Art & Culture

ARTIST AT WORK

No.38: Gary Cook, Cloudbreak, ink, watercolour and charcoal, 30 x 20 cm, £695

I’ve spent the past few years seeing the woods for their trees. Ash and oak and the wildlife dependent on them have been my artistic focus. Oak trees, for example, provide the habitat for around 2,300 species, from bats to beetles and lichens to mammals. I delicately inscribe the names of these animals into my watercolours to highlight the interconnectedness and importance of our woodlands.

Lately, the luminous quality of the River Stour has drawn my eye. So, I am building a series of paintings celebrating its magnificent 60-mile journey to the English Channel. Capturing its watery reflections is proving an exciting and uplifting challenge.

I’ve visited its source, only then registering why the wonderful Stourhead estate is so-called; it marks the spot where the river starts. As it wends through Dorset, many villages are named in its

honour: West Stour, Stourpaine, Stourton, Stour Provost, Sturminster Newton - illustrating how our ancestors instinctively appreciated its vital role in our lives. I’m painting its twisting course as it falls 750ft from its Wiltshire birthplace to Christchurch Harbour, showcasing its beauty and its environmental importance. These paintings will form a solo exhibition titled ‘Wend’ at the Art Stable in Child Okeford later this year.

___________________________________________ Saturday 11th June - Saturday 9th July Gary Cook - Wend The Art Stable, Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, Blandford DT11 8HB theartstable.co.uk cookthepainter.com @cookthepainter

ON FILM

Andy Hastie, Yeovil Cinematheque

One of the quirks one learns from being involved in the running of a film society is that, over a season, the last film before Christmas is usually the least well attended, whilst the first film after Christmas is always one of the busiest. Why should this be? One can only guess, but it may be that people are only too keen to be with relatives in December, but come January they’ve had enough of them! Other explanations welcome, but I hope a big crowd do turn up on 5th January, as they’re going to see a cracking film.

On this date Cinematheque are showing Birds of Passage (2018) a powerful Colombian award-winning epic crime thriller. Set in the 1970s among the Wayuu people in northern Colombia, the film explores the rise of a Wayuu man, Rapayet, and his family as they enter the drug trade, prosper, but slowly lose their traditions and former way of life. This isn’t narco-trafficking drug cartels fighting over supplying the West with cocaine, but rather a marijuana war between two indigenous clans.

If anyone has seen Embrace of the Serpent (2015), the extraordinary previous film from the husband and wife directors Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, they will know of their interest in traditional Amazonian cultures through dreams, the spirit world and magical realism. This they bring to Birds of Passage, creating a film of both gangsters and spirits – a fascinating hybrid of genres.

The film took over ten years to complete and

Birds of Passage (2018)

is based on real stories the directors heard during their research of Wayuu culture. To reflect this, they brought members of the Wayuu community into the film’s production – 30% of cast and crew was made up of locals. The result is a glorious mix of Western crime thriller and mysticism – The Godfather meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez! Ancestral traditions and cultures are put at risk when set against greed and the corrupting forces of wealth and power. This certainly is a beautifully photographed and unique film, while even Barack Obama named it as one of his favourite films in his 2019 annual list.

‘A textured and utterly unique re-imagining of the family crime saga’ Christina Newland, Sight and Sound magazine. ‘An absolutely extraordinary film’ Jessica Kiang, The Playlist.

Do try us out if you are interested – all details are on the Cinematheque website. Thank you.

A happy and peaceful New Year to all, stay safe.

cinematheque.org.uk swan-theatre.co.uk

___________________________________________ Wednesday 5th January 7.30pm Birds of Passage (2018) 15 Cinematheque, Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil BA20 1QT Members £1, guests £5

CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT

Rosie Cunningham

Isaw Austentatious at the Fortune Theatre in London. Termed as ‘an improvised Jane Austen novel’, six actors took to the stage and created a new Austenesque play based on suggested recommendations and directions from a lively audience. The result was a very silly, very witty, collaboration. Nobody knows how it will end until the evening finishes, there was much ‘corpsing’ by the actors on stage and it was a thoroughly good evening. The team which comprises Austentatious can be hired for private functions.

The National Theatre’s production of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane is at the Duke of York’s Theatre. The storyline follows the ‘boy’, played by James Bamford, through the transient, every day, yet mystical magic of his childhood memories which reflect his love of fantastical literature. He and his friend, Lettie (Grace Hogg-Robinson), lead the ensemble through enchanted forests, never letting go of each other’s hands particularly in the face of danger. The special effects and scenery, including puppetry, floating doors and other magic, conceived and designed by Fly Davis, were enthralling. This was a Neil Gaiman fan-fest deluxe and if you enjoyed Stardust, this is for you. On until February 2022.

If you didn’t catch Anything Goes, Cole Porter’s toe-tapping razzmatazz joy, written after the Great Depression, the musical is touring the UK in 2022. This is the antidote for anyone feeling the blues. Winner of multi-Tony Awards, the show features well-known songs such as I Get a Kick Out of You and You’re the Top, dancing, comedy and farce. Starting at the Bristol Hippodrome in April 2022 and finishing back at the Barbican Theatre in July.

