Thanks
to Dragons’ Den’s Guy Portelli, the prolific London sculptor who won a mighty
£80,000 of funding from the fire-breathing James Caan, Peter Jones and Theo
Paphitis, to bring his pop-music-art to life, the icons have come to Taunton
for an art show like you ain’t never seen.
Just
last week, the Beatle and co were teetering in London’s Saatchi Gallery. But from
now until November 28, Portelli’s pop stars, forged from materials including
bronze, acryclic and aluminium, occupy the “neutral, non-elitist space” of the
Creative Innovation Centre.
Drawing
on his 18-piece pop-music-art collection, Portelli’s Taunton exhibition is
given a Somerset twist, modelling itself on the Glastonbury music pantheon.
And just
like the world’s most famous music festival, the idea behind Portelli’s show is
of a meeting of Glastonbury music gods: pop icons through the decades, together
on the summit of music’s Mount Olympus, “capturing the Glastonbury essence”.
On the
show’s opening night, Portelli told the County Gazette: “There are a lot of
similarities between art and music. “A good piece of art has a bass line, has a
melody, has discord, has harmony, in the same way that a piece of music has.
With my work, I try and harness the shadow of pop iconography … the
polarisation of two extremes. I’m interested in that tension.”
Portelli’s
work trys to generate the feeling that an icon, or musical movement, through
its energy and charisma, does, or what they or it stood for as the embodiment
of an era did, way back when.
Joining
Portelli’s Golden Age in big style is the incredible work of documentary
photographer Charles Everest. In 1970, the freelance worked for five solid days
at the game-changing Isle of Wight music festival, where a rumoured 600,000
people congregated. Hendrix played. Everest took some 3,000-4,000 snaps.
His son,
Neil, is undertaking the ongoing, painstaking task of curating and bringing his
father’s work to light, with real pride and relish.
His
favourite shot? “Jimi Who? Hendrix is cutting a lonely figure in the dark of
the night, surrounded by speakers and equipment,” says Neil.
Hendrix’s
lightning bolt guitar is in the foreground, along with an amp clearly borrowed
from The Who.
Neil
says: “Who would think, from this image, that 600,000 people were just out of
this shot with all eyes on him?”
Visitors
to CICCIC will also get to see paintings by Chris Myers RI RBA, reflecting the
Pop Icon theme.
Portelli,
by bringing his big-name London show to Taunton, is attempting “the
unexpected”, he says.
But it
also marks the tip of the iceberg for his Taunton plans. “The
provinces have a real hunger for art, and there’s real potential to tap into
the arts down here,” he says. “I hope
to come back with some big ideas.”
Guy
Portelli’s exhibition,The Golden Age of the Pop Icon, is open 9am until noon,
Monday to Friday, by appointment at the Creative Innovation Centre, Paul
Street, Taunton, on 01823-337477.
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