A selection of small works on paper inspired by folk music from Bristol based artist David Abbott
“A lot of people criticise folk songs because so many of them start with 'As I walked out one May morning', and they think, 'Oh, here we go again'. But all it’s doing is, it’s setting up a song, setting up a song like a fairy story says 'Once upon a time.' When you’re out on this walk you might meet a lover, or an old lover, returning from fighting abroad for seven long years, you might meet a seducer, you might meet the devil, who you could outwit, or you might meet death, who you couldn’t. And I just loved that thought. You know, that it’s everything, that it’s all inevitable eventually, you know, and that it’s so wonderful.”
These small prints, collages and drawings were made to folk music. You may find ships, sinners, swans, lovers and devils in the images or some other thing altogether. Folk songs are passed-down narratives of the richest, raddest kind. They are unstuffy and raw. The songs are the starting point for this selection of work, but like a May morning will lead to the unexpected.
David Abbott is an artist and designer. He spent 8 years in Virginia where he first started listening to folk and old-timey music, mostly from the British Isles and Appalachia. David studied printmaking in the US and after moving back to the UK completed an MA in printmaking at UWE. He co-founded Snap, a printmaking cooperative, studio and gallery before starting Chesapeake (his multidisciplinary design studio) in 2009. After a few years in the art wilderness, David started making drawings and collages again with enjoyment as his only guiding principle, and music as his companion. One May Morning is a selection of these works.
THIS EXHIBITION WILL RUN FROM 5th - 10th MAY- 10 AM TILL 5PM, CLOSED MAY 7th