Jerwood Gallery in Hastings to open March 17th | Q&A with Liz Gilmore, Director of the Jerwood Gallery

Text by Bethany Rex

There are a lot of projects that get the go-ahead in the name of regeneration, and the savagely debated Jerwood Gallery in Hastings is no exception. There's a whole website devoted to the 'Say No to Jerwood on The Stade' (an area next to the fish market) campaign but one only has look East for two shining examples of cultural regeneration come good; the hugely successful Folkestone Triennial and the celebrated Turner Contemporary in Margate. In geographical terms at least, the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings could become the next in a long-line of galleries on the South Coast (The De La Warr Pavilion, Towner, Turner Contemporary) that are not only worth the short day trip from London but worth our support as they embark on the long process of making a significant difference and a positive impact on seaside towns in need of renewed prosperity. The Jerwood Gallery in Hastings will open its doors to visitors on 17 March 2012. We spoke to Liz Gilmore, Director of the Jerwood Gallery to find out more.

BR: We have seen a wave of new regional contemporary galleries opening in the UK over the last two years; Nottingham Contemporary, Towner in Eastbourne, Hepworth Wakefield, Turner Contemporary, firstsite in Colchester. The general mood was these would be the last of their kind to open for some time to come. How has the opening of the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings been made possible?

LG: Jerwood Gallery has been solely funded by Jerwood Foundation and has come into being through the vision of its Chairman, Alan Grieve. There have been a number of iconic new gallery buildings and re-developments the past 5 years and we are delighted by their successes. Margate’s Turner Contemporary, Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion, Eastbourne’s Towner to name but a few. Jerwood Gallery is the final link in the "string of pearls" around the SE coast and delivers a "future-facing" gallery for 2012 – environmentally, artistically and architecturally.

BR: What are you particularly excited about showing in the new gallery?

LG: Putting Jerwood Foundation’s collection in the public realm (c. 200 artworks) for the first time and enabling a dialogue between that and a contemporary programme. We open with a retrospective of paintings by Rose Wylie, a 77 year old Kent based artist – the first UK retrospective of her work which will be housed in our contemporary space.

BR: You read about the care required to create a programme that is both ambitious and artistically significant- but also one that will be embraced by the local community. How will the new space in Hastings overcome this challenge?

LG: Building new appetites and balancing that with what people know or hope is on the menu is always a challenge. But the successful galleries always do this well. We are very keen that Jerwood Gallery should be a cultural hub for Hastings, offering an ambitious, nationally significant programme that local people can be proud of. We open with Rose Wylie, then its Gary Hume . . . both artists have had a long association with Jerwood Foundation, personal connections with the region and in terms of ambition, place Hastings/Jerwood Gallery on an international stage.

BR: Would you be able to tell us a bit more about the design of the new gallery? How did the relationship with HAT Projects come about?

LG: The design is a sensitive response to the needs, ethos and qualities of the Jerwood Collection, and to the extraordinary architectural context of the site with its fishing beach, listed net shops and medieval Old Town. It is also an exemplar of environmental sustainability, through passive design, ground source heat pump cooling, solar thermal hot water and other measures.

Seven gallery rooms are dedicated to the Jerwood Collection: a large ground floor gallery is for temporary exhibitions; there is a sculpture courtyard, a first floor café overlooking the fishing beach, education space, library and shop. Its "grand domestic" scale brings a quality appropriate for Jerwood’s Modern British art collection which it will house.

Hana Loftus of HAT Projects worked with Jerwood from the genesis of the project, helping to develop the brief and research potential locations. HAT Projects were then appointed architects to design the project as Jerwood decided they had the best understanding and experience of the needs and ambitions of the project.

BR: Could you give us an insight into the inaugural exhibition?

LG: It’s the first UK retrospective for Rose Wylie. The title of the exhibition, Big Boys Sit in the Front is taken from the final line of a poem by Robert Creeley (1926-2005 "… the big people, sitting up front"), whom Rose met in Vancouver in 1962. Written late in Creeley’s career, it reminds us, how childhood can feel. This mirrors Rose’s respect for direct imagery, an example of which she finds in the work of African lorry artists which inspired her piece Lorry Art (2010) which is on show for the first time. We’re delighted to be showing new works, including a monumental piece Getting Better with Water, 2011; along with some of her well know works such as Woman Sitting on a Bench with Boarder (film notes) 2007-8.

