BIG MEETINGS AND A SENSE OF PLACE – John Cogan Review

Here is an extract from John Cogan’s review: The DLI Museum Art Gallery exhibition, ‘Big Meetings’ by Julian Germain. Read the full review in Articles from the Home Page of the DPS website: http://www.d-p-s.org.uk/articles.htm

“Don’t expect fireworks or robust images of even more robust cornet-players! Instead, this is an exhibition of subtle hints and minor domestic miracles. Like all the other DLI exhibitions I’ve seen this one has the familiar hallmark of a curator expecting us, the visitors, to think. There is no handing-on-a-plate from Germain who has coupled his own work with old photographs from the Durham Miners’ Archive. It is in this technical dichotomy that much of the power of the exhibition lies. All Germain’s work is in colour and printed large. Whatever camera he’s used the depth of field is impressive and the vibrancy of the colours powerful. Photographing assembled Brass Band members renders those at the back of the hall in as much detail as those at the front. The printing is sharp (even “pin sharp”) and without ambiguity. You know on whose side Germain is.

On a TV display screen a brass band performs but there is something in the way it has been constructed that at first makes you believe it is just one of the still photographs. Slowly, person by person there is movement as every member is “activated”. This is a Germain speciality for he repeats the process. In an adjoining room there are two large screens at right-angles to each other. To the right there is an image of an elderly man with what could be an E flat Tenor Horn cradled on his lap. He sits comfortably enough in front of his front room fire. The ceramic fireplace displays a scattering of past holiday souvenirs. On the other screen stands a child (the old man’s grandson?). He’s in his stocking feet and stands on the red, quarry tiles of the kitchen. Behind him is the washing machine. The two of them stand watching and you can be excused for thinking these are frozen frames as you look from one to the other until you notice the wrinkling of the boy’s toes and the old man’s occasional blinking.

The old man raises the horn to his mouth and plays “The Red Flag!” It’s not concert standard but more moving for being raw. The roughness of the performance, its halting progress, is a counterpoint to the soft voice of the boy as he sings the anthem, putting the time-honoured words to the tune. Does the lad understand the passion, the history and meaning of the words?”

John Cogan