ANDREW HARDWICK EVANESCENT EARTH
ANDREW HARDWICK
EVANESCENT EARTH
Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me.
Samuel Beckett
1
2
Introduction
This is Andrew Hardwick’s first exhibition at Millennium.
As I write this introduction, A landmark retrospective of
Peter Lanyon is being held at Tate, St Ives. As one would
expect, a visit to this exhibition is a testament to the power
of land and sea, but more specifically to Lanyon’s sense of
place, his entwinement within that place. The suggestion of
the skeleton fused with the granite underfoot.
Andrew Hardwick is, of course, a very different painter,
but we can observe similarities. Certainly in a rawness of
approach, but Hardwick’s paintings are also born from
an intimate relationship with location. This relationship
is extracted in part from Hardwick’s farming heritage.
Their farm adjoined the Bristol Channel and included a
large acreage of tidal salt marshes. We see the dramatic
shift in this landscape but also his personal history, for
example in the painting ‘Ditches, Docks and Storage Car
Park’ where the landscape of his childhood lurks beneath a
car park where once the family sheep roamed, a place where
the new world has superseded the archaic and we see the
transition. In contrast, in the paintings ‘Estuary, Saltings, Sheep
and Aeroplane’ and ‘Ogmore Coast’ the ghosts of crashed
war aeroplanes become submerged by the terrain which
surrounds them. The violent impact of what was then the
modern world, now disintegrates and becomes entombed.
This rapid transcients is also supported in the painting ‘Sand
Bay’ where toy soldiers squirm in the soil of Hardwick’s
childhood playground. The site had earlier been the location
of an army camp and gun placement during the war.
All is fleeting, as the passing of time and geology of the
earth seem to swallow up all that temporarily sit upon it -
adding mass. Adding further delicate layers of history.
Where nostalgia is rendered with the use of toys, the
application feels authentic. The intimation is emotive,
suggesting triviality when compared to the heavy rendering
of soil and stone. These trinkets - these memories, like all
matter, become buried with the passing of time. Personally
and universally - our own childhoods become lost.
It often seems that the pursuit of many landscape
artists is to compete with beauty of the natural world; this
objective sets up a competition with the muse, wrangling
with its evocation of the majestic. Hardwick’s often large,
cinematic panel paintings subvert these notions - the ego
belongs to nature and we are reassuringly reminded of it.
The beauty proffered is not conventional, or judgmental.
These paintings are honest and unsentimental.
Hardwick’s raw surfaces appear almost attacked, with
violent indiscriminate fervour - there is little concession
towards fussiness or prettying. These are paintings that revel
in material. Where paint, matter, earth and pigment, often
from the direct source of the inspiration of a painting are
poured and built in to a surface. They appear heavy but
also fragile. That which appears delicate makes a consent
to much considered ecological fragility. But the weight and
the mass somehow reverts the balance in the argument,
placing emphasis of the momentous power of the earth
over us - a sanguine notion. We become just another fragile
geological layer. Reminding us of our own loss of intimacy
with our surroundings and in part our stain upon it - the
inconsequence of our contemporary concerns. This is where
I feel that their optimism lies; in that they confront our ego,
by reminding us that some things are much bigger than us.
Perhaps some things are more enduring.