BR: In a nutshell, what are the highlights of the Foundation’s collection?

LG: The collection has grown over 20 years under the aegis of Alan Grieve and celebrates 20th and 21st century British art and artists, some of whom are well-known and some less so.

The first exhibition of c. 58 works puts on show: Flowers in a Terracotta Pot by David Bomberg (1890-1957); a portrait by Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) of his niece Daphne. Some works have strong local resonance – eg: The Churchyard, Rye, by Edward Burra; others international interest for example, a stunning painting of the church of St Remy by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942). And a wonderful still life painting, entitled Green Jug by the artist Keith Vaughan (1912-1977).

BR: Could you tell me a bit more about the history of the Stade?

LG: "Stade" is Anglo-Saxon for 'landing place', and this area of Hastings beach has been used by Hastings fishermen for nearly 1000 years. Indeed, many of the fishermen still working the beach can trace their family history back over several hundred years. It’s an area steeped in history and cultural tradition and a wonderful context for a gallery.

BR: What will the relationship be like between Jerwood Hastings and the Jerwood Space in London?

LG: We are both part of the same Jerwood family and work closely and collaboratively. Jerwood Space in Southwark opened in 1998 as a major capital initiative of the Jerwood Foundation and is recognised as one of the best rehearsal spaces for theatre and dance in the UK. The knowledge and experience of staff from that project has been instrumental to the success of our construction. Jerwood Space is also home to Jerwood Charitable Foundation (JCF) who develops and manages the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. Without giving too much away regarding our future programme I can confirm that we expect to show a number of the JVA shows in the future.

BR: It’s good to hear that the Gallery will benefit local communities through outreach activities. In this vein, could you give us an insight into the film collaboration with Project Artworks?

LG: The project captures the moment of practical completion – when we formally took possession of the building after the main construction phase. The film, directed by Kate Adams, MBE, captures the uninhabited Jerwood Gallery, providing poetic and intimate insight into its spaces by people who have perceptual and cognitive impairments but who are highly sensitive to the sounds, surfaces, light and qualities of built space. We will show the film at Jerwood Gallery in July 2012

The Jerwood Gallery in Hastings will open to the public on Saturday 17 March. Full programme information is available here: www.jerwoodgallery.org

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.

Caption:
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, HAT Projects
© Ioana Marinescu

OHC Blog Carnival - February Newsletter Edition

The carnival reminds me that we are still officially in the winter season but many of us are starting to see some signs of spring. Perhaps we are just hopeful that spring is around the corner. Either way, this carnival is packed with lots of nature study goodness for you to enjoy and to be inspired by as your read the entries. I know that it can be a challenge to read all the entries but I encourage you to visit a few favorites and perhaps a new family as well, leaving a comment behind as a way of connecting with your fellow Outdoor Hour Challenge participants.

I always come away from my reading with a great sense of joy.

Winter Weeds/Mullein/Twigs

• Julie writes about their weed study in Starting February With Weeds. They decided on a close-up study of dandelions and she shares their thoughts and journal page with carnival readers.
• Diana from Homeschool Review and Crafting Too wrote a very real and honest account of their Twigs Nature Study. I love that we can feel successful getting outdoors with our children even if things don't go as planned. Their family also completed their Mullein Study and Diana shares their adventure looking for some winter mullein...success! I am enjoying the glimpse into their family's growing confidence in nature study. 
• Angie from Petra School would love for you to read her entry Twig Studies. Angie and her boys are doing such a great job with this series of  challenges and you will be encouraged by their advanced study examples.
• Barbara from Schoolhouse on the Prairie shares their wonderful Twig Study and a Book Review.  They decided there was much to learn from their backyard twigs. Don't miss her book review and see if you can find this OOP book at your library.
• Rebecca from Mom's Mustard Seeds joins the carnival for this edition with her Adventures with Chickadees and Twigs entry.  Their family is just getting started with the Outdoor Hour Challenge and she shares her struggles and their success in this wonderful entry.

Galls and Gall Dwelling Insects

• Makita from Academia Celestia shares there Galls: Nature Study entry with carnival readers. She has collected quite a few galls and shares their study and your images for your inspiration
• Julie from the Homeschool Balancing Act asks Galls? What is a Gall? as part of their entry for this challenge. They did some discovering and now they will be on the lookout for more potential galls.
• Western Galls and Squalls, but No Gulls with Gals. How is that for a blog entry title? Angie from Petra School has a humorous and informative entry to share with carnival readers.
• Zonnah from Zonnah's Addictions has submitted Galls for carnival readers to view. She includes two beautiful clear images of different kinds of galls. Thanks so much for the reference. She is also sharing their Twig Update...absolutely gorgeous!

