Pea Arts About

TW: sexual violence, rape The Minotaur (Damien Hirst, 2012, image from art.net) This depiction of the half-man, half-bull of Greek myth raping an Athenian virgin presents the violent threat of unfettered male sexuality. Greek and Roman myths abound with brutal stories of the sexual assault of women by men and gods alike. Classical art often aestheticized such scenes, sanitising any explicit reference to intercourse. In myth, such assaults were partly rationalised by claiming that the god Eros was capable of overpowering male bodies and wills at any moment. This pre-Freudian distinction between the conscious and unconscious suggests the Minotaur – which has remained a symbol of sexual violence and male lust, most prominently in the work of Picasso – might here be read as a horrific embodiment of the sleep of reason.  ( Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable guide p. 33) The sleep of reason. From whose perspective? In my experience rapists take what they feel they deserve. W...

On 17 June I had the great pleasure of returning to an art gallery for the first time since early March 2020. With lockdown restrictions easing, spaces have been able to open up again with measures in place aiming to keep visitors safe while they encounter the work. As exciting as it was for me to get back out - I've been voluntarily isolating as much as possible since 12 March last year - the Delta variant is rampaging through England, and in that week in Newcastle alone known cases had risen by nearly 800 from the week before. So it was not without a degree of angst and caution that I entered the Hatton Gallery for the Newcastle University Fine Art Degree Show . While it was great to be in the presence of art objects placed in space again, and as much as I enjoyed the nostalgia the degree show always gives me for the heady opening nights at the Belfast School of Art equivalent, the hyper-awareness of other people and everyone's aerosol entering the space - because masks only ...

It was an unusual and welcome surprise to see live performance art in the Tyneside Cinema. The work took place in the Gallery, a space used for screening artists’ cinema and video installations during the day and which is transformed into an intimate cinema screen at night. The event was part of the cinema’s Rise Up: Ending Racism, Poverty and War series of screenings and talks aligning with Newcastle’s ‘Freedom City’ celebrations commemorating the 50 th anniversary of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King’s week-long visit to the city in 1967 to receive an honorary degree from the then-named University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Sandra Johnston’s practice tends to be site-reactive and rarely takes place in such institutionalized surroundings. In the small, muted cinema space, she decided to do something she hadn’t done for some 15 or so years: use her voice in the work. Johnston often explores or channels the power of silence. She mentioned afterwards that she felt as if using her voice wa...

Before returning to Newcastle after a brilliant week and a half visiting family and friends and touring round Ulster, we hit up the Fringe. Last year we went to the closing weekend, leaving behind a tired, littered, dishevelled Edinburgh. This year we tried the opening weekend as the buzz was building and the acts still fresh. We learnt from last year’s rookie mistakes that we made despite warnings from hardened Fringers that venues can take longer to reach than maps indicate due to steeper-than-expected hills and the swelled volume of people occupying the streets. We had a relatively relaxed time this year, although we got roped into more audience participation than we’d bargained for. It was an excellent three days, and listed below are what we saw and my personal highlights. Saturday 5 Aug   Fringe Film Festival An intimate showcase of informative and thought-provoking international documentary and fiction shorts. The Guilty Feminist Our timing worke...