1982 is named after the year the Oxford Artists Group first formed Artweeks, who now come together at OVADA, (Oxfordshire's Visual Arts Development Agency) to form their latest exhibition. The work is a spectrum of styles and forms, coming from very different artists and tied together with being local to Oxfordshire.
On walking into the first of the white washed rooms in this small building, we are confronted with circus music, and a video clip showing footage from the Iraq war with political leaders making speeches on the news. This work coupled with the American dollars whose president faces are covered with red stamps, is effective in its political message, and is not designed to make you relaxed or comfortable.
Round the corner we see earthenware ceramics, photographs of a turkish family whose stare makes us equally uneasy, a collage of contemporary city pictures from around the world with futuristic building plans superimposed, and simple lines on a white background that remind me of digital volume lines on a stereo. We see drift wood and pebbles made into an archway, built into an alcove in the room, with a sign inside reading "What is life?" The message here seems to be vague but I like the rough materials used and it gives me a warm thoughtful feeling.
There is a darkened room with type writers typing away numbers that notch up like a huge clock. This is like a mathematical puzzle to work out.
As with most conceptual art I don't always know what it is trying to communicate, but I either like it or not, without quite knowing why. I suspect it depends on the what the individual viewer relates to.
Upstairs it gets more aesthetic, is more relaxing on the eye, and seems to have more to do with nature and natural worlds, which always appeals to me. There are landscape paintings of wild and dangerous skies over turbulent seas, making you attracted by the colours but rather threatened by the storm.
The seeds in glass dishes perfectly positioned on a mirrored table make you want to touch them to see how they are made, they are laid out as if to be bought in a shop, inviting you to pick them up, but nobody does because it is art.
The cake of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, and the white lanterns of buildings are especially beautiful, the local stories attached to the art pieces makes each one a talking point on the walk around the exhibition.
My favourite piece is a mirror attached to an overhead beam, with gloves stuck on either side and dangling coloured straws. It is very simple and relates to nothing else in the room, but makes you position yourself to try and see your reflection. This puts you right behind a large wicker structure in the middle of the room which stands on some charred black drift wood and a large prehistoric skull.
As with most eclectic exhibitions, there is some art that does not move me, and some that does. There is something for everyone here, from the political activist to the naturist and the traditional landscape portrait, with some comic relief thrown in.
Try it for something completely different!
www.ovada.org.uk for more information.
From 13 May - 10 June 2006, in Gloucester Green, by the bus station.
On walking into the first of the white washed rooms in this small building, we are confronted with circus music, and a video clip showing footage from the Iraq war with political leaders making speeches on the news. This work coupled with the American dollars whose president faces are covered with red stamps, is effective in its political message, and is not designed to make you relaxed or comfortable.
Round the corner we see earthenware ceramics, photographs of a turkish family whose stare makes us equally uneasy, a collage of contemporary city pictures from around the world with futuristic building plans superimposed, and simple lines on a white background that remind me of digital volume lines on a stereo. We see drift wood and pebbles made into an archway, built into an alcove in the room, with a sign inside reading "What is life?" The message here seems to be vague but I like the rough materials used and it gives me a warm thoughtful feeling.
There is a darkened room with type writers typing away numbers that notch up like a huge clock. This is like a mathematical puzzle to work out.
As with most conceptual art I don't always know what it is trying to communicate, but I either like it or not, without quite knowing why. I suspect it depends on the what the individual viewer relates to.
Upstairs it gets more aesthetic, is more relaxing on the eye, and seems to have more to do with nature and natural worlds, which always appeals to me. There are landscape paintings of wild and dangerous skies over turbulent seas, making you attracted by the colours but rather threatened by the storm.
The seeds in glass dishes perfectly positioned on a mirrored table make you want to touch them to see how they are made, they are laid out as if to be bought in a shop, inviting you to pick them up, but nobody does because it is art.
The cake of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, and the white lanterns of buildings are especially beautiful, the local stories attached to the art pieces makes each one a talking point on the walk around the exhibition.
My favourite piece is a mirror attached to an overhead beam, with gloves stuck on either side and dangling coloured straws. It is very simple and relates to nothing else in the room, but makes you position yourself to try and see your reflection. This puts you right behind a large wicker structure in the middle of the room which stands on some charred black drift wood and a large prehistoric skull.
As with most eclectic exhibitions, there is some art that does not move me, and some that does. There is something for everyone here, from the political activist to the naturist and the traditional landscape portrait, with some comic relief thrown in.
Try it for something completely different!
www.ovada.org.uk for more information.
From 13 May - 10 June 2006, in Gloucester Green, by the bus station.