What a display at Petra School! Thanks Angie for sharing.

Quartz

• Zonnah from Zonnah's Addictions submits their Quartz nature study entry for your to read and view. She has a collection of quartz that they observed and then they made rock candy! Excellent idea for follow-up for families.
• Angie from Petra School is going to inspire you to get outside and collect some quartz of your own. Her entry for the Quartz Challenge shows just how creative and personalized you can make each challenge. Awesome job! My boys and I are going to make our own quartz collections!
• Rebecca from Mom's Mustard Seeds also writes about their Learning about Rocks, Sheep/Wool, and a Detour to Marshes and Ponds for this edition of the carnival. I love seeing how they make so many connections to their other studies, their values, and beliefs while learning through nature study. Excellent.

Magnets and Compass

• Zonnah shares their Compass entry with carnival readers which includes an easy adaptation to one of the suggested activities. I think we are going to use images for our notebook page as well.

Lacey and her family (So Every Day) have created a wonderful nature collection on their mantel.

Potpourri

• Jenny Anne from Royal Little Lambs has submitted their Sheep Study for carnival readers. It sounds like they thoroughly enjoyed this challenge.
• Barb at Give Us This Oklahoma Day has just started with her first Outdoor Hour Challenge.  I loved seeing the muddy hands and the smiling faces. Please pop over and give her some encouragement.
• Leslie from Two Cowgirls shares their first Outdoor Hour Challenge and they saw some signs of rabbits!  I think they did a great job of finding something interesting even in the city.
• Lacey from So Every Day has been sharing their Getting Started nature study entries. For OHC #8 (magnifying glass), she writes about how she initially needed the push to get outdoors but felt the rewards of doing so with her children. Great example. For OHC #5 and #6 (list and collection), she shares their awesome new collection that is beautiful and contained on their mantel. Please pop over and let her know you stopped by. She is longing to "catch up" to us and be a part of our community.
• Crafty Cristy has submitted S is for Science which documents their beginning on the Handbook of Nature Study trail. It is always wonderful to get to meet new families. 
• Makita has another entry from their blog: First Fridays which details their latest Roots and Shoots nature group outing. You must click over and see their ginormous list of birds observed.
• Diana from Homeschool Review and Crafting Too has submitted their Chickadee Study Part 2 for the carnival. Here is another family that completed the pastel chickadee project!
• Kristin from Broom and Crown has put together a wonderful entry for you to read: Our First Sonoran Desert Nature Walk. This is one of my top ten nature study destinations in the world. I love everything about the Sonora Desert. Thanks Kristin for the visual trip.
• Martha from Sunrise to Sunset captured some fantastic images for you to see. Click over and read: My Backyard Excitement!
• Amy from By His Design shares their Signs of Spring entry for this edition of the carnival. Don't miss the image of the grubs...and the beautiful spring photos as well. :) 

It is almost time for a new set of challenges! 

Publish Date - March 5, 2012

I am polishing up the More Nature Study Book #3 - Spring Splendor volume of Outdoor Hour Challenges. This is the most thorough and exciting book so far. I can't tell you how much I have learned as I put this book together and I look forward to sharing the ideas with you as we work through each one this spring.

A Leap Beyond the Physical | Dan Flavin: An Installation | Galerie Perrotin | Paris

Text by Matt Swain

Dan Flavin (1933-1996) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from fluorescent light fixtures. His early work focused upon drawings and paintings influenced by Abstract Expressionism but the subsequent focus of his work was an exploration of the artistic possibilities of fluorescent light, limiting his possibilities by restricting his materials to commercially available tubing in standard sizes, shapes and colours.

Flavin's breakthrough came with The diagonal of may 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi) (1963) a simple yellow fluorescent light set at a 45 degree angle. This bold statement effectively challenged art history by stating that a light tube could stand alone as a work of art, thereby attaining cultural significance by reducing the gap between art and everyday life.

