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KEITH HOLMES
VENICE IS IN THE DETAIL
at The Millinery Works Gallery
Wednesday 7 until Sunday 25 September 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 6pm, Sunday 12 to 5pm
For further information E Mail: art@millineryworks.co.uk
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Braced 23 x 51cms (9 x 20)
An image of Venice being held together by various means - here a forked iron brace. The swirling erosion patterns in the crumbling concrete suggested water, and a seashell can be seen in the concrete. It made me think of the continuing encroachment of the sea on Venice.
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Mooring Ring 21.5 x 30.5cms (8.5 x 12)
The seductively organic shape seen here is in fact a directly vertical view of a mooring ring. It sits flush with the quay and lifts on a hinge. This painting also includes one of the rare glimpses of canal in my Venice work.
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Squaring the Circle 36 x 91.5cms (14.25 x 36)
I found this tiny fragment of Byzantine or very early Venetian sculpture in a scruffy little alleyway, surrounded by jerry rigged electric wiring. The ensemble has its own beauty and I'm happier with Venice looking like this than all tidied up. The sculpture of a tendrilled plant may represent a hop shoot. Known as ‘luppoli’ hop shoots are made into a salad with olive oil and lemon and are one of the gastronomic delights of the Venetian spring.
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Locked 57 x 35.5cms (22.5 x 14)
Venetians have gone on holiday, leaving the city to the tourists. The division of this picture into three sharply defined vertical elements comes out of the common visual experience in Venice of vertical edges of buildings seen sharply outlined against bright light from the comparative darkness of a narrow calle.
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Cross 57 x 41cms (22.5 x 16) A sequence of crosses one on top of the other. (See Introduction)
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Madonna of the Rusty Roses 48 x 66cms (19 x 26)
After being alone in Venice for some time it was with possibly parched eyes that, looking through dusty glass, I saw this Madonna take on a distinctly vulval form. But the real point is the wonderful rusty wrought iron roses that form the rail of this little shrine and the contrast of the ubiquitous snaking electric cables. I have always been fascinated by the famous ancient sculpture of the man wrestling with serpents, the Laocoön, and I found it somehow informing my view of Venice's wiring.
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Lion of Venice 44.5 x 122cms (17.5 x 48)
This ancient carving of the lion of St Mark is set into the modern stonework of a restored palazzo on the Grand Canal. He has lost his wings and his book and looks generally woebegone. The contrast of the extremely geometric modern stonework and the poor old lion could not be a more poignant evocation of Venice's decline. The hanging plant signals the presence of a hidden garden behind the wall.
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Regenerating 51 x 76cms (20 x 30)
All over Venice I was struck by this kind of thing - botched up or jerry rigged electrics trailing over crumbling buildings. Here the armorial marble carving patched into the wall additionally and powerfully points up the contrast of ancient and modern.