Archive for the ‘To There & Back Again’ Category
To There & Back Again
Posted by Rob | Filed under To There & Back Again
Page 2 from the catalogue for To There & Back Again - Catching The Spaces In Between. To order your copy click here.
A dialogue between Rob Pepper and David Cleaton-Roberts April 2008.
The text running through this catalogue is based on a conversation between the artist and David Cleaton-Roberts, a director of the largest publisher and dealer of artists’ prints and editions in europe, and a board member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (iFPDa). The conversation took place at the artist’s studio in April 2008.
RP: I love america, I’ve always been fascinated by it, especially Middle America.
DCR: There seem to be a lot of comments on food. You’ve said this drawing was an observation, but looking back I wonder whether actually it became a critical judgement?
RP: Many poignant conversations I had in america were on the subjects of the environment or food. But I didn’t make a conscious decision at the time to capture stereotypes…
…This work is a construct of two different drawings. I had seen the gentleman at an american football game, and the roadhouse is where we had a burger on the way back from that game.
DCR: So by merging two drawings, actually you can’t help but cast a critical judgement.
RP: Possibly, and that’s a step away from the art that I’ve done before.
A Letter From America
Posted by Rob | Filed under To There & Back Again
Page 1 from the catalogue for To There & Back Again - Catching The Spaces In Between. To order your copy click here.
Austin, Texas, 2008
Dear England,
How are you?
Over the past two years we have spent a total of six months in Middle America. We initially came to do an exhibition in Houston, which led to illustrating a book. Then we were asked to exhibit in Dallas and again in Houston, and along the way we created a book of drawings called “The Texan Compendium”. During this period we’ve taken time to record and get to know a little of the country. We wanted to experience some of its vastness for ourselves and at the end collate a series of images that reflected our thoughts and feelings on the land that’s home to the American Dream.
Texas, the Lone Star State, is around six times the size of England, and we’ve travelled around a fair amount of it. As if reflecting the vast expanse of land, the food portions are huge and the people hugely varied: we’ve eaten mule deer steaks with self-professed rednecks under pecan trees and macrobiotic meals with college professors at shared tables in liberal Austin.
And then there are America’s eccentricities. We’ve met the alcoholic goat mayor of Lajitas, a border town on the Rio Grande; been to the largest church in America (25,000 people attended that Sunday); shot a .357 magnum; watched the sun set on the compound outside Waco where David Koresh and 73 others battled the FBI; and cringed listening to the karaoke at a gay cowboy bar in Houston. We’ve even spotted George Bush Senior a couple of times.
It has been a privilege to spend time here, and the people have always been incredibly hospitable, but like with all countries, certain issues niggled. As you might notice, themes of food and the environment run through the American pieces.
The images here have all been experienced first-hand over the past couple of years on the journey ‘To There & Back Again’; they represent some of the many spaces that have been caught in between.
We hope you enjoy them, and as they say here in Texas…Happy Trails.
Rob Pepper & Aimie Littler
To There & Back Again - Exhibition Catalogue
Posted by Rob | Filed under To There & Back Again
From fast food joints to old men in slippers, the “To There & Back Again” exhibition which opens on 8th May includes a new series of paintings and drawings that create a cultural comparison of two countries. The show explores my fascination with using drawings to capture the essence of communities and includes moments from our modern day grand tour of Middle America, as well as our subsequent return to Middle England.
Comprising around 50 pieces, the exhibition will bring together the most important images from each side of the Atlantic. It’s my largest display to date, showcasing my comparative observations, processes and thoughts.
To accompany this show we have produced a 50 page catalogue that contains letters from Middle America and Middle England alongside a dialogue with gallery director David Cleaton-Roberts. Over the next month rather than publishing my daily drawing I’m going to publish a page from the catalogue day by day. The catalogue itself has been sponsored by Land Securites and is free at the Gallery but if you’d like me to send you a copy then there is a £5 post & packing fee. Click here to order.