This exhibition brings together eight sculptural works from 1963 to 1989, together with three thematic drawings entitled untitled (to the citizens of the Republic of France on the 200th anniversary of their revolution) from 1989. The extent of the works throughout the four exquisite rooms at Galerie Perrotin demonstrate the range of Flavin's vision. four red horizontals (to Sonja) (1963) exudes a visually arresting aura of red fluorescent light of deep intensity and beauty which complements and transforms it's physical surroundings. This contrasts with the subtle simplicity found in the cool white fluorescent light of white around a corner (1965) which comprises a single fluorescent tube placed in the intersection of the walls. This light is echoed and expanded in monument for V. Tatlin (1967) which consists of seven tubes of cool white fluorescent light and is part of a series dedicated to Vladimir Tatlin, a leading figure in the Russian Constructivist movement.

These three-dimensional monochromes belie their minimalist construction by embracing (and occasionally unsettling) the viewer in their glow of light, setting a dramatic and affecting tone. They develop a mood from which spirituality and mystery emanate, the result of which is a sense of timelessness. Flavins work dramatically reinvents the space with his installations of infinite combinations offering seduction and confrontation, promise and desolation.

The blue and pink fluorescent light emitted in untitled (to Don Judd, colorist) 4 (1987) has more than a sense of the iconic and of all the installations, has perhaps the most symbolic and architectural resonance. In untitled (to Charlotte) (1987), Flavin blends red, pink, yellow, blue and grey to create a very real sense of emotion. Through reflections on the floor, walls and ceiling, Flavin explores the behaviour of light through his creations. The lights bleed and stray into the space around the fixture itself and illuminate the space - to which the intimacy of the gallery is perfectly suited. It is said that Flavin disliked the term minimalist, and whilst one cannot help but indulge the minimalism on display, there is a definite richness and density beyond the spectral flood of colours that initially captivate your senses.

In order to inspire, one has to believe and Flavin's belief in his work is perhaps the most illuminating and revelatory aspect of the exhibition. What could so easily have been a neutral and unrewarding love is transformed by the level of engagement in blending colour, light and perspective in a way that goes beyond the physical. Flavin built a lasting legacy, successfully creating monuments of architecture bathed in rays of momentary beauty.

Dan Flavin: An Installation, 14/01/2012 - 03/03/2012, Galerie Perrotin, 76 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris. www.perrotin.com

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.

Photography: Florian Kleinefenn
Copyright 2011 Stephen Flavin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Olympic Rings

150 days until the Olympics. This milestone was celebrated yesterday by a barge towing giant Olympic Rings under Tower Bridge.


It's always excting to see the bridge open to let tall ships through but even more so to see the Olympic Rings pass through.

When Harry Met Eleanor

Eleanor Callahan, wife and muse of the late Harry Callahan died yesterday at the age of 95. I don't think there was a photographer who loved his wife more or longer than Harry Callahan loved Eleanor. The couple met in 1933 when both were working at Chrysler in Detroit. She was 17 and he was 21 and for more than 50 years Harry photographed her the way his hero Ansel Adams photographed mountains - with respect, and awe, and love, at all times of the day and night and in all kinds of weather.

Eleanor's plain beauty made the photographs timeless. Her faith in her husband's taste and judgment allowed the most intimate pictures. Here's hoping that a match made in heaven continues where it began.

Margarete von Brauchitsch a Modernist Designer

Illustration: Margarete von Brauchitsch. Embroidery design work in a contemporary interior setting, c1905.

Margarete von Brauchitsch is perhaps not the best known of early twentieth century artists and designers, although throughout her career she was both popularly admired and held as an example of one of the leading pioneers to be found in contemporary decoration and design. She was particularly favoured in both German design magazines such as Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration and Dekorative Kunst, as well as the English Studio magazine.

Von Brauchitsch produced work in a number of disciplines including textiles, wallpaper, ceramics, stained glass and clothing. Although trained as a fine art painter, she studied under Max Klinger in Leipzig; it was in the world of decoration and design where perhaps she really made her mark. Although producing work in a range of disciplines as just stated, embroidery was a particularly rich vein and one in which she was to push the traditions of that discipline in to the new twentieth century, a century that offered a seemingly endless supply of new innovations and ideas.

Her work seemed to start conventionally enough with her embroidery work following closely the ideas of floral interpretation and inspiration as dictated by the Art Nouveau movement. However, by 1905 her work was being featured much more publicly and the design work itself had been shorn of much of its floral decorative format. Brauchitsch started to produce simple but effective geometric borders, as well as pattern work that often followed simple lines across fabrics, in many respects following the line of the original warp and weft pattern produced by the initial weaving of the background fabric. 

