exhibitions ETERNITY & TRANSIENCE AT PORTICO LIBRARY & GALLERY JOINT EXHIBITION WITH JOHN ALLCOCK, APR 2007 "...Striking work. [An] impressive, atmospheric exhibition, which is bound to once more spark discussion on unanswerable questions," Angela Kelly, Metro Solo exhibitions of this series: 2006 - Of Earth & Stone 2 Samlesbury Hall, nr Preston, Lancs Sanctuaries of Stone 2 South Square Gallery, Thornton, W.Yorks Of Earth & Stone Castle Park Arts Centre, Frodsham, Cheshire 2005 - Megalithic Muse Judges' Lodgings Museum, Lancaster, Lancs Earth-hewn Buxton Museum & Art Gallery, Derbys 2004 - Arcana of Stone World of Glass, St Helens, Lancs 2003/4 - Sanctuaries of Stone Saddleworth Museum & Art Gallery, Uppermill, Lancs Joint exhibitions: 2007 - Eternity & Transience 4 w/John Allcock Bolton Royd Gallery, Bradford, W.Yorks Eternity & Transience 3 w/John Allcock Tolbooth Art Centre, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries Eternity & Transience 2 w/John Allcock Jasmine Cottage Gallery, Chaddesden, Derbys Eternity & Transience 1 w/John Allcock Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester 2003 - Past & Prospect w/Keith Scaife Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Lancs Group exhibitions: 2008 - Orbital Radisson Edwardian, Heathrow, Middx Artlink Stockport Art Gallery, Lancs 2007 - Ilkley Art Show Winter Gardens, Ilkley, W.Yorks 2006 - Winter Show Jasmine Cottage Gallery, Chaddesden, Derbys Ilkley Art Show Winter Gardens, Ilkley, W.Yorks 2005 - Artlink Stockport Art Gallery, Lancs Interaction SEC, Glasgow, Scotland Paragon2 Hinckley Island, Hinkley, Leics 2004/5 - Winter Show 5a The Gallery, St Helens, Lancs Christmas Lupton Sq Gallery, Honley, W.Yorks 2004 - Concourse Winter Gardens, Blackpool, Lancs 2003 - Grissecon Stafford, Staffs The Medway Barrows Lullingston, Kent Ilkley Art Show Winter Gardens, Ilkley, W.Yorks Seacon03 Hinckley Island, Hinckley, Leics 2002/3 - Untitled Grove House Gallery, Keswick, Cumbria

ETERNITY AND TRANSIENCE ancient stones in an age of impermanence A series of joint shows with John Allcock continues in 2008 Present: There is nothing scheduled at present Forthcoming: ETERNITY AND TRANSIENCE #5 World of Glass, Chalon Way East, St Helens, Merseyside WA10 1BX 7 Oct-30 Nov 2008 (Private View date to be confirmed). Conventions/Stalls: There is nothing scheduled at present Stockists: New Aeon Books, Oldham St, Manchester Stockists of a selection of greeting cards, framed prints & T-shirts featuring the artist's "Li'l Death..." character. Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Rd, London A selection of greeting cards & A5 fine art postcards are available from the archaeology dept. Unique Arts, South Square Centre, Thornton, W.Yorks Stockists of selected original art, framed prints & greeting cards. Tolbooth Art Centre, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries & Galloway A selection of greeting cards are stocked at the Art Centre. Other on-line Galleries featuring this series: London Art & Saatchi Gallery ABOUT ETERNITY AND TRANSIENCE: A legacy of ancient stones can be found scattered throughout Europe which continues to excite the human imagination. These range in scale, complexity of arrangement and impressiveness from the simple and obscure “cup and ring” stones of Ilkley Moor to the astounding feats of design and engineering encountered in Carnac, Stonehenge and Calanish. Diverse theories attempting to account for their original intention or meaning have engaged scholarly and popular attention for centuries. However ingenious the arguments brought to bear on this task, from the point of view of astronomy, anthropology, comparative religion or folklore studies, these great stones remain mysterious. We know that they are of enormous antiquity, enduring for millennia, and that their creation required a considerable commitment of energy and resources. For that reason alone they must have been of very great significance to the people who made them. Perhaps it is this combination of tremendous age and dimly-perceived purpose that brings us again and again so compellingly to contemplate them. Attempts to recreate the cultural context within which these monuments belonged (what might be called “spiritual archaeology”) can be relied upon to attract an audience and stimulate lively debate; but all such efforts must remain speculative and inconclusive. This is not the kind of involvement which is found in the work of John Allcock and Paul Neads. Instead of puzzling over what megaliths might have meant in the distant past, and to our distant ancestors, they turn their attention to the significance they might continue to have in our own day, and to us. Instead of trying to recover the inspiration these ancient stones perhaps might have brought to our long-dead forebears, John and Paul find in them food for their own creativity as contemporary artists. Each in his own way sets out to answer the question of the enduring relevance of these stones in an age of transience and impermanence—although coming to this task along quite different personal trajectories. The character and importance of this contemporary encounter with artefacts from the distant past provide the common ground upon which Paul Neads and John Allcock meet in this exhibition. For both artists, an appreciation of these monuments in stone rests upon a lively awareness of their relevance to contemporary needs and our search for meaning. Paul Neads is a painter, photographer and writer, whose approach to his material is refracted in part through the prism of archaeology. His “megalithic musings” most often take the form of dramatic and evocative pictures in oils, which attempt to convey his personal responses to the sites in question. Coming from a rural background, and a childhood in which these ancient places were elements of everyday experience, Paul is impressed by the transitory character of modern urban existence. While our communal evolution seems to be characterised by transitoriness, and a movement through destruction towards eventual desolation, these great stones endure. Perhaps in these landscapes we find clues to humankind’s role within landscape, and the possibilities of urban social regeneration. Before taking early retirement and turning to painting, John Allcock taught sociology and anthropology at the University of Bradford. His artistic reflections on these ancient sites are coloured by his familiarity with writers such as Emile Durkheim, Mircea Eliade and Claude Lévi-Strauss. From their work derives a sense of the commonality of the roots of human religious experience. As an active rock-climber, however, he brings to his pastel paintings a sense of our continuing sense of the inherent charisma of great rocks, and our capacity to respond to them. If ancient sacred sites do continue to function for us as “hierophanies” (or “expressions of the modalities of the sacred”, in Eliade’s phrase) they do so on much the same terms as our own spiritual encounters today. Our sense of the reality of the sacred in these places is perhaps enhanced and coloured, but is not ultimately dependent upon, the antiquity of their ritual use. For news of forthcoming literature events, stalls & performances, please visit The Press Back to: The Gallery | Art Shop | Home About the Artist & the Art Reviews & Interviews