Thursday 22 September 2016

The Wild Swan Art Group - One day exhibition at Okinawa Prefecture Museum and Museum of Art - Public Gallery 3


Part of the Audience 



The artists on show

 Duncan McKay, John Cullinane, Michael Doherty, Connie Petrillo, Kevin Robertson, Peter Davidson, Cynthia Ellis,  Caspar  Fairhall,  Diokno Pasilan, Chelle Bourne  and Lynne Norton

 I didn’t think the Wild Swan Art Groups show would go ahead as a heavy typhoon was bearing down on the Island of Okinawa but as luck would have it, the storm went further west and we could land.
 At Naha Airport, Okinawa  glancing out to the distant sea there was this impending heavy grey gloom on the far sea horizon being the torrential rains which came for a while that afternoon whilst the Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition was on display.

Okinawa

The Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition in Public Gallery no 3 within the museum was a very good idea, for it allows the community to see an international exhibition and also what their major collection holds all under one roof. 
The individual groups or artists that exhibit in these public gallery spaces have the opportunity to see and experience the museum’s quality exhibition facilities, especially the lighting which is vastly different to most gallery lighting systems as iut infused natural skylight with internal lighting systems with brilliant effect and calrity on the artworks. Having the opportunity to exhibit in professionally constructed museum quality venues is important to the artists, groups and curators for it allows them to observe their artworks in a high quality space which really does shift the viewing experience from just casual to a more forensic analysis.  For the audiences/artist alike, it’s mutually beneficial in the sense it brings new audiences to experience the museum and your artworks.

Peter Davidson 
View from Okinawa Bridge 2015
oil on board
10.7 h cm x 46.5 cm w

The other issue that became obvious in exhibiting within a museum was the enquiry that the audience was able to do for each artwork, one noticed they really did take time to peruse each artwork and talk about it with their friends and when you spoke to them some of the questions they started asking were really difficult but pertinent to the show.



For example, a Chinese gentleman came into the exhibition and started talking about my artworks especially the magenta markings that were imbued within my image. This caught me off guard as it has historical precedents to Cezanne, Coldstream and in current personal research to the human Inner GPS whether that’s true or not as I said to the Chinese Doctor and his friend, " I don’t know Im not a medical scientist but it’s something I am researching".  What also surprised me was how forensic the questions were by these Chinese gentlemen and the depth of their knowledge on art and how they spoke about the subtleties of tones and hues passionately, it was a long and inspiring conversation with them.  
It was a successful exhibition by The Wild Swan Art Group, approximately one hundred people came from the Okinawan and international tourist community, despite the heavy typhoon rain at times. This was a very good result for the one day lightening exhibition series.