Illustration: Margarete von Brauchitsch. Embroidery design work in a contemporary interior setting, c1905.

Her new reliance on the bold and the simple was remarked upon in a number of leading articles concerning her work. The Studio magazine for example when reviewing an exhibition of contemporary needlework at the Konigliches Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin in 1908 said of Brauchitsch that she:

'...cultivates a geometrical style of design. She chooses strong and simple colours, violet and green, black and green, brown and white for her linen ground. She can be graceful or strong, rich and sparing, but she appears always reliable and uniform.'

Interestingly, at the 1908 exhibition she was considered to be on an equal measure with one of the leading contemporary designers of the period Henry van de Velde. In fact, The Studio magazine considered both Brauchitsch and van de Velde to be part of what they termed 'the cooler sphere of logic.' This then placed Brauchitsch within the leading contemporary movement in Germany and as one of the innovators of the modern movement which was rapidly replacing the older ideals of the Jugendstil in Central Europe. 

The modern movement in design and decoration was one that saw itself as an integral part of modernist architecture, believing itself to be a reflection of the paired down and minimally inspired architectural work that was beginning to make its effect in Germany in particular. Modernist exteriors needed modernist interiors and in this way designers such as Brauchitsch produced work that intimately followed the strict vertical and horizontal lines being produced within the new architecture. It was a form whereby all aspects of the new contemporary building needed to be harmonised with common themes being reproduced across all disciplines that made up exterior and interior settings.

The three photographs that illustrate this article are from around 1905 and clearly show the embroidery work of Brauchitsch in an interior setting. These photographs are invaluable as they show the new twentieth century interior, one with no decorative or ornamental elements within the room itself and furniture and accessories being strictly shorn of all or most ornamental affectations. The room is clearly very different from the exuberance to be found in interiors that reflected the passing of the Art Nouveau style and was probably purposely so. The decoration that has been included within the room is textile based. Therefore the carpet and embroidery work are the only visible decorative detailing and these follow the general theme of the geometrical strictness of the room by being paired down and minimalized.

 Illustration: Margarete von Brauchitsch. Embroidery design work in a contemporary interior setting, c1905.

Although the interior shown and the integral embroidery work of Brauchitsch was clearly seen by many as being nothing more than an interesting contemporary conceptual interior with no real practical application, many others saw it as a real movement towards the rationalisation of a whole range of disciplines from the actual architectural framing to the decorative embroidered accessorising. This was meant to signify the coming century and a belief in the contraction of decoration and ornament into a much more manageable state, countering the excesses of the nineteenth century which had seemingly had its final flourish as Art Nouveau.

Although this rationalisation and simplification of a decorative interior did have some way to go before becoming both popularised and standardised as a European and then World norm, it is interesting to see some of the early experiments in decorative formats being tested and tried in various Central European exhibitions and leading publications. That a woman also became such an integral part of this experimentation in architecture and design should be applauded. Margarete von Brauchitsch was a member of the Deutsche Werkbund and pushed tirelessly for the equal recognition of women as fellow artists and designers, seeing no real difference with men in goals and achievements within the disciplines they worked in. That she was one of only a few women in the midst of a majority of men perhaps showed how far women still had to go not just to be counted as physically of equal measure, but also creatively. That von Brauchitsch did so shows a strength of personal character, but also an individual who was willing to push the boundaries of herself and her gender, as well as that of the world of design and decoration into the largely unknown contemporary world of the twentieth century.

Further reading links:

Review: Reverb Festival at The Roundhouse, London

Text by Ruby Beesley

La Coquille et le clergyman – Imogen Heap and The Holst Singers
Oracles and Step Onto the Ground, Dear Brother! – Ana Silvera and The Estonian Television Girls Choir

Now in its second year after a successful launch in 2010, the Roundhouse’s Reverb Festival aims to dismantle the stuffy, jargon-loaded image of classical music. While commercially the past decade has seen our musicians take a battering, creatively it’s an exciting time for contemporary music with tastes broadening, genres metamorphosing and live performances defying the rough waters experienced by the rest of the industry. And why shouldn’t classical music experience the same resurgence? By debunking the classical and the experimental, Reverb engages wider audiences in the growth of contemporary classical with the primary aim of creating a relaxed, enjoyable and approachable atmosphere with clear and informal introductions from the performers and composers encouraging listeners to better engage with the work.