My Fair Lady is transferring to the London Coliseum from Broadway in May 2022 which is something that I am very much looking forward to. The story of Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower seller who is transformed into a lady, based on the original play, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw. Described as a ‘confection of a show’ by the New York Theatre Guide.

Constellations, which ran in the West End recently, is now available to rent on demand if you missed it. Four different casts take the journey through the multiverse and the infinite possibilities of a relationship. Whilst the words remain the same, the intonation and body language, makes for a unique rendition each time. I saw it twice and loved both interpretations. It costs £15 to rent each production via the Donmar Warehouse website.

The Art Fund is sponsoring a fabulous exhibition entitled Waste Age: What can design do? at the Design Museum in Kensington High Street until 20th February 2022. A new generation of designers are finding value in discarded items and working toward a circular economy, for example Stella McCartney who reworks old fishing nets into jackets and trousers. My daughter was enthralled.

Finally, the Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution exhibition is open at the V&A until May 2022. This is an exploration of Carl Fabergé, the man behind the internationally-recognised firm symbolising Russian craftsmanship, luxury, and elegance. Well worth the £18 entry fee.

Paul Bril (1554-1626) Mountainous Landscape with Satyrs and Goats by a Cascade, oil on canvas, 65 x 89.5cm

FLEMISH WITHOUT A BLEMISH

DECODING A MYSTERY FROM HISTORY

Richard Kay, Director, Picture Department, Lawrences Auctioneers

One of the very first pieces of advice I ever received when I started working in the auction world 35 years ago was, ‘A signature is the first part of the clue but it must be the last part of the proof.’ The presence of a signature is intended to focus one’s thoughts upon the supposed artist but, should the attribution itself prove to be quite implausible, the quality of any signature may be disregarded. However, should the picture prove to be entirely plausible in every other respect, an uncharacteristic signature can be ignored. Sometimes, pictures only become interesting when they are unsigned; sometimes they become even more intriguing when they are signed. Just such a conundrum arose with the landscape scene illustrated alongside.

The Somerset-based family who had owned it for over 150 years had always believed it be by Paul Bril (1554-1626), an Antwerp-born artist who travelled to Rome and blended Flemish and Italian styles with great skill and faultless technical aplomb. Helpfully, the picture was even signed, but this was

where I began to feel concern rather than reassurance. The signature was bold and wholly legible: P. BRILL. D. Not only was the spelling of the surname unexpected but the ‘D’ could indicate ‘delineavit’ (a Latin term meaning that Bril had devised the original composition but that this picture had been copied by another hand). In addition, I soon discovered that an almost identical subject by Bril himself had been sold by Sotheby’s in New York in January 2015. Could Bril really have painted two such similar pictures? If so, why? As my mind began to tumble with possibilities, it had to be borne in mind that the paintings of a Bril contemporary, Marten Ryckaert (1587-1631), are often recklessly assigned to Bril. And yet there was more than sufficient quality in the details to make me feel that this perplexing picture really had to be a rarity by Paul Bril himself.

Clearly, more thorough research was going to be required to pick apart the tangled threads of possibility. One detail became apparent quite readily: the picture had been the property of a distinguished Australian art dealer, Thomas Ware Smart, an ancestor of the vendor, who had died in 1881. The dates of Smart’s professional career hauled the picture back deep into the 19th Century when ‘fake’ works by Paul Bril were less commonly found (the cunning commercial temptations to deceive were much more slight at that time).

But, as I pondered, the deus ex machina was the superb – dare I say Bril-liant? – expertise of the noted Flemish art historian Drs. Luuk Pijl. I had sent him a few clear photographs for his thoughts and he responded so eagerly that I knew that I had the attention of just the right man. Drs. Pijl compiled a skilful assessment of the picture that resolved all the complexities and straightened out all of the tangled threads. He noted that ‘our’ picture was a little less refined than the 1619 example that had been offered at Sotheby’s in 2015 and so he worked on the assumption that it predated that composition,

placing it in the 1616-1619 period. He determined that a third variant of the subject, offered at auction in Germany in March 2021, was a picture by Ryckaert that had indeed been misattributed to Bril. But, most thrillingly, he was able to suggest with probability Willem Van Haecht, The Gallery of Cornelius van der Geest, 1626 rather than mere possibility that our canvas was the very picture depicted within a Flemish masterpiece called The Cabinet of Cornelis van der Geest, painted by Willem van Haeght in 1626 (see image). It may be seen on the floor at the back of the room in the centre of the picture. This remarkable discovery lifted the picture above the mire of doubt and linked it, almost beyond any further argument, to the distinguished collection of a noted collector in early 17th Century Antwerp: exactly where one would expect to find a museum-quality work by Bril. The deduction dismissed any possibility of its not being by Bril since Van der Geest would not have countenanced a less than exemplary work by Bril in his own discerning collection. The puzzling signature could be addressed as an aberration of no concern. As all the other aspects of the picture endorsed the attribution to Bril, the atypical signature was nothing more than a variation in an era of notoriously imprecise spellings. It was indeed the first part of the clue and the last part of the proof. The curious ‘D’ could indicate that from this picture an engraving was devised by another hand. Drs Pijl will be including the picture in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné – a definitive academic survey of all of Paul Bril’s oeuvre in this medium. His authoritative imprimatur served to reassure bidders that the picture was all that had ever been hoped of it – and rather more besides. The picture is now back in Antwerp. In our October auction, the blend of provenance, quality, expertise and rigorous scrutiny ensured that the price topped £55,000. lawrences.co.uk

