It was a wonderful evening last night mixing with our art friends at Rachel Bremner's exhibition opening. I have been asked to publish my opening speech so I thought this would be the best place for it so you can read if interested. I gave my speech a lot of thought, knowing Rachel as I do, knowing how she works and the passion and love she has for her work and her life. I tried to capture a few elements of what it's like to work as a solitary artist as both Rachel and I enjoy our very special time alone in our respective studios. Obviously in my talk I ad-libbed a lot as is my want to make the talk interesting and a bit of fun as well. Enjoy these images and enjoy the read it's, not that long, thank you!
Chipping away at the smalti.
Rachel at work.
Tools of the trade.
With Rachel at the opening.
Last night!
Hello and welcome to the gathering!
As an intro to the exhibition I
would like to talk, very briefly, about two things: Refraction and Rachel.
One of the earliest things we learn
as school children in science is how the eye works and how “light” alters
according to the changing light around us. We learn how light is absorbed by an
object, how it reflects light and how it refracts light. So, on that score, I’m
probably not telling you anything new. But what I love about the word
“refraction” is that it means to break up. The word comes from mid 17th
century Latin refractio. In
this case light waves bend and break-up as they pass through certain objects, a
little perhaps, as our lives bend and break and come together again over a
lifetime.
How apt however, is this word Refraction. Not only is it bending and breaking up of the
waves of light that enter an object but so too Rachel performs a task of
“breaking-up” her media into pieces. In a sense she is providing us with the objects
to which our eyes respond, in that refractive way.
Tactile materials of stone, glass, tile
and other objects are used in Rachel’s work. Can you imagine picking up and
feeling stone like obsidian knowing it was formed by rapid solidification of
lava without chrystallization. I mean wow, this material is ancient, possibly
thousands of years old.
And smalti, even the word is seductive.
Z-M-A-R-L-T-E-E. Smalti is a form of chrystallized coloured glass used widely
in mosaics traditionally and even more in modern interpretations.
Rachel finds when working with stone
her feeling are those of calmness and in contrast, when working with smalti her
input becomes energized. She explains that stone absorbs light and smalti
refracts light. For Rachel her media, to a certain extent, dictate the
placement of bits. Making judgments and decisions about the direction of a
piece of work can be a complex thing. She places honest importance on making
the pieces from quite disparate origins, to work together.
I asked Rachel the question “what do people
say when you tell them you are a mosaic artist?” Rachel’s response was “Oh my
aunt can do that!”. I specifically asked her this question because I am asked
the same thing and when I tell them I am a calligrapher, I get exactly the same
answer and their eyes glaze over … end of conversation.
And it’s not that we mind so much. We
don’t need to convince anyone of anything, but it is a strange phenomenon. So,
Rachel guides people to her website and the conversation can start all over
again. But a website can’t give the whole picture which is why we are here. One
needs to look at the original work, move about the object and experience the
changing light over an extended period of time. Allow yourself to be in the
moment and experience the sophistication of light’s interplay with the earth’s
objects. Touch them … but a warning they may bite you!
Let’s talk about the process of the
work itself: one can sit and look at a blank board and wait and wait and wait
until a bead of sweat drops off the forehead OR a drop of blood falls off a cut
finger in Rachel’s case and makes the first mark and inspiration begins but, it
doesn’t quite work that way. As a maker of things, in this case mosaic works,
Rachel makes a headlong start by placing her media down on the substrate and
then she makes a decision, an educated decision I like to say, where the next
bit should go … and from there she makes another educated decision responding
to the first and subsequent pieces until the work comes together as a whole.
Her reward is in the process, her enjoyment, or the angst, of the time spent to
work with the materials, choosing them, sharp or smooth, feeling them,
caressing them, placing them. We don’t need to know what the works mean in a
literal sense but know that they come from a place of joy or of sorrow, an
expression of ones life.
Our purpose as artists - I believe - is
not merely a copying the past but a heartfelt telling of the present. As
artists we should be obliged to tell a story of our own time and I can see
clearly Rachel does this. She has a strong sense of place and a strong sense of
self, she takes from within and gives to us, to others of our own time and not
only that Rachel forges a legacy for future generations. Rachel has presented
us with works in this exhibition that express her life through her art, using
her head, her hands and her heart.
I am so delighted to be here with all
of you to celebrate and congratulate Rachel’s excellent work and officially
open her show. Thank you Rachel!