An alt-classical a cappella accompaniment to the first Surrealist (though widely-contested as such) film, created by a female director back in 1928, doesn’t leap off the page as an approachable introduction to contemporary classical but, performed as it is following an ethereal performance by Ana Silvera and the Estonian Television Girls Choir, this segue into uncharted waters (for myself at least) works surprisingly well.

Initially commissioned by Birds Eye View Film Festival to marry the two vastly under feminised areas of film direction and classical musical composition, the pairing is initially challenging because we have become so accustomed to expecting a performance out of our singers. I find myself focussing on Imogen Heap and the Holst singers rather than on Germaine Dulac’s pioneering film. With a modicum of self-discipline however the inventive and frequently absurd fluctuations of the human voice animate the silent characters on the screen in a manner that alludes to their minds rather than their spoken words. In this sense Heap has transported La Coquille et le clergyman back into the Surrealist canon by ignoring the conventions of dialogue and focusing (as Surrealism should) on the interior and the subconscious. We feel the puzzlement, rage, dismay and infuriating lust of the clergyman as his erotic fantasies spiral out of control. At times the piece is hilarious and Heap and the Holst singers only serve to emphasise this in their vivid exploration of the possibilities of the human voice (and unabashed lack of pretension and foible). The guttural projections, cries of ecstasy and pants of anticipation and climax only emphasise the bizarre nature of Dulac’s work and of self-righteous denial (a timely observation for the beginning of Lent). In doing so they improve the reception of Dulac’s masterpiece immensely.

More typical of a novice’s expectations of contemporary music is Ana Silvera’s Oracles, which loosely narrate (with instrumental and choral accompaniment) the gamut of emotions involved in a fairytale love affair. At times (such as in The Awakening) Silvera resembles a mellowed Tori Amos, improvising and allowing her accompaniments to catch on. With the emergence of an acoustic score resembling African tribal themes the performers seem to relax into their roles and into the story. Within our visually over-emphasised culture (and as someone focused day-in, day-out on aesthetics) to be transported so readily into a story through music is a welcome revelation.

Continuing into next weekend, Reverb has certainly succeeded in demystifying the classical music experience. Winding down the evening with performances of Silvera and Heap’s best-known works, as well as an eye-opening and exceptional rendition of traditional Estonian music (at times almost primitive and otherworldly, contemporary yet also timeless), the festival treads just the right side of approachable, without patronizing its audience, with a fantastic programme of events.

www.roundhouse.org.uk

Aesthetica In Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.

Portrait of a lady in Nizamabad: Isabel Kerr. Wellcome Library Item of the Month.

Photograph by G.M. Kerr, 1926. Wellcome Library no. 726380i.

This photographic print is one of the apparently few and elusive portraits of Isabel Kerr (1875-1932), a Methodist missionary who founded the Victoria Treatment Hospital for people with leprosy at Dichpali, near Nizamabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Born Isabel Gunn, she had graduated MB ChB at Aberdeen in 1903, and arrived in India with her husband, the Rev. George McGlashan Kerr, in 1907. They noticed the frequency of leprosy and the unsatisfactory treatment of its victims, and having resolved to do something about it, received a donation of 10,000 rupees (£590) from a citizen of Nizamabad, Narsa Gowd, towards a leprosy hospital. In 1913 a gift of 60 acres of land at Dichpali (also called Dichpalli), a village ten miles down the railway line from Nizamabad to the city of Hyderabad, was received from the Nizam of Hyderabad. With further funds from Narsa Gowd and others, the hospital opened on 18 April 1915. [1]

The hospital expanded rapidly owing to demand, and by 1921 it consisted of 120 buildings. Further buildings were added in 1923 when the Minister of Finance of Hyderabad, A. Hydari (later Sir Akbar Hydari) opened more new buildings, again paid for by the Nizam. The running costs from 1910 to 1944 were subsidised by the Mission to Lepers, from 7 Bloomsbury Square, London (since 1965 known as The Leprosy Mission).

In 1920 Isabel Kerr adopted the treatment using oil of the chaulmoogra tree, which she learnt from Ernest Muir in Calcutta. It is presumably a chaulmoogra injection (excruciating for the patient) that is shown in the photograph. An Indian variation of the treatment used the related hydnocarpus plant, which was cultivated along with cinchona in the Nilgiri hills.

