Distracted Dad
Richard Hearn finds recycled things are precious
You normally have to turn this magazine upside down and back to front to get exhibition news, but on Saturday me and The Boy went to Hove Museum And Art Gallery and loved it, so this week you get all needs catered for, right here, right now.
The exhibition is called Precious and features pieces made out of discarded or recycled material. It’s a perfectly-staged show, full of playful, unexpected and inventive pieces.
First, let me backtrack. The Boy is very much into ‘making’ at the moment, which involves rifling through the recycling and gluing random things together. Although occasionally frustrating – we are so, so close to getting it out the house – I love this trait. I did the same. If it’s a gene I’ve passed on, then under a microscope it’ll be easy to locate, attached to the neighbouring DNA with masking tape and decorated with felt tip. In the morning we’d made a sperm whale out of a milk container, and were adding what turned out to be the first coat of paint. (Fittingly, Ultramarine.)
“The Boy is very much into ‘making’, which involves rifling through the recycling…”
So the exhibition struck a chord. There’s a coin plinth, created by Brighton-based arts collective Circus Kinetica, and chair backs form an angel’s wings in Claire Palfreyman’s vision. Key to these is the material remaining recognisable, just as our sperm whale still looked like a 2-litre container of milk, which gives the works their lightness of touch.
For children it’s surely inspiring to see magical visions created from humble materials. A couple of small pieces caught my eye. There is a church and a boat conjured from computer parts by Jools Johnson, and Mark Oliver’s ‘Jacket Moth’ is assembled from clock parts and book covers, presented as if in the Booth Museum. These have an intricacy that makes you want to lean closer. Both me and The Boy also enjoyed the cardboard flamingo and owl, made by Andrew Mockett.
There’s a room where you can add scales to a Stegosaurus and leaves to a tree by cutting up magazines – including Latest Homes coincidentally, so watch this space, watch it get cut up – and this adds the participation element. Above, birds made by local schoolchildren from recycled fabric wait on a line. Colourfully, impressively, and slightly menacingly. Great stuff.
Oh, and the café has cake. I mention this because in the late ’80s, the V&A was derided as advertising with a slogan of ‘an ace café with quite a nice museum attached.’ I objected at the time, but since being parents it’s often how we choose our days out. So the day ticked all the boxes.
Precious runs at Hove Museum And Art Gallery until 23 May 2010.
