INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
REVIEW
Transmettre/Transmit
St Marys in Castro, Walmer Castle, Deal Castle
13 April – 1 June
Reviewed by: Matt Roberts
As my train ambles through the verdant Kent countryside, pockets of blue give way to a sweeping cerulean sky, and I wonder if the exhibition I am about to see will be able to compete with the natural beauty and sense of history of the South East coastline.
‘Transmettre/Transmit’ is a cross-border exhibition featuring eight artists from the UK and France. The first stage of the project was realised in late 2007 in the chapel of the former Jesuits College in Saint Omer, and this current phase of the exhibition presents new work responding to three heritage sites: Dover Castle, Deal Castle and Walmer Castle.
Stepping out of Dover station I soon see the towering hill I will have to surmount in order to reach the castle. Stopping to ask an elderly man if he can tell me the quickest way to the top he directs me to a secluded pathway cutting steeply into the side of the hill, but informs me “You may regret it”. I am still suffering nearly a week later.
I travel over the drawbridge and climb up towards the chapel to view the work of Nigel Green. Having to squeeze my way through several parties of French and German school children I reach the antechamber where Green’s postcards and architect’s plans demonstrate the post-war development of Dover. Within the meditative space of the chapel the work articulates a historic town slowly eroded by an optimistic, international modernism (which has itself fallen into a state of disrepair). There is a nice interplay between the hard-edged vitrine and the quiet solemnity of the church; however, the presentation of the work is compromised by several large air bubbles visible beneath the architect’s plans.
Deal Castle is a rather different proposition: a circular arrangement of ramparts and moats surrounded by shingle beaches. Greeting the friendly shop assistants, I am asked to pay for entry, and directed down into the lower reaches of the castle. In a small side room there is a chair and table, and some white gloves inviting me to sift through photographs by Sylvain Lainé. The artist’s current body of work shows twilight images of a housing estate around 15km from Rennes, a poetic record of the uniformity of the area around Lainé’s family home. The artist refers to an all-pervading sense of absence or dormancy, and the images do evoke a modern-day sleeping beauty’s castle where the local populace is sedated by general apathy. Unfortunately, the delicacy of this effect is slightly spoiled by the harsh tungsten lighting.
The work of Roy Smith sounds very interesting. In a Polish café in Dover town centre Smith orders a cup of Polish coffee, and conducts a series of conversations with local migrants about food, politics, and longing. The artist’s writing about these encounters is both warm and enlightening, and I am sorry that when I visit the speakers are turned off.
Having spent twenty minutes or so scouring the basement for signs of Isabelle Froment’s work without success I return back to the shop. The artist had exhibited two video pieces, one in which mothers wrote messages on their stomachs, and the second, which featured a series of people forcing themselves to laugh. Both works had been taken away due to complaints from the public. The shop staff were very apologetic, and seemed quite agitated by the whole experience.
On reaching Walmer Castle I am escorted down to a brightly lit lower room. At the bottom of the stairs a large unstretched canvas by Joanna Jones lies across the floor. The vibrant blues and flowing compositions remind me of the surrounding seascape, a reference which is echoed in the brightly coloured ‘skates’ in the adjacent room. Artist Olivier Michel has created a series of flat painted sculptures on wheels, which perhaps best relate to the curatorial concept of transmission. There is a latent potential contained in the wheels, concealed by the dynamic, gestural sculpture. This makes an interesting contrast with the static, weighted architecture of the castle walls. Before leaving I squeeze into a dark, claustrophobic alcove under the stairs to better hear a sound installation by flautist Paul Cheneour. The sound of flute, breath, and guttural vocal sounds leaves me disorientated, and with an unexplained sense of foreboding.
On enquiring after Johanne Huysmann’s photography I am told it has been removed because it was decided it was blocking too much light. When working with listed or heritage sites a great deal of diplomacy is needed, and ultimately compromises have to be made on all sides. Unfortunately, despite admiring the ambition of ‘Transmettre/ Transmit’, having visited all three sites I can’t help but feel that too much has been given away.
Writer detail:
Matt Roberts
Venue detail:
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