At Dichpali there was no shortage of patients, but in too many cases they were the wrong kind for treatment. The Rev. G.M. Kerr described how, in the early stage, when the disease was infectious and treatment would be most effective, patients would hide their symptoms. Only much later would they go for treatment, when the hydnocarpus oil could do nothing to undo the mutilations caused by the bacillus decades previously. Kerr compared the treatment-after-the-event at Dichpali to a clifftop where people were in danger of falling off: it would be better to install a rail at the top than a casualty station at the bottom. To encourage people to be treated in the early stages of leprosy, the Kerrs therefore opened an outpatient clinic in Hyderabad in 1928, with the desired effect: "Students from the colleges, clerks from their offices, and Government officials from their posts" all flocked to the clinic. [2]

A second photograph in the Wellcome Library (below) shows yet another foundation-stone laying ceremony, this time in 1935.

Wellcome Library no. 749712i

The foundation stone was laid this time by Amena, Lady Hydari. By this time Isabel Kerr had died: she died in 1932, aged 57. [3] The Rev. George McGlashan Kerr continued to run the hospital after her death, until his retirement to Scotland in 1938. His archive including three photographs is in Edinburgh University. He died in 1950.

Isabel Kerr was described as "modest, shy and diffident, and reluctant to speak in public". Hence no doubt the lack of photographs of her: the opposite of the much-portrayed Albert Schweitzer, renowned for his skilful use of publicity.

As a Methodist, Isabel Kerr was doubtless familiar with, and motivated by, the words of John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism:

"Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can."


[1] Dermott Moynahan, The story of Dichpalli, London: The Cargate Press, 1949, is the source for most of what is written here. It is a revision of his earlier book The lepers of Dichpali, London: The Cargate Press, 1938. In the earlier edition but not in the later, the present photograph of Isabel Kerr is reproduced with legend "Dr Isabel Kerr giving an injection" (facing p. 28) 

[2] Rev. G.M. Kerr, 'Tackling a great social problem: the fight with leprosy', The foreign field (of the Wesleyan Methodist Church), April 1926, pp. 155-158 

[3] Her obituary in The Lancet reads as follows (in its entirety). "Isabel Kerr, M.B. Aberd. The death is reported from Dichpali, the Leper hospital settlement outside Nizamabad, of Dr. Isabel Kerr, the Scottish medical missionary, who has made this institution the outstanding centre in South India for the treatment of leprosy, and for training in diagnosis and treatment. Born at Fochabers-on-Spey in 1875, she graduated in medicine at Aberdeen in 1903, and went to India with her husband, the Rev. George M. Kerr, who is superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission Station at Nizamabad. She had charge for 12 years of the mission hospital there until the foundation of the Dichpali Home, where husband and wife have worked devotedly ever since. In 1923 she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal in recognition of her services." (The Lancet, 31 December 1932, pp. 1460-1461) 

Portrait of John Wesley: mezzotint by J. Faber after J. Williams, 1743. Wellcome Library no. 9621i.

Couples

A lovely sunny day on the weekend and couples everywhere.

Updated Free Nature Notebooking Pages

When I released the very first Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook, there was also a set of free notebook pages that was offered by my friend Tina Joyce. Since then the files were somehow deleted from Lulu.com and it was not until this week that I was able to get them uploaded to my file share site.

Thanks so much Tina.


You should now be able to download each page for free.

Blank Nature Journal for the Outdoor Hour Challenge
Blank Nature Journal Page #2
Blank Nature Walk Journal Page
Blank Nature Journal Page for Older Children
Running List of Thinks Observed (I use this one all the time!)
Record of Things Collected
Mammal Outdoor Hour Challenge Notebook Page

You will find more free pages here: Handbook of Nature Study Free Downloads.

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Extreme traveller of the early C20th

John Fulton Barr as a young man

A small collection of papers of John Fulton Barr (1868-1954) has just been catalogued and is now available for reader use. Barr qualified in medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1891. According to the donor of the papers, after the relatively tame postgraduate enterprise of going to Paris to study ophthalmology, Barr then joined in the Klondike Gold Rush, an episode in his career sadly not covered by the diaries and other items we hold.

