Exhibition : John Moores 23 : Liverpool
Par steph goodger, jeudi 12 juillet 2007 à 17:18 :: Exhibitions :: #28 :: rss
Extract from: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
John Moores
Walker Art Gallery
18 September – 28 November 2004
Free entry
The John Moores competition produces Britain’s leading contemporary painting exhibition.
One of the highlights of Liverpool Biennial, the competition attracts some of the most exciting artists working in Britain today. All entries are viewed and judged anonymously, with each work considered purely on merit without the name of the artist being revealed.
2004 is the biggest and best yet, with 56 exhibits chosen from more than 1900 entries. This year’s jury panel were:
- Ann Bukantas – Walker Art Gallery’s curator of fine art
- Jarvis Cocker – musician and collector of contemporary art
- Gill Hedley – director of the Contemporary Art Society
- Callum Innes – artist and former John Moores prizewinner
- Gavin Turk – artist
There have been some new and exciting changes to the competition this year.
The first prizewinner collects £25,000, but it is no longer a purchase prize. This means that the artist has not donated the picture to Walker Art Gallery as a condition of the award, increasing the overall value of the prize to the winner.
Fish Hell
The raft in Gericault’s painting ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ is reminiscent of a theatre stage. A monument can be a similar kind of space that formalizes action. The monument in Fish hell is inspired by the form and spirit of Gericault’s raft.
But where in Gericault’s painting there is hope of rescue, in Fish hell there is perpetual struggle and doom. The rescue ship in the distance is replaced by a leviathan, powering into view from above. When a hero such as Jonah in the Bible or Ahab in ‘Moby Dick’ falls victim to a leviathan it signifies the inescapable power of god or fate.
The actual raft of the Medusa was circled by sharks. In Fish hell, space is inverted and transformed by the fish swimming above and around the monument. Liquid space and its inhabitants make a new world from old events. Fish hell as a mythological place has commandeered history and absorbed it as its own.
Fish hell aims to create a point of reference in the relationship between the inner drama on the solid raft-monument and the ever-moving, fluctuating waterworld surrounding. It strives for symbiosis between philosophical or psychological content and formal qualities. As a mythology, it aims to suggest that it is only one part of something much larger…
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