INTERFACE

REVIEW

Bridgette Ashton: I dream of Europe

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth
22 October – 26 February

Reviewed by: Stephen Riley »

The Russell-Cotes is part-museum, part-art gallery, and it houses the bequeathed collection of the Russell-Cotes family, who travelled the world in the era of the Grand Tour, collecting artefacts, sculpture and paintings. The first impression, therefore, is how well this tourism-inspired show fits into its setting; a view confirmed, on this occasion, by a group of foreign students who thought it was actually part of the museum collection. Irony evidently does not travel well between cultures.

Over a Victorian fireplace in an anteroom hangs a print, Butlinland, an image of a deserted community hall in which an audience is invited to gaze longingly from austere, stackable chairs at a travelogue of Europe’s once exotic cities. Most of the other pieces are displayed in museum-style glass cases, and attention is now drawn to the minute observation and intense activity that have gone into making the work, which comprises mostly faux souvenirs and travel cases that parody the familiar paraphernalia of tourism. Photography, printmaking, sewing and even baking are used. A zip-up case shaped like Italy contains tiny screen-printed soft sculptures of the Coliseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and such; the one of Spain has flamenco dancers and a bull-ring, of course.

The Russell-Cotes family travelled at a time when only the very wealthy could afford to be tourists. Ours, conversely, is the era of cheap mass transit, when anyone (well, most westerners) can travel to any part of the world. The contrast, then, between the original Russell-Cotes collection and the objects represented here echoes that social change: exotic, high-value antique artefacts are juxtaposed with mass-produced contemporary kitsch. This thought, however, is destabilised when one reflects that, ultimately, Ashton’s work is not the thing it represents, but is in fact a product of the imagination and skilled labour of a highly trained artist.

Writer detail:
Dr Stephen Riley is an artist, writer and lecturer. Interests: the physical and cultural structures through which visual representations are made and made visible; the cultural uses and implications of spaces, images and media. Media: painting, photography, text. He has exhibited since 1990 including UK, China and Germany.

www.stephenrileyart.com

Venue detail:
Russell Cotes Art Gallery & Museum »
East Cliff, Bournemouth BH1 3AA

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