Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods
is Nottingham Artist Marcus Clarke’s next planned major art project and exhibition in Nottinghamshire. Drawing primarily on his own experience of learning traditional children’s fairy stories only as an adult. They were just not part of Marcus’s upbringing and childhood culture. This exhibition explores how they can be seen afresh, interpreted differently when seen from a wholly adult perspective. How Fairy Stories can reach out to be appreciated by a new audience through innovative presentation. Informed by discussion with others who have also come to traditional children’s fairy stories for the first time as adults. Including some from within the Prison Network.
Marcus’s Arts Practice, self styled Puppetisation and PuppetTVGraffiti has evolved from his world of work as a Professional Puppeteer. As both a Performer and as a Craft Puppet Maker. Drawing too on his own childhood, Nottingham culture and many Historical interests and combining them.
The exhibition is accompanied by another exploration played out through its Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods Artwork Creation Video’s. One linked to each artwork and available online to the Public through youtube. Via gallery resources and personal hand held devices. These video’s with additional text descriptions explain each Artworks’ making and form a Gallery Exhibition Guide.
The Woyaya to Grace Jones accompanying Creation Video Soundtracks enhance the experience of these video’s as they progressively explore the Artists own development time in and around his studying Art as a Mansfield College of Art Vocational Graphic Design and A Level GCSE Art Student. How that affected his appreciation of other Artists, Roger Dean at the time and later Jean-Paul Goude and Musically, Osibisa and then Grace Jones in what becomes a transition for him from Graphic Design to Performance, Lighting and Set Design in Theatre to Film and Television Puppetry and then back again to Fine Art. A synchronous evolution for the world too from Analogue to Digital and back again. This exhibition will be accompanied by Creative Schools Workshops currently being developed as Puppetry, Collage, Animation activities along these lines School Workshops for advance booking information please Contact.
https://youtu.be/fw9AKCXKz2s
Video Tour available of the Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods Art Exhibition, Mansfield Library Gallery staged Jan 9th to Feb 28 with its Artist Marcus Clarke on youtube.
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This Artwork Titled: Jack’s Cow is one of x12 Artworks at Marcus’s current Solo Art Exhibition; Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods at Mansfield Library Gallery. On until 25th Feb 2022. It’s inspired by the Fairy Story Jack and the Beanstalk Dim: 60 x 40cm What interested Marcus the most about this story was the Cow and he decided to make the Artwork iconic of the animal. Marcus only previously knew of the Jack and the Beanstalk story through Pantomime. The Panto Cow is a well remembered fun feature of it so he concentrated on making this artwork a portrait of the Cow with the other magical elements included about it. He wanted to make the Portrait thick and painterly unlike the way he had been previously creating art but soon discovered old Collaging habits die hard. So it is part Collage and part Painting. The Cow is of course sold for beans in the story so he’s tried to achieve a balance between joy and horror in this portrait too, as well as a degree of originality. Making of the Artwork Video
This Artwork, one of x12 at Marcus’s current Art Exhibition at Mansfield Library Gallery called Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods was part inspired by a chance seeing of a Poster for ‘Sinderella’ outside the Cambridge Theatre in the West End some years ago. It was their Christmas Panto. The title character and another, Baron Hard On, made it clear that this was going to be an adult Farce filled with double entendre and that despite the French phrasing, clearly it would have little middle class so called sophistication and be more working class, ooh no misses. So lots to sniff at. It made me smile. That was in Seven Dials. So when I came to create this Cinderella Fairy Story Artwork the Construction suggested a radiating Glory from which contrasting colours emit in a 60’s bright palette and in both thick paint (new for me) and coloured Doll Dresses laid out in Collage style. I’m insinuating abundant accessible 60’s fashion, that which followed the more exclusive Haute Couture of the 50’s to frame Cinderella as working class and timeless. Likewise, Cakes and Sweets play in to the idea of cheap luxury and the battle some make to keep ‘slim, young and beautiful’ by avoiding them. The Doll is surrounded by a Theatrical quick changing curtain and is indeed naked beneath it, although to reveal it would simply reveal two Glory style eyes. One in Gold and another in Silver. The whole idea of Cinderella in this story is about a poor girl achieving wealth and status because of her Beauty. So I’ve tried to put it all in this Artwork but in a light fun way, it’s Cinderella along with many other Sins.
The overall exhibition’s viewpoint is from that of experiencing Fairy Stories only as an adult. Something many of us have done that have not had conventional childhoods, had particularly poor ones or because the Fairy Story telling childhood convention was simply not in our childhood culture. Marcus’s own childhood didn’t include them and so his first experience of Children’s Fairy Stories was while presenting children’s television. He’s now shared this experience and developed ideas about presenting Fairy Stories from this unconventional, new perspective with among others, inmates in the Prison Network. This heralds a new direction for the artist away from Capture and Vacuum Sealing moving towards a more Painterly and Abstract style without losing the Assemblage and Reliquary influences that have become a bedrock of his Arts Practice.
And with the Cinderella artwork (60x40cm Acrylic on Canvas) created for his Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods Art Exhibition at the Mansfield Library Gallery he again experimented with applying the artwork to some real world Teen+ Culture items. To see if it might work as art and within those cultures but also to see if he could increase engagement with his art and the overall exhibition.
Here also in the link is the Cinderella artwork’s making of video for the Fairy Stories for Lost Child Hoods Art Exhibition, Spoken Word is The Hanky Pank Players, Grimm’s Fairy Tales 1960 RCA Vinyl LP Marcus has added some Synth Rythm’s he composed in early 80’s style. He jest loved the wacky style of the spoken word, Milliganesk. More information on the Video and the Musical Journey around his time at Mansfield College of art is in the Video information and at the actual exhibition. On until the 25th Feb 2022.
https://youtu.be/sqcHhH0q0QY
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On now Exhibition runs to the 25th February at the Mansfield Library Gallery
