The Widnes of Oz, a fantastically titled and utterly bizarre piece of found VHS footage, sees Dorothy (we don’t know the actor) signing in front of Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, between intermittent fits of giggles. It’s one of the weirdest pieces of film I’ve ever come across, and it lit up my day.
That was my introduction to Creatures of The Psyche, a short-run exhibition at Bridewell Studios last month as part of Independents Biennial. I’ve got into a habit of wandering down the stairs to one of the old store rooms, because it’s becoming an increasingly popular spot for artists to show something slightly detached from their main exhibition rooms.
Invariably, it ends up defining the rest of the exhibition.
The rest of the exhibition is a reunion of sorts between Anna Ketskemety, Vicki Lucas le Bon, Ben Lloyd, Danny May, Chiz Turnross, who last exhibited together twenty years ago.
The paintings, installations, and links between the paintings were drawn from occasionally accidental collaboration between the artists, making any distinction quite difficult, but there are stamps, even in this elliptical way of working, that scream of a particular artist’s touch.
Ketskemety, for example, has several works on timber boards, which play clearly with depth to build enchanting but daunting scenes, where light and dark are at odds and any bodies in the frame are stuck figuring that out for themselves.
Chiz Turnross’ miniature narrative portraits could easily get lost in amongst the larger work, but were instead used as a sort of punctuation between each piece, offering short moments of joy and lightness. Similar in some ways to the effects of the Widnes of Oz.
Danny May’s enormous canvases took the theme of the show to heart, building literal imagined worlds which use myth and legend as a starting point for sweeping forms that are neither natural nor unnatural, which lend a direct contrast to Ben Lloyd’s restrained, more formal creations.
And while these artists have built their practices from similar starting points, there’s something intensely unique about the textures within Vicki Lucas Le Bon’s painting (particularly her draped sculptural form that forces you to tour the entire room around it.
On reflection, I struggle to think of much other Dorothy, giggling through Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but it’s that that set up the mood for everything else, by invoking a familiarity with impossible tales.
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Creatures of the Psyche ran until 24th August 2023 at Bridewell Studios & Gallery
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith