Canvas and Stone

Richard Holliday & Renee Spierdijk.

Richard Holliday:
‘My installation in this exhibition ‘FREE THE PENWITH 1000’ is both a provocative and playful view of our current society.

The piece is limited to 1000 fish each with individual characters and each will play role in various vignettes, on various ‘stages’ in order to illustrate the various dynamics within group structures.

Power, the leaders and followers, idealists, cliques, committees, friendships and lifetime bonds will all be subject to exploration.

Some of the titles of these vignettes are ‘Clique bait’, ‘In Sien’, ‘The Greens’, ‘The saints’ ‘Squaring the circle ‘and The Guardians’.

I am using fish as the vehicle for this metaphor because of their obvious propensity to congregate, writhing and jockeying in order to get to the supposed safety at the centre of the mass. Also, as a nod to the very building that is housing this exhibition….. The Penwith Gallery’ that itself was once a pilchard processing factory. The fish are returning to the Penwith ! (without the smell!)…… full description at: https://penwithgallery.com/exhibition/richard-holliday-renee-spierdijk-2023/

Renee Spierdijk:
‘My paintings are inspired by images of young women and girls originating mainly from found photographs. I have chosen portraits of women who pose in formal clothes and settings. I am interested in the process of domestication and conditioning which the women seem to be subjected to in which they can appear patient, content, rebellious or quietly mutinous, as they wait and hope to become themselves.

The clothes they wear and the way they pose can reveal their sense of belonging and identity, but also their restrictions in life.

Last year I was very lucky to be chosen to work for 2 months in the fantastic Anchor Studio in Newlyn, where my work became influenced by my surroundings.
I am happy to show some of my work that I made in Newlyn in this exhibition.
I am also very happy to exhibit with Richard again in this fantastic gallery!’

– Renee Spierdijk