Of Dogs Sighing and Free Art on Fridays
Recycling materials is useful and, yet, cool. It also is very much in fashion these days. This is not about sustainability and other corporate concepts, though. Artists keep using what might be seen as scrap materials too to create their artwork and stand out from the crowd. The results can be really pretty, which is one reason I’ve enjoyed this exhibition.
A friend took me to the solo exhibition of an artist called My Dog Sighs a couple of days ago. It is called Walk by, Ignore Me. Forget You ever Saw Me in West London, where I could see the cutest drawings, most of them on tins, wood and cardboard. This is pretty much in the same style as some of Roa’s and other ‘street’ artists work. I went there without having done much prior research, ready to be surprised one way or the other. The result was positive.
I found it really interesting to see how well they looked on the gallery’s walls. In fact, most of the works in this exhibition were sold out by the time we went there.
There were two other things that stood out for me. One was a feeling of sadness. The figures there seemed to be melancholic, as in lonely and waiting for them to be noticed and hugged. In fact, as I read later, he focuses on the guilt of ignoring as opposed to the human desire to nurture and protect.
As part of the exhibition, he’d left some of these tins in the streets to see what the effect is on the unsuspecting viewer. They are cute!
The eyes were amazing. They are the second thing that stood out for me. By experience, I know it takes some (a lot of) time and skill to draw eyes properly, so that they look like actual eyes. These were painted on pieces of wood and, even, on the gallery’s walls.
Does he like Android?
There was something else. Some of these figures reminded me very much of a video by the Smashing Pumpkins, Tonight, Tonight. That moon on the video, the simple face…
He founded the Free Art on Fridays on Southsea, where he is based. Some artists left some of their work outdoors for the members of the public to either see or take home with them. The idea is to create and enjoy art without the constraints of galleries and commerce.
For art lovers, the idea of taking home an original piece is, simply, brilliant. I guess it must not be for the many art galleries in the world. The movement was covered last year by the BBC.
Here’s a video of the exhibition. It’s to do with Circle Line in London tube too.
So, thank you so much for reading to here. Hope you are having a great Easter!
Great art photos. . . And I agree, eyes are difficult for an artist to capture.