I carried on my mooch around Tate Liverpool in the Leonora Carrington exhibition. It was my second visit, but this time I had a really good look around...
"I, as the whole world, yearn for an individual identity. I would like to find it because on finding it, like the truth, it changes and shifts. We only need to sleep to convert ourselves into different personalities" Leonora Carrington
And Then They Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur, 1954
© Estate ofLeonora Carrington/Artists Rights Society (ARS)
I loved her work, mostly for the experimentation with materials and techniques, and the amazing colours. I picked up the novelisation of her life in the shop on my way out, it's called "Leonora" by Elena Poniatowska and I am excited to read it!
Wandering through I found myself in the huge room of Cathy Wilkes installations. The change from bright colours and busy paintings full of immense detail to this stark collection of figures was quite startling! I must confess that I hadn't made the connection to the installation I had seen as part of the Turner Prize in 2008, this work is really very different, and I found this much more thought-provoking.
Cathy Wilkes Untitled 2013
Installation view ‘The Encyclopaedic Palace’, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2013
Courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow (borrowed from the Tate website)
Cathy Wilkes Untitled 2013
"The Encyclopaedic Palace", Venice Biennale, Venice, 2013
(borrowed from Trend Tablet)
There was so much happening in this room, so much to see and take in, I was pleased to have a closer look. These figures had something nomadic about them, their clothes somewhat tatty and dishevelled, they were soulful and so human, with their collections of broken ceramics and bits of lace and embroidery. I really found them so endearing, they seemed lost but at the same time, content. I don't really know, it was appealing but also unsettling. It's a hard feeling to describe, and the things I've read seem non-specific on the meaning of the work, so all I have to go on is my reaction to what I saw, I picked up the exhibition guide so maybe I'll find out more there. There are photographs from the exhibition on The Modern Institute website, they are beautiful.
So that was my Tate Liverpool adventure - and what a lovely adventure it was!
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