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\