Page 18 - 367639 LP248834 NE Volume Magazine (170mm x 245mm 52pp) October 2022

AT ARC, STOCKTON
C
ART
SELVAGEM MINDSCAPE
An exhibition of original artworks comes to ARC in Stockton from Wednesday 12th October until Saturday 19th November in the form of ‘Selvagem Mindscape’, a collection of works by Maria Silva. The artist presents representations of her intriguing and globe-spanning past, which traces many of the central thematic fault-lines of the contemporary, globalised world. Silva was born in Portuguese West Africa, as it was then known, prior to becoming Angola. Before the onset of the warfare, which would eventually end in the country’s independence, Silva and her family returned to the colonial power of Portugal, where Silva grew up with a talent for the arts before training to be a nurse in the UK. Silva worked a career in the NHS until recent retirement in the North East, lending this exhibition its local flair. The long-dormant artistic ability and vision is a fascinating aspect in this already twisty story, and this would be reactivated by the arrival of the Covid-19 lockdown, upending Silva’s desire for a becalmed enjoyment of hard-earned retired life. Undoubtedly the creative passions pursued by so many across myriad nations and lockdowns in the past few years are unquantifiable and will take many years and indeed decades to fully unspool into public consciousness. ‘Selvagem Mindscape’ is thus but one valuable snowflake in a slowly gathering blizzard. ‘Selvagem’ is a Portuguese word with a malleable translation, loosely definable as ‘free’, ‘wild’ or, more corporeally, as ‘jungle’ or ‘woodland’. The exhibition’s title is indicative of the route chosen by Silva as she burrowed deeply back into a previously frustrated artistic dream; a path of experimentalism and abstraction in terms of style, which is clearly evident in the displayed works. The paintings are unmapped and spontaneous, with an emphasis on freedom as regards to technique and theme. Utilising technical innovations with colour and the physical act of painting, Silva’s work is rooted in abstract expressionism with a focus on imperfection and the unreliability of memory. Thrillingly, the collected material is deeply unconscious and will be ripe for interpretation by viewers; Silva speaks of knowing when a painting is complete as “it tells her” and of how the collected paintings “just came”. Despite this, the material is typified by intense detailing, produced lovingly through a variety of methods.All of this speaks to a highly timely exhibit, with qualities that will resonate widely in the light of recent times, despite their projection from a very singular, wholehearted experience. MICHAEL JOHNSON
Visit: arconline.co.uk
HARRIET
KEMSLEY
AT ARC, STOCKTON
First tuning into Harriet Kemsley on an episode of Cats Do Countdown, I was instantly obsessed. Her comedy was so off-kilter and disarming. The way she underplayed with the contestants around her, teasing Sean Lock and reducing Jimmy and the gang to tears, I knew she was something special. Following her career, I’ve seen that same ability to completely decimate a room, leaving contestants and teammates alike speechless, crop up on Roast Battles and Hypothetical time and time again. Kemsley brings with her a truly organic and original sense of chaos that can’t help but ensnare its audience. With a hapless persona becoming intrinsic to her routines, there’s a whirring and didactic thought process poured into every joke, regardless of how foolish or impromptu it feels. Leaning into her blonde stereotype, do not be caught in Kemsley’s trap, as she tricks audiences before dazzling them with an hour of astute, calculated comedy. Saturday 8th October shows Kemsley treat us with a brand new performance of sharp, scathing and didactic comedy as her ‘Honeysuckle Island’ tour finds itself coming to Stockton’s ARC hot on the heels of her sell-out Edinburgh run. Born out of an anger at the beauty standards and narratives getting regurgitated and reaffirmed since she was young, the new tour is Kemsley’s response and rebuttal to the industries and media peddling their agendas. Shaking her finger, Kemsley promises to be as silly and absurd as anyone familiar with her work can expect while tackling something very real, personal and poignant. Doused in quirk, everyone carries shades of Kemsley in their character, which makes each anecdote or observation all the more hysterical. Anyone purchasing tickets now should
18 \\ NE VOLUME MAGAZINE \\ CULTURE
OMEDY