COUNTER CULTURE

Paul Maskell, The Beat and Track

No. 5 Aphex Twin

Richard D. James, better known, amongst numerous other pseudonyms, as Aphex Twin can be described as ‘beyond prolific’. He makes ambient music that will take you to another planet, and not necessarily return you. He makes techno that can make you dance for eight hours straight in a room full of strangers. He makes drill n’ bass that tears your face off. He makes music that defies description. He programs his computer to play the Klavier. The idiosyncratic pioneer of electronic music has led a career that is as uncompromising as it is long, as confusing as it is brilliant and as uplifting as it is dark and sinister.

Born in 1971 in Ireland, Richard D. James grew up in Redruth, Cornwall and spent his early years honing an interest in electronics and computers. By the age of 14 he was proficient at computer programming and modifying synthesisers and other electronic units to create strange noises and rhythms. During the late 80s and early 90s James DJed at clubs and raves, incorporating his own tracks into his sets as well as gaining a National Diploma in Engineering at college. Within one year James’s output exploded with regular DJ slots in the South West, the release of his first EP (Analogue Bubblebath) on Mighty Force records, the formation of his own record label (Rephlex) and the signing to renowned Belgian record label R&S

Records. This was only the start. As momentum grew with the success of his EP he went into overdrive. He subsequently recorded two more Analogue Bubblebath

EPs, two EPs under the pseudonym of Caustic

Window, the Red EP as part of the Universal Indicator collective, along with two EPs on R&S – Digeridoo and Xylem Tube. All this while he was trying to study electronics at Kingston Polytechnic. He later admitted that techno eventually put an end to his studies.

With touring support slots with electronic groups such as The Orb, Orbital and Moby, James’s Aphex

Twin moniker was in demand and he was signed to

Sheffield-based Warp Records. Warp started with the immediate release of James’s second album Selected

Ambient Works Vol II. This was quickly followed up by the release of a fourth Analogue Bubblebath EP and

Classics, a compilation album.

It was in 1995 that James burst into the mainstream, charting with the release of I Care Because You Do which features the now iconic self-portrait of James on the front cover. While classical music composer Philip

Glass was commissioned to create orchestral versions of tracks from the album for the release of a subsequent

EP Donkey Rhubarb, James found time to record the

EP Hangable Auto Bulb, under the name of AFX which would kick-start the short-lived scene of drill ‘n’ bass. A fourth Aphex Twin album was released in 1996 on Warp entitled Richard D. James Album incorporating jungle, orchestral strings and insane electronica. In later years the NME would name this the 55th greatest album of all time and the album would receive plaudits from across the music industry. Typically James had no regard for any praise received for his work and simply moved on to the next idea, the next genre and the next sound.

Eccentric or simply uncompromising, James has EM_ST.qxp_Layout 1 08/12/2021 21:14 Page 1 always done things his way: programming computers and synths to produce automatically, self-composed music; releasing a digital death metal song entitled Come to Daddy (which, much to his confusion and distress, became a massive underground hit with the help of a disturbing Chris Cunningham video); and writing one of the most beautiful pieces of piano music Avril 14th (featured on the double album Drukqs). He has also produced music that when fed through a certain type of receiver converts the sound to images – in this instance another self-portrait.

In the 30-odd years of performing and recording, the unrelenting Richard D. James has recorded different genres under different names; programmed computers to write his music automatically; refused to remix Madonna and Bjork and dared to submit a remix of a Lemonheads track which only contained one note of the original song and a set of random beats and bleeps. He has stated that he has more music unreleased than he has out in the public domain. This is quite a statement since he has recorded nine studio albums, six compilation albums, 49 EPs and seven singles under the names Aphex Twin, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, GAK, Q-Chastic, Phonic Boy on Dope, Polygon Window, Power-pill, Smojphace, Soit-p.p, The Dice Man, The Tuss and User18081971.

Obviously James isn’t content with this. In October 2020, Novation Digital Music Systems released the AFX Station analog synthesiser on which James collaborated in the design and manufacturing process. Aphex Twin is still producing music ‘for his own consumption’, until he next leaks tracks onto the dark web or has a laptop stolen on a train or just decides on a new name and creates a new genre. Who cares? He cares…because we do.

thebeatandtrack.co.uk

THE FREE WESSEX ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE EVOLVER MAGAZINE

Pick up your copy every two months at arts venues, galleries, art shops, cafés, libraries and tourist information centres (etc) throughout Dorset, Somerset, East Devon, West Wiltshire, Bristol and Bath Or subscribe online at: evolver.org.uk Instagram: evolvermagazine