Europe After the Rain

Last week saw this opening of this international group exhibition, curated by Simon Faithfull, borrows its title from Max Ernst’s painting Europe After The Rain II. Taking its lead from this work, the exhibition presents visions of dystopian terrains and possible landscapes to come.  We are showing "Bunting", a work we first developed for Simon's Mobile Research Station at Skulpturen Park, Berlin in 2009.  Also good to be returning to Newlyn where we haven't shown since our solo presentation of The Fireworks and The Carriers' Prayer in 2008.

Max Ernst’s painting from 1942 depicts a haunting future landscape where things seem to have evolved, or possibly devolved, into a new strange state. For the exhibition in Newlyn, Ernst’s small surreal painting is reproduced as a 7m wallpaper-print that provides both a backdrop and a starting point for a show that imagines a world in transition after things have changed. Within these artworks, the current tensions between humans or landscapes are amplified to create an unnerving alien terrain. Although many of the artworks do create a sense foreboding, they also present visions of renewal and growth within an emerging world. While some of the works consider normal things from our everyday world (such as caravans or ski-slopes), when framed within the wider context of the exhibition these works become artefacts within a collective dream – a dream of an imagined landscape to come.

 The show runs from 22 Jun - 05 Oct 2019 at Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn.