Ultimate recycling
Uncertain Instruments at South Shields Customs House
May I take a few minutes of your time to recommend a visit to the Customs House at The Mill Dam in South Shields where I spent a very reflective afternoon away from Christmas shopping today. If you, like me, are now and then looking for some sort of escape route from your toils and tribulations then this oasis of art is an ideal haven for reflection and thought. Right now there are some excellent exhibitions being shown in the Sandford Goudie Gallery including one or two which are particularly fascinating.
David Kemp’s “Uncertain Instruments” are a cornucopia of recycled items gathered over years of scouring old tin mines, scrap yards, car boot sales, and jumble in Cornwall. David has taken to the ultimate recycling in using these items to create a miscellany of artistic wit and invention, some of which would certainly make it into the props room of Dr. Who! I marvelled at the way that ancient old keyboards, motherboards, wheels, bogies, tea trollies etc. had been fashioned into wondrous works of art evoking a variety of emotions.
Also, having marvelled at the “Coat for a Boat” exhibition this summer, I found that some of the same group of knitters from South Tyneside have got together to create a “Victorian Christmas” all knitted from a variety of materials, I was absolutely fascinated and amazed at the creativity, and to top it all we have an avenue of white Christmas trees as we enter, all fully decorated yet made entirely from recycled plastic milk cartons!
If you have a spare hour when you are in South Shields town centre or Market Place then do have a walk across, you won’t regret it.
Which reminds me, I’ve just recycled an image of the Customs House director Ray Spencer in his alter ego “Tommy the Trumpeter” in what I consider to be an extremely creative style, it will be on show in my own gallery, South Shields Daily Pictures, in a few days time.
I hope he likes it.
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