Pauline Amos
By Giuseppe Marasco
The flyer for the exhibition is an array of assorted weaponry, on close inspection, includes a pressure cooker, the type used in the Boston Marathon bombings. Giving me the sense of a distinctly Pinteresque turn to the recent violence. That a domestic appliance can be weaponised, draws us closer to consider the acts of violence and power plays that exist in the smallest acts and social exchanges.
After a Chance encounter with Mark Hix at the Groucho Club, on hearing that Pauline Amos’s art making had lulled after her Fathers death. Hix’s full of encouragement, offered, a gallery exhibition at his trendy Tramshed restaurant in Shoreditch.
Pauline had been her Father’s Carer for 2 and half years. Her mother passed away shortly after.
Witnessing her own Father pass away in in her own arms. she “felt was a real privilege and an affirmation of the miracle of life and what it means to be here in the present.”
it is the first work since this time that is going on show
There are two distinct permutations in Pauline’s work. A painting performance and nudity where the public is invited to paint directly onto the artist . The mark making, and relation are all concerned with turning from private to public concerns. And even the private to public.
First making this performance work, when her “first serious and long term relationship had ended”…One which was “Full of care love and mutual respect”.
The work is as much about the mark that other leave on your life… to caution that it is not without effect.
Pauline conveyed, when we met up, the effect of the the public painting on her body by unexpectedly running the index fingers of each hand down my thighs.
The electric and invading sense of that tactile contact and broaching of a Perhaps quite British sense of private and public spheres.
Unexpected reactions are thrown up, public proximity and vulnerability. Silence and respect. One time a young man painted on her face, thought she was comfortable with it, the audience palpably grew tense and protective, feeling this was a step too far.
Amos thoughts now turn to this generation question, in particular from the Trauma that families carry from one generation to the next. Which Pauline Amos has observed within her own family. Which have served in both WWI and WWII .
It is the silence and emotion withdrawal …. which is noticeable and felt within the family home., and the missing family members.
A trauma the British still carry, and is too easily forgotten in the social equation when sectors of the British public are vilified.
It is the industry of war which Pauline wishes to stand firmly against.
Next brewing on the agenda… Hormone replacement therapy. Where she informs me that horses are kept in continuous pregnancy.
Again bringing to the fore what would be neatly tucked away.