Repeat After Me

Electro Studios Project Space St Leonards-on-Sea

Nov 2018

A show at the ESP celebrating Armistice weekend November 2018. The show featured myself and 6 other artists from diverse disciplines whose work is a response to aftershocks of war, a century on from the so-called war to end all wars-WW1. The show contained work from my Memento Series;  featuring pillboxes, barrage balloons and sound mirrors.   This series reflects my interest in the derelict and abandoned wartime structures left behind as monolithic reminders of war along England's coastline.
The paintings of disused bunkers or pillboxes as they are most commonly known are based on those found at  Rye Harbour and the Sound Mirror paintings are inspired by those found in Denge, near Dungeness. The Denge sound mirrors were constructed in the 1930s as early aircraft listening devices, only to be abandoned when superseded by radar,  and left to listen on alone.   The barrage balloon paintings are inspired by my childhood memories of growing up near Cardington, in Bedfordshire; these once protectors of the wartime cities were used as weather balloons and were still a common sight.

Sound Mirror, Oil on board, 30 x 30 cm | 12 x 12", 2018

Pillbox, Oil on canvas board, 17 x 12 cm | 7 x 5", 2013