EXHIBITION DATES : In person and online from 14/2 – 29/3/25
INTRODUCTION :
Roger Thorp was once told by his mother that when he was born the doctor held him up to the window light and quietly said ‘it’s a beautiful morning’.
This exhibition is an artistic call to reason, born of a realisation that we are all fleeting inhabitants of a staggeringly beautiful world. Through the poetry of the spoken word and the still and moving image, the exhibited works explore the artists need to consider alternative ways of being in the light of wide spread existential crises. …
This exhibition is an artistic call to reason, born of a realisation that we are all fleeting inhabitants of a staggeringly beautiful world. Through the poetry of the spoken word and the still and moving image, the exhibited works explore the artists need to consider alternative ways of being in the light of wide spread existential crises. …
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The centre piece of the presentation, titled 'A Beautiful Morning’, is a triptych video work which begins with a poem, narrated softly aloft a mesmeric collage of pastoral images of light, the sun and the earth, the spoken words ask us to "remember tiny footsteps, wild horses that can fly", a line written by Thorp, referencing Albert Camus’ work. Slowly, the presented innocence becomes corrupted by flashing, jarring, barrages of tainted, unbridled capitalism, hatespeak and propaganda. The narrator continues "The arrogance and ignorance forget… and crush the spring with mercenary disinformation…” Thorp says in response to this chapter of the work that "It is as if simple kindness can be erased by the divisions, fear and isolation created by such an intrusive media. We no longer feel connected to anything but lofty aspiration and oblique algorithms. It is an empty state to find oneself in.”
The work continues - "And as the earth becomes a frozen sun we fade… Stop, oh stop…” where the visual and emotional onslaught is interrupted by an ‘oh so’ welcome return to light, much yearned for. Birdsong and ferns symbolic of resilience, humility and new beginning, and wheat, the fertility of the earth, blow gently in the breeze. "And with light you see, we are born… and see now, reason…and the truth of an ear of wheat…’ Thorp suggests that while an ongoing struggle to locate ourselves may be mired in socio-political territory, the call for a refocus is really an existential cry for reason, the simple understanding of a heart beat, of bread and kindness and the pathway towards a solution is to be found in part through the humanities and a rekindling of wonder. "Oh light, you hold us in your arms, fleeting, long and fine journey into hope, humility and storms… we fly, and hear now, a global whisper for compassion.” These words, and the images that accompany them, I am sure will resonate with many who are struggling to adjust to the times that we find ourselves in and are yearning for another way.
“For it is in giving that we receive”
BIOGRAPHY :
Roger Thorp is a British artist born in Derbyshire. He currently lives and works in Cornwall. He previously worked as a producer on music videos before directing / producing programmes for NGO’s such as WWF, ILO, Greenpeace and the Red Cross, working in Australia, Mongolia and the USA. He has also made two feature films. Other work by Thorp as a writer / director has been screened in Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen, Istanbul, USA, Cornwall and London. In 2015 he founded ‘The Olive Network’ a sophisticated web platform built to foster tolerance and understanding throughout diverse global communities by focusing on the positive long-term contributions of charity, the arts and humanities. Thorp’s artwork has been exhibited extensively.