Cock n Bull Gallery

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.

2After 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.

3Pauline had been her Father’s Carer for 2 and half years. Her mother passed away shortly after.

4Witnessing 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.”

5it is the first work since this time that is going on show

6There 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.

7First making this performance work, when her “first serious and long term relationship had ended”…One which was “Full of care love and mutual respect”.

8The work is as much about the mark that other leave on your life… to caution that it is not without effect.

9Pauline 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.

10The electric and invading sense of that tactile contact and broaching of a Perhaps quite British sense of private and public spheres.

11Unexpected 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.

12Amos 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 .

13It is the silence and emotion withdrawal …. which is noticeable and felt within the family home., and the missing family members.

14A trauma the British still carry, and is too easily forgotten in the social equation when sectors of the British public are vilified.

15It is the industry of war which Pauline wishes to stand firmly against.

16Next brewing on the agenda… Hormone replacement therapy. Where she informs me that horses are kept in continuous pregnancy.

17Again bringing to the fore what would be neatly tucked away.