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Inspired by sport

Eden Valley artist Chriss Langsworthy and guest artist Jenny Loudon, a recent West Kent College graduate in Fine Art are cuurently exhibiting in the window of 67 High Street Edenbridge. Both artists are showing work inspired by sport.

Jenny Loudon
A body of work inspired by sports photography& Shakespeare

I am the person on the train who is constructing narratives about fellow passengers. I fantasise the who, why, where and what happens next. I surreptitiously observe and note the curve of the eye, the mouth’s pout. Some of the faces are amazingly beautiful and I wonder if their owners know this; some are not conventionally attractive, but have such extraordinary features; some expressions are inscrutable, hiding mundane thoughts or dramas. I see the face first, then come the stories. I tear out faces from the newspapers; I draw them; I give them histories, characters, a script. I give them a narrative.

The football photographs, aside from those actually showing action from the game, are beautiful. I hardly know who the characters are, and can only name a few. I try to not discover too much about their real characters and stories, but give them a narrative suggested in the expressions and supposed situations. As an art-form, football has its value in the role that the players, trainers and managers play. The drama is the thing, the game secondary to the play-acting, the hair-bands and the shallow friendships. For the public, its worth lies in entertainment in many forms, and the media is its best friend.

I love the language and narratives of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the embodiment of life’s stories, then and now. In the football photographs, I see his characters and give them their script. Newspapers play a huge role in our perceptions of the world, and play on the fragilities and dramas of people in the public eye. A photograph, one of many taken, can show a truth or lie made up by the ‘journalists’, to suit the appetite of the readers. I do the same, but I give them the poetry and beauty of Shakespeare.

Sport’s photographers search not just for the great shots of the players in the game; the game is just one small part of the footballers’ lives. A good journalist makes the shots that tell us all about the intricacies of the gamesters’ lives, and captures moments in our imaginations. Who better than Shakespeare to narrate the drama we see in the hug, the kiss, the hiss, the grimace, the treachery of rivals on and off the field.

All of the appropriated and reproduced photographs are torn directly from newspapers; we can see the wrinkles and print from over the page; all of them caught my eye as beautiful images, enhanced by their imperfections.

Most of the drawings are taken from images found on the internet; to recreate them in graphite on paper, albeit faintly and delicately, gives them and their stories worth, and a new permanence.

Chriss Langworthy
Women in Sport

Most see sport as a masculine endeavour praising power and speed above all else. That which is feminine is often mocked and made little of. In many arenas the female presence is limited to decoration, frills without any meaningful impact.

My work focuses on females and femininity but often with a masculine slant. How bizarre that a pretty female athlete earns far more than a superior more masculine girl, that a scantily clad player gets national headlines but the world champion is not mentioned. Combining the ‘feminine’ craft of crochet with surprisingly masculine and inevitably feminine images of women players I explore these contradictions.

The exhibition runs until August 27th 2010.

Sevenoaks District Council has recently awarded funding to support EVA’s window project as part of the community grant scheme.

The Sevenoaks based developers, Regalpoint, the current owners of 67 High Street, have kindly allowed EVA to make use of the empty windows for art-based projects, while the property is awaiting re-development.

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