 |
 |
Mik Godley - Considering Silesia
"Blue Woman No.1 (Considering Silesia)" 2006, acrylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40 x 40 cm) "Mik Godley's drawings are as exquisite and precise as those of any Renaissance draughtsman." Mary Rose Beaumont, Art Review
Silesian Landscape Study (Gory Sowie) 2005, acrylic on panel 6 x 8 inches (15 x 20 cm) from a series of 24 paintings "Considering Silesia" Considering Silesia is the "über" title to a complex project that has developed since 2003, and is beginning to attract attention through exhibitions at the Angel Row Gallery, Bonington Gallery, 1851 Gallery (Nottingham), Southwell Artspace, Bend in the River (Gainsborough), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia, and the University of Leeds. The project has gained positive reviews including a-n magazine (twice), Untitled and the Saatchi Gallery webzine, featured in two major catalogue publications, achieved the result “Distinction” for the pilot research MA "Creative Collaborations", and a Future Factory Fellowship, from the School of Art & Design, Nottingham Trent University.
"The Corridor" 2007, acrylic on canvas, 4 x 5 feet (122 x 153 cm)
Image: damaged painting, Château de Coat an Noz, Brittany, France, 2003 Photo credit: Matthew Simpson Boneval A
Neo-Nazi assault on a painting of mine in a French Château – its
swastika and message daubed in dripping, bright red gloss “Art
Dégénéré” – prompted four years’ Internet research into my Anglo-German
heritage, revealing complex legacies of the once German region of Lower
Silesia. The pastoral beauty of deeply forested mountains overlooking my mothers birthplace hides Albert Speers secret “Riese” (Giant) “certainly the largest bunker and probably the largest headquarters constructed during World War Two,” which claimed the lives of thousands of slave labourers from the camps of Groß-Rosen, metaphorically linked to my families’ micro-histories and the silence of “forgetting”. Initial internet research found many references to Silesian horses: this painting, first of a series of three (so far) acted as a "statement of intent" at the beginning of the project.
"Considering Silesia, No. 1" 2004, acrylic on canvas, 4 x 5 feet (122 x 153 cms) Photo credit: Graham Lester George
|
|||||||||||
|
|
