Mother Bones
Grace Pailthorpe & Reuben Mednikoff
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd, NW3 6DG
12 APRIL - 23 JUNE
Free
Medinkoff, an artist, and Pailthorpe, a surgeon in the first world war and student of psychoanalysis, met at a party in the 1930’s. Both advocates against violence and oppression, they were keen to use their skills, expertise and knowledge to make a positive difference on the world and liberate individuals to stand against what society deemed as normal or appropriate.
Surrealism is for those dissatisfied with the outside world, for one reason or another. To be a surrealist is to demand complete liberation from the world and mankind and to embrace a full expressionism. In 1934 Andre Breton, one of the founders of surrealism defined it as “Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, verbally in writing or by other means, the real process of thoughts.”
Curious as to how art can be utilised to free the mind and achieve a deeper self-knowledge, Medinkoff and Pailthorpe began creating work automatically: without thinking about what would come out on the page. This automatic element is evident within many of the pieces of work included in the exhibition, through lavish brush strokes and fluid imagery. A number of pieces almost appeared like optical illusions: with multiple subjects contained within the page. The works actually reminded me of the abstract nature of the Chicago Imagists exhibition I attended last month; all slightly unnerving and entirely open to interpretation.
It is this tuning into the subconscious which creates an unsettling and Freudian element to most of the work - a man who was in his last years around their first meeting. Mednikoff and Pailthorpe were known to analyse each other’s works after completion: picking out repressed childhood memories and the inevitable link to Oedipal struggle. Themes such as this are evident within images such as below where a phallic, demonic childlike figure appears reluctant to leave the breasts of his mother.
Mednikoff and Pailthorpe aimed to examine the personal in order to understand the political. Living through times such as the Blitz, they were exposed to first-hand violence and oppression, and as a result, reflected their frustrations with society and the world through their works. Advocating a ‘constructive Surrealism’, which could combine venting of aggression through art, which came to be known as art therapy and they called ‘psychorealism’.
Not only did the artists strive to fight against an unjust system, but they also strove to expose inequalities within society. For example, they challenged usual hierarchies between the sexes through Pailthrope usually taking the lead in investigations and being referred to as masculine names such as ‘Doc’ or ‘Barry’. In 1949, she wrote an essay where she argued that violence could only be prevented through a collaboration of the sexes “a man trying to create on his own is farcical”. This led to the pair coining the term ‘intellectual hermaphroditism’: a concept I think would fly incredibly well in today’s political climate.
Overall, this exhibition was insightful, exciting, stimulating and, most of all, completely different to anything I had seen before. The works in it were incredibly varied, each with different explanations and commentary which helped build on the concept and open the end product up to the viewer in an entirely new but approachable light. The skill of some of the more intricate pieces was incredible, whereas the expression within the larger, more abstract works was provoking and imaginative. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it, and I would recommend going to see these highly underrated artists works if you ever get a chance.
OVERALL RATING: *****
https://www.camdenartscentre.org/
