Art Review: People and Places: Mo Farquarson, James Hawkins @ The Gallery in Cork Street

A friend kindly invited me along to a preview of this exhibition on Cork Street. I didn’t know what to expect and could see little connection between the two artists’ works but each was a delight in its own way.

Mo Farquarson sculpts animal and human figures in bronze. She has a clear affinity with animals: from the farm-yard to the river-bank to the desert. She creates a connection between statue and viewer by tapping into our desire to personify: her camel is certainly arrogant, her geese inquisitive. The connection is heightened by touch: what a pleasure to be able to feel the artwork and give two senses over to the shapes created! It gives some impression of the realism that Farquarson conveys that I found myself absent-mindedly petting her otter like it might a dog.

Her human figures include dejected bus-shelterers and hurried, anonymous commuters in streets and stations; but mundanity is contrasted with performance. There is a pair of acrobats, one balanced on the other’s upstretched arm, showing confident strength and skill. The eye is drawn to two parallel, vertical lines: one of force through the performers’ arms and the other of connection between their eyes.

The one exception to Farquarson’s theme of life is an unridden bicycle finished in matt grey to emulate a pencil sketch. It barely seems like an exception at all: something about the warp in its frame and it’s jaunty, unstable angle imbues it with character. I found myself spirited away to the surreal village in Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman where people and bicycles start to exchange souls through prolonged contact. Men start needing to lean against walls whenever they stop moving and bicycles, much like this one, start to develop a life of their own.

Leac an Tuadh, StrathVaich

                                                        

There is something quietly spectacular about James Hawkins’ landscapes. Most of them are suspended cut-out shapes, perhaps designed to reflect the focus of the eye: the periphery is done away with. He surrounds placid bodies of water with harsh rock formations or lush vegetation to provide striking contrast. In the mountains, layers of paint are chipped away like rock. Massive brushstrokes, as though the paint has been washed across glass, give the impression of seams of igneous formation.

Loch na h’Oidiche , Flowerdale

Hawkins' subject is the Scottish landscape: a gift of beauty in itself. He has set about conveying cold harshness in Leac an Tuadh, StrathVaich and the rich variety of colour in flowering heather in Loch na h’Oidiche , Flowerdale. Where his other paintings may be monumental, Spate is urgent and powerful: an unstoppable river falls through the painting and bursts outward from its lower edge. Much like David Hockney, Hawkins has the gift of observation of colour and mood, he is able to capture the sense of place and season and convey that on his canvasses: could we ask more of a landscapist?

This exhibition runs between 5th and 9th March at The Gallery in Cork Street.
www.mofarquharson.com
www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk

BONUS REVIEW: Roy Lichtenstein @ Tate Modern

Everything was so flat.