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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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The Serpent 62 x 71cms (24.5 x 28)
The looping serpentine shadow of the window grille echoes the coils of the serpent-like creature in the medallion - actually an eel or lamprey I think. There is a tension between the street-corner Madonna and the pagan scene of the combat of mythical beasts.
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The Long Shadow 51 x 76cms (20 x 30)
Because of the point of view, only in the shadow are the curlicues of the lamp bracket revealed. I like the contrast of the curves of the shadow and the geometry of the rest of the composition.
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Iron Dragons 42 x 58.5cms (16.5 x 23)
Perhaps the juxtaposition of the medallion of the mythical beast and the iron balconies encouraged me to see in their outlines the image of very highly stylised dragons. But I also carry in my mind the almost abstract geometric images of dragons found in certain eastern carpets which can be seen in the magical paintings of the early Venetian painter Carpaccio. It is these that the outlines of the balcony rails, as I have painted them, faintly resemble.
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Old Customs House 36 x 61cms (14 x 24)
Dramatic shadows cast by electric insulators on the wall of the Dogana - the old customs house opposite San Marco.
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Patterns 51 x 76cms (20 x 30)
What you see here is, or was, a fine example of a Venetian Gothic window. One course of the moulding had been crudely hacked away, presumably in a DIY attempt to deal with existing decay. The stone guttering above, with its high relief dog tooth decoration has had brick laid over it to accommodate a new roof line. These assaults on the building seemed symbolised by the jagged shadow cast by the gutter carving. As always I was as engaged by the purely pictorial force of the play of form and shadow as by what it was saying.
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Doge's Wedding 130 x 84cms (51 x 33)
Venice's dependence on the sea for its wealth resulted in the annual ceremony of the symbolic wedding of the Doge to the sea. When I came across this marine weather station I instantly saw it as a Doge in his finery - elaborate headdresses and even a necktie. But this scene also evokes the industrial side of Venice, its existence as a working port and I have a perhaps paranoid vision that this aspect may encroach and turn Venice into one big dockyard.
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‘... of things to come.’ 132 x 82cms (52 x 32)