nature the paintings become increasingly complex. When reading anything, whether it’s a book, poem or an art preview, each individual conjures up their own images, impressions and interpretation. Exhibitions such as these give us an interesting insight into how other people interpret the art in front of them. Admission: free. Info: 01792 295526 / www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk (HA) BUZZ 30 ANTHONY RHYS: BORN OF PAIN AND IRON Penarth Pier Pavilion Sun 13 Apr-Thurs 8 May Thanks to the digital age it’s now quick and easy to load up pictures from your childhood, they’re just saved in that folder named “Pictures from my Childhood.” In that folder you’ll find photos from birthdays and family gatherings and what-not. You’ll remember how mum or dad (or whoever chief picture-taker was) got your attention and told you to smile for the camera. But then you’ll remember that, no, your eighth birthday was crap because you didn’t get the right colour mountain bike, and even though you’re smiling in the picture in reality you were furious at your Mum or Dad, or whoever chiefmountain-bike-buyer was. Anthony Rhys’ solo exhibition depicts exactly that feeling, except with much deeper meaning than spoilt children with mountain bikes. His oil paintings show his interpretation of classic Victorian portrait photographs with one key difference; instead of the blank and monotonous faces associated with the age of Queen Victoria, Rhys’ paintings show faces full of rage or shock or sorrow, expressing the real emotions behind the stoic faces. Although Rhys, whose work won him the Ivor Davies award at the National Eisteddfod in 2012, poses the subjects in formal attire for a photo, the expressions they wear tell so muc [ܙHوZ\