Early in 1900, like so many of his compatriots, he sailed from England to serve in the Boer War. This period of his life is covered by three diaries (PP/JFB/A.1/1-3) and nearly 100 black and white photographs showing a very wide variety of aspects of the life he encountered in South Africa. There are also a couple of postcards from him to a Miss Isabelle Carmichael of Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire. These materials form a welcome addition to our already significant holdings relating to the war in South Africa, 1899-1902, a topic of continuing interest to researchers.

Following this episode, Barr went to Japan, and was involved in a business venture - a salmon cannery - on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia. Over the years he made several expeditions into this wild volcanic region. Even these days this area presents huge challenges for the traveller because of its inaccessibility and rugged terrain, although a tourism industry is developing. His surviving diary 1907-1909 describes his travels in Japan, China, and Russia and his expeditions into Kamchatka

There are frustratingly no diaries for the period from 1909 until 1917. Thus, although Barr was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the RAMC in August 1914, we only have an account of his war service from November 1917, along with a little, mostly official, correspondence. He was discharged from service in 1919, taking a position as surgeon on one of the ships repatriating chinese labourers after the War, in order to return to Asia.

After further travels in the Far East, and also trips to North America, the Baltic and Australia, Barr returned to the UK.  According to the Medical Directory he held a few hospital medical officer posts in Scotland, before establishing himself in Unstone, Derbyshire (near Sheffield), where he continued to reside after his retirement from practice c. 1940, and to keep up his diaries. He continued to take extended periods of travel: apart from fairly frequent trips to Scotland (mainly Gelston) and a couple to Ireland, he went to South America in 1924 and South Africa in 1932, revisited Japan in 1939, and visited Sri Lanka in 1940, as well as going to Wengen, Switzerland, on  several occasions during the 1930s.

John Fulton Barr in the 1940s

There is a complete run of his diaries covering his career and travels from 1917 until 1948, although according to the British Medical Journal Barr did not die until 1954.

This collection, though small, offers considerable riches to the researcher, adding to our existing treasure-trove of unpublished travel writings as well to our extensive holdings on War, Medicine and Health, and illuminates an unusual and enterprising medical life-course.

TERRYWOOD opens at OHWOW in Los Angeles

Richardson has been inspired by the multiple facets of Hollywood life. In his latest show,TERRYWOOD, he unveils a series of images of the famous city, as seen through his eyes. Terryworld meets Hollywood, as the local characters, familiar landscapes, and architectural details verge on a new identity.

With images such as Untitled (Hollywood Neon), and Untitled (Nude), both photographs of the recognisable signs that are ubiquitous throughout Hollywood, Richardson illustrates his penchant for branding (whatever subject matter may be.) Through a medium not typically understood as effective in translating an artist’s personality, Richardson manages to make his hand evident within his photographs. His identity is unmistakably present, as if he created the very objects and scenes his camera captures.

An artist often attributed with changing the field of photography, Richardson also defies the ideological limitations. TERRYWOOD takes all that Hollywood represents - celebrity, broken dreams, kitsch, and re-contextualises it by the works with a different narrative. Richardson is one of the most prolific and compelling photographers of his generation. Known for his uncanny ability to cut to the raw essence of whomever appears before his lens, Richardson's vision is at once humorous, tragic, often beautiful, and always provocative. Born in New York City and raised in Hollywood, he began photographing his environment while attending Hollywood High School and playing in a punk rock band. Richardson‘s work has been the subject of numerous group and solo shows throughout the world, and he has published a selection of books beginning with Hysteric Glamour in1998, followed by a print retrospective titled Terryworld, and most recently released LADY GAGA x TERRY RICHARDSON.

TERRYWOOD runs at OHWOW, 937 North La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90069 until 31 March.

www.oh-wow.com

Images:

(c) Terry Richardson

Hooray for Hollywood, 2011
C-print
48 x 72 inches
Edition of 3, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, 2011
C-print
26 x 40 inches
Edition of 3, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, 2011
C-print
26 x 40 inches
Edition of 3, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

NUDE, 2011
C-print
48 x 72 inches
Edition of 3, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you're missing out. The February/March issue of Aesthetica is out now and offers a diverse range of features from an examination of the diversity and complexity of art produced during the tumultuous decade of the 1980s in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, opening 11 February at MCA Chiacgo, a photographic presentation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's latest opening, Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection. Plus, we recount the story of British design in relation to a comprehensive exhibition opening this spring at the V&A.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Better yet call +44 (0) 1904 629 137 or visit the website to subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine.