20
Beyond Form
A review from Turner Contemporary, Margate
by Elizabeth Cooke
I decided 60 was going to be celebrated over several months - it felt like a BIG birthday! One of my treats was to be taken away by two friends, Alex and Jordanna. They said I was to choose where. I didn’t want to go too far - definitely by the sea - and near a gallery.
So we settled on Margate and the Turner Contemporary. I had not checked what was on until a few weeks before. Miraculously we were to arrive on the day a new exhibition opened. Both my friends are creative. Art addicts? No, but up for it. It didn’t really matter if they were up to it - it was my birthday treat!
The gallery is gorgeous - one of my favourite images was of Alex and Jordanna looking out of the windows at the sea. Galleries are inspirational in themselves and this one was spectacular. Being right by the sea and being a homage to Turner is what makes it a very special place. I love the view of the gallery from the sea as well.
The exhibition was called “Beyond Form - Lines of Abstraction 1950-1970” exhibiting work from over 50 women artists. I wasn’t really prepared for the pre-visit big questions from my friends - what is abstract art? How do I approach looking at it? So I improvised an answer contrasting abstract and abstracted art and gave the bottom line - if it attracts you then look at it, if it doesn’t move on.
I don’t believe in looking at everything in an exhibition - I look at what intrigues me. Going with friends always opens you up to look at things you wouldn’t normally be interested in (see 'Pile of Poo' - mentioned later!) does it make you change your mind about a piece? Sometimes…
As we were going up the stairs to the exhibition we overheard a visitor coming down muttering about time that he would never get back - I hoped it wasn’t going to be that bad!! I felt a sense of responsibility to Art to show itself off at its best to my friends.
It was a great exhibition in my opinion, very varied and loads of sculpture. My personal favourites were Animal 1, 2 and 3 by Lygia Clark. Made of steel, my main media, cleverly built with hinges so the sculpture could be moved into different shapes. In theory although the piece was in a perspex box and really not what the artist had intended. She wanted interaction. Would it shorten the life of the sculpture so much?
We were all attracted by different pieces and had great conversations about why. One particular piece - Untitled by Lygia Benglis (Pile of Poo!) opened up quite a debate… I didn’t like it and was amazed that anyone else could but no, my friends were very taken by it. I found that my feelings were very black and white. I still can’t warm to it! I thought the sculpture looked like an enormous cowpat. Meanwhile they were intrigued and loved it..
Something I find interesting with abstract and abstracted art is what title the artist chooses. Any title other than “untitled” must signify some kind of intention and therefore lead the viewer in their opinions of the work. One piece was titled 'Chess Piece' by Kim Lim - I spent a long time trying to work out which chess piece but was none the wiser. So she wanted us to know it was a chess piece and not a piece of abstract art but she did not want it to be clear which of the chess pieces it was. Interesting.
I asked Alex and Jordanna to write a short piece for this article - I love to see things from different perspectives, they really rose to the challenge..
Jordanna
I’m certain I’m not the only person in the world who would harbour a sense of dread upon learning that one of the highlights of the weekend itinerary for an artist friend’s 60th birthday celebration involved an exhibition titled “Beyond Form” at the Turner Gallery, focusing on abstract art.
Artists could likely debate the definition of abstract art endlessly. My own vocabulary lacks the
sophistication to articulate precisely what I anticipated encountering. However, if you can untangle the competing notions swirling around concepts of ugliness and lack of discernible
meaning—incapable of sparking any connection whatsoever —that’s essentially what I braced
myself for. The lengths we go to for love.
The first surprise was the building. So much glass. The Turner Gallery boasted an
abundance of glass—long strips of rectangular panes, meticulously arranged like transparent
canvases along an entire wall that faced the sea. The glass strips were the frame for a grand
canvas, with the ever-changing masterpiece of the sea stretching out beyond. This sight alone
made the visit worthwhile, and I hadn’t even stepped into the exhibition to begin airing my
uninformed opinions.
I was worried that I would misbehave. I was sure that there would be hundreds of people
wandering around making pretentious comments about what they saw, and I would want to pop
pins in opinions. And then I forgot and started to enjoy myself.
While I can’t claim to have loved everything I saw, nor could I make sense of much of it, there were plenty of pieces that provoked me to pause and question. Some even stirred a genuine
appreciation within me. Even when I didn’t particularly like a piece, there was something about it
that compelled me to stop and scrutinise, especially if I could interact with it.
One work that utterly fascinated me was Lynda Benglis’; “Untitled”;. Despite reading the description, I remained clueless about its nature and construction. Two months later, I still vividly recall it,having affectionately dubbed it “pile of poo”—not meant disparagingly, but rather as a testament to its vitality. It seemed imbued with life, as if it could stir and shift at any moment. The contrast between its tactile appearance and the reality once you touched it proved endlessly intriguing.
In the end, my visit to the Turner Gallery proved to be an unexpected bonus in this weekend of
celebration. A journey of exploration and appreciation, challenging preconceived notions and
leaving me with a more open curiosity for abstract art.
Alex
It was our first visit to Margate since the building of the Turner Contemporary Gallery which is almost invisible at various points of the day as the sky turns into various hues of blue and grey. Much like the Gormley man (Another time) - who is either 'there' or he isn't, depending on the tide. This huge block of a building somehow moulds into the landscape - it matches the green algae when looking from the sea up and the sky - which makes it almost missable.
We visited Beyond Form on its first day. As non-artists we were instructed to be led by intuition and our eyes. And so we allowed ourselves to be drawn into some pieces and away from others.
My favourite was Marisa Merz's Living Sculpture and Rosemarie Castoro's Pray Do. Some needed more explanation, others not and frustratingly, some pieces of work had been made in order to be physically changeable depending on the viewer but these works were trapped in a perspex cube. Imprisoned. Which surely wasn't the intention of the artist, Lygia Clark. We saw the poo in the exhibition before seeing images of the making of that work. If only we'd seen those first because we didn't get it there and then. Only the next day was it clearer on seeing the amazing creative images.
The Lynda Benglis sculptures in the Sunley Gallery are so fitting for this space and brought a sense of calm with a constant desire to touch them!
Thanks go to Alex and Jordanna for indulging me! So all in all it was a perfect weekend away and a good choice of gallery and exhibition.