Lorraine has just completed a solo show in London in which her paintings were dedicated to the ship, and I visited the gallery in Shepherd Market on Saturday, and spoke at length with her.
... my own recent show at the Anise Gallery in Bermondsey also featured some work about the Royal Iris, and my piece In Contemplation of Distances was the first I sold there ...
TG: In Contemplation of Distances
- but whilst my work addressed my own engagement with the ship as a Merseyside teenager, and latterly as a researcher trying to creep on board it, Lorraine's work reinvigorates the ship: Lorraine has brought it back to life, whilst the real Royal Iris's future is a slide to inevitable dissolution. This is real restoration: the artist brings the subject back to life, whilst in reality it might perish. No more need for Heritage Lottery funds, or enthusiast-connoisseurs giving up their weekends to lovingly restore fixtures and fittings. The ship has made a transit into a new world, which Lorraine has imagined. Her work is highly gestural and full of vigour. I learned a lot from speaking to her, and as a result I want to breathe more life into the dead and corroded things that I seem to like painting.
Lorraine Fossi: Breaking Waves
Thank you Thom for this lovely article, I just found out today whilst googling my name (and ego) on the net.
ReplyDeleteI really think that Lady Iris deserves a show in her Homeland Liverpool, a group exhibition would be rather nice. The thing is when and how and which whom support over there...