Cockerel (Power and Beauty No 4), 1968 © Colin Self. All rights reserved, DACS 2008.
Exhibition Review - Art In The Nuclear Age is on at Pallant House Art Gallery, Chichester until October 12.
A new exhibition celebrating the work of artist Colin Self has just opened at Pallant use Art Gallery in Chichester.
Art in the Nuclear Age fills three rooms of the Pallant’s upper galleries displaying a fascinating collection of works from the 1960s up to the present day. Some of the work has been loaned from Tate and the Imperial War Museum while other pieces have never been seen in public before.
As the exhibition title suggests, Self’s work highlights public fear about the Cold War; timely, as the exhibition coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958.
Fallout Shelter No 2 (Woman on a Bar Stool with Double Cheeseburger), 1965. © Colin Self. All rights reserved, DACS 2008
It begins with Self’s early work from the 1960s, some of it produced at the Slade School of Art, where he encountered Peter Blake and many other contemporaries.
However, unlike Warhol and other pop artists who celebrated mass consumerism in their work, Self’s take on pop art expressed a darker side, reflecting his own fears of the nuclear age.
Self grew up in Norfolk during the Second World War and matured in the midst of the cold war and it evidently shaped the work he produced. On show in the first room are pieces that on the one hand celebrate the beauty of machines while also conveying real concerns about a nuclear war leading to the extinction of humanity.
Self was also concerned with the changing roles of women in society and he often showed women as victims of male aggression or nuclear threat. The female figures in paintings like Waiting Women and Two Nuclear Bombers were inspired by the fashion spreads of Vogue magazine and informed by his fascination with shop window displays – and the stuffed models on show at the Natural History Museum.
Elsewhere, his paintings are peppered with iconic symbols and dream-like images of hotdogs and lollypops. Self was evidently also fascinated by fast-food culture and often used the hotdog as a sexual symbol.
Oh! The Young Chinese’ 1985. © Colin Self. All rights reserved, DACS 2008
In Pluto And The H-bomb, Self appropriates Walt Disney’s Pluto to explain the notion that whoever throws the H-bomb throws it back to humanity. Pluto is returning the bomb to humanity when it is just about to explode.
This theme is picked up in the second room, which explores human and animal savagery and how, for Self, there is very little difference between the two. This is most strongly depicted through the series Power And Beauty, where he blew up press images of animals to the same size as tanks. The resulting impression is that a giant cockerel seems more angry and savage than both an elephant or a tank.
In contrast, a series of images depict the absence of things. Self developed a new technique of putting acid resin on the etching plate before spraying it to create a reverse effect. This series of unexhibited works explores what would happen if there was a nuclear holocaust.
Beach Girl Nuclear Victim ( a sculptural piece) is striking, once again conveying women as victims. The work, on loan from the Imperial War Museum, is not only graphic but very powerful. Once again inspired by models in Vogue, Self demonstrates that anyone can and everyone could be a victim of nuclear weapons.
Lion attacking a Zebra (Mortal Combat No 6), 1966 © Colin Self. All rights reserved, DACS 2008
The third room is centred on conflicting ideas. This is most evident in Self’s recent controversial work Trilogy: The Iconoclasts. It's a series of three sculptures featuring religious icons; in one work Self uses a Hindu figure reading a book with a swastika on the cover.
As Simon Martin, exhibition curator, said: “To a Hindu this is a symbol of peace but to someone who grew up during the Second World War, this would be a sign of fascism.” The Hindu figure is juxtaposed with an army helmet to convey this conflict.
In contrast, in Stadium 1, Self has used stamps to depict a football stadium. Using post marks to show clouds and people and the penny post as the referee, this piece shows how Self is incredibly inventive.
This is also evident in Self’s recent work The Ploughman where he uses a cardboard box and household waste to convey the impact of litter on the countryside and the environment. Self’s use of collage creates an image with more depth and statement. The image is juxtaposed with a series of watercolour landscapes Self painted after the death of his wife.
The exhibition concludes with a series of artwork based around Self and his family providing a climax to the exhibition that again explores conflict - this time conflicting emotions. This work is both serious and light-hearted.
Pallant House should be applauded for bringing the work of an incredibly versatile artist to the fore; unusually, someone known for returning time and time again to the nuclear age.
