CULTURE ALERT? Emma Beatty
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s Portsmouth is being identified as a “Priority Place” for culture by Arts Council England, one of its oldest cultural treasures goes on show: a grand silver banqueting cup made in 1525, the Bodkin Cup. It used to be in a dimly lit cabinet in the lord mayor’s chambers at The Guildhall but is now the centre of an exhibition at the City Museum until February 2023 to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The Bodkin Cup was owned by Francis Bodkin, three-times mayor of Portsmouth around the time of the Mary Rose . It has a border of spiky pineapples and a proudly Pompey Latin inscription “If God be for us, who can be against us?”. Also on view are two silver 1683 flagons and a 1965 silver-plated model of HMS Victory made of copper taken from the original ship.
phenomenon”. Strongly influenced by Dada and the German Expressionists, the human face and figure are the central motifs, however, over time, the building up of layers of collage, paint and ink “may also suggest deeper narratives”. Also part of PortsFest, Art Space collage artist Kate Street has a free workshop in the Cascades shopping centre where you can make your own ‘situationist map’ of our everintriguing city streets, Saturday afternoon 2 July.
More hidden artistic treasures are at Art Space studios 2-3 July which opens its doors for its annual Summer Open. This converted church tucked away off Elm Grove houses some 30 artists, working on everything from ceramics, to giant oil canvases, to sculpture and film. Have a peek around their many and varied studios and buy some unique works of art. As part of PortsFest (see p.26) Jack House Gallery on the High Street has work by Art Space artist Colin Merrin 6-20 July. This new series of work on paper is centred on the idea of “meaning as a made-up 38
PortsFest: Colin Merrin’s artwork
