Another Afternoon of Culture in Hull!!

Hey guys!! For today’s post, I’m going to share with you all a lovely trip to Humber Street Art Gallery which I enjoyed with my family during the bank holiday weekend. There were two exhibits installed in the Art Gallery whilst we were visiting: ‘Forever’ by Tim Noble and Sue Webster and ‘No one knows me like Dawn from the job centre’ by Richie Culver. ‘Forever’ combines light sculptures of iconic pop culture symbols with shop front, carnival style signs. In contrast, ‘No one knows me like Dawn from the job centre’ explores the momentary yet still important relationships that blossom as we endeavour through hardship and subtly encourages people to consider what society may deem to be “normal” and how it casts out those who are “unique” and “different”. Richie Culver actually originated from Hull so it’s lovely to see his work displayed in his home town. So in today’s post, I’m going to reveal my thoughts about these two installations and grant you my honest opinion of them.

‘FOREVER’

The first floor gallery room lights were dimmed when we first entered the room to accentuate the three light sculptures arranged on the walls. The first light sculpture, a pink and white neon finger, was entitled ‘Smoking finger’, the second, seemingly shaped like a fountain featured an electronic light sequencer and was named ‘Excessive Sensual Indulgence’ and the third one spread across the full wall with matte white and yellow neon writing, reading ‘Forever’ which was also the title of the piece and the overall exhibit. All of the sculptures were certainly eye catching and due to their abstract nature would probably strike up controversy over the meaning behind them. It is thought that they reference our dependence on the internet as a society and how differently it has shaped life for youths now compared to the past. They could be introduced as anti monuments as they promote the need to understand how our world works and what is important to it.

‘Excessive Sensual Indulgence’

‘Smoking finger’

‘Forever’

‘NO ONE KNOWS ME LIKE DAWN FROM THE JOB CENTRE’

This exhibit was extended across two different floors and galleries and was composed of mainly paintings. Richie’s work is full of subtle, personal touches with his working class roots to metropolitan living and his experience of the darker side of urban life were all explored in his art. ‘No one knows me like Dawn from the job centre’ is a bluntly honest and funny report of time spent on job seekers allowance. An underlying meaning of his exhibit could be the way society outcasts people who aren’t typically what people would view as “normal” and how society type – casts everyone even if it’s unfair and exaggerated. My favourite part of the exhibit was the bike racks, coloured blue and pink with a stray bike wheel attached. Bike racks are overlooked and often taken for granted which links to the idea of society outcasting and type casting certain individuals. The colours of blue and pink could represent the two sexes.

After viewing these two thought provoking exhibits, we wandered down to ‘cocoa’ where we decided to buy some ice creams from there. I chose a hazelnut and tonka bean ice cream which tasted absolutely delicious. The tonka bean, commonly used as a vanilla substitute, really complimented the heavily nutty taste of hazelnut. It was a great way to end a great afternoon.

Thank you for reading!! Is there an art gallery near you? Let me know in the comments!! There’ll be another post out soon but until then, bye for now!!

Amelia Grace a.k.a Amelia in Hull