Counterpoint was an exhibition of drawings, paintings, prints, paperwork, stained glass, sculpture and textiles at the Saïd Business School in Oxford in 2008. Five artists of the Artwrights group, showed together for the last time – Sue Cave, Claire Christie, Gaby Nutt, Martin Smith and Colin Robinson. Each produced a piece entitled Counterpoint for the exhibition.
Wikipedia says "In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony"; it seems there are five species. The term can mean stark juxta position as Aldous Huxley used it in his novel Point Counter Point. My interpretation of counterpoint takes a literal and – some say – quirky form; I was already into incongruity and ambiguity. The wall counts bars: one, 2, 3, 4, 5; two, 2, 3, 4, 5 et seq. On a bar or the counter of a rather dubious shoe shop, the cash register floats in a 2D plane behind which the trappings of a girl stand with her heels forced up to a totally impractical position; in ballet it's called en pointe. Try it some time. You might see references here to Lichtenstein, Jones and Hamilton.
The fourteen pictures I showed had independent but interdependent themes running through them, each concerning the artificial image of women – girls on film, maquillage or mask, and shoes. To find out more, click on each picture .
copyright © Colin Robinson 2011
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