Joseph Clarke
3
4
Cliffs, Estuary and Tractor
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes and other collage material on panels
174 x 316 cm
5
6
7
Sand Bay
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes and other collage
material on panels
174 x 316 cm
8
Ogmore Coast
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, roofing felt and other collage material on panels
171 x 342 cm
9
10
11
Bay, Estuary, Milky Grey Day
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes and other collage
material on panels
174 x 316 cm
12
Estuary, Red Sun and Football
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, football and other collage material on panels
186 x 342 cm
13
14
15
Dark Sky and Sea
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, wax, roofing felt
and other collage material on panels
174 x 316 cm
16
Stormy Day, Dark Blue Sea and Caravans
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panels
174 x 316 cm
17
18
19
Estuary, Sheep, Dull Day and the M4 Motorway
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes and other collage material on panels
174 x 316 cm
20
Estuary, Saltings, Sheep and Aeroplane
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
122 x 159 cm
21
22
23
Ditches , Docks and Storage Car Park
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
122 x 178 cm
24
Oak Tree, Empty Car Pound, Docks and Cars
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
122 x 159 cm
25
26
Avonmouth, Saltings and Brown Estuary
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
59 x 76 cm
27
Autumn, Wind, Rain, Dartmoor
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
59 x 75 cm
Rain, Autumn Sea and Headland
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
93 x 97 cm
28
29
Grey Day, North Devon and Lundy
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
122 x 150 cm
30
Last Light, South Moor, Dartmoor
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
170 x 245 cm
31
32
33
Cornwall, Cliffs, Moonlight and Sea
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panel
170 x 245 cm
34
Rock, Sand, Mud and Sea
oil, acrylic, emulsion, pva, plaster, earth pigment, plastic, hay, ashes, and other collage material on panels
186 x 342 cm
35
36
ANDREW HARDWICK
EDUCATION
1987 - 90 Bath College of Art1992 - 95 BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol1995 - 97 MA Fine Art, University of Wales, Cardiff, Wales
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1991 Where the Avon meets the Severn, Sydney Place Gallery, Bath1994 Alien Landscape, Veale Wagsborough Gallery, Bristol1997 Deluge Chapter Arts Centre Cafe, Cardiff.1999 Elemental Landscapes, Michael Tippett Centre, Bath Spa University Transient Land, The Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth Elemental Dynamics, Flax International Arts Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland2000 Between Land and Water The Phoenix Gallery, Brighton2001 Earth Echoes, The London Road Gallery, Northwich, Cheshire Earth, Sea and Sky with Clement McAleer, Kirkby Gallery, Liverpool2002 Looking West, PSR, Hull 2003 Land, Sea and Sky, Thompsons Gallery, Stowe on the Wold Veiled Earth, Otter Gallery, University College Chichester, Chichester, West Sussex2004 Between Land and Tide, South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, South Tipperary, Southern Ireland2005 Fragmented Land, Folkestone Museum and Art Gallery, Folkstone, Kent Tunnel Gallery, Tonbridge2006 Forgotten Ground, Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester2007 Atruim Gallery, Bournmouth University2008 Estuary, Newport Museum and Art Gallery, South Wales2009 Where the Sea Meets the Estuary, Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, North Devon2010 Tidal Wilderness,Victoria Art Gallery, Bath2011 Evanescent Earth, Millennium, St Ives
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2002 Summer Exhibition, Thompsons Gallery, Stow on the Wold2003 Into the Light, Hot Bath Gallery, Bath2004 Partial View, curated by Matthew Collins, Hot Bath Gallery, Bath2006 Summer Show, Cube Gallery, Bristol2007 Autumn Show, Royal West of England Academy2010 Autumn Show, Royal West of England Academy2010 Mixed Winter Exhibition, Millennium, St. Ives2011 London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, Islington
CRITICAL REVIEWS, TELEVISION AND PRESS COVERAGE
Sarah Hughes, Visual Arts Review, Fine Time Magazine, February 1997Chapter Arts Centre Review, February 1997Evening Herald, Visual Arts Preview, 16 February 1999Phoenix Arts Review, January 2000Artscene, September 2002Yorkshire Television, Look North, Interview, 4th September 2002Partial View Catologue South Tipperary Today, 4 August 2004The Nationalist, 7 August 2004Metro, Arts Review, February 2008Devon Life, November 2009Venue Magazine, March 2010
Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘Evanescent Ear th’ by Andrew Hardwick
All rights reserved. No par t of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers
Photography or works and ar tist por traits by Nik Strangelove (www.studiostrangelove.com)
Printed by Active Colour (www.activecolour.co.uk)
ISBN 978-1-905772-40-7
S t r e e t - a n - P o lS t . I v e s C o r n w a l l0 1 7 3 6 7 9 3 1 2 1m a i l @ m i l l e n n i u m g a l l e r y. c o . u kw w w . m i l l e n n i u m g a l l e r y. c o . u k
M I L L E N N I U M