The new exhibition at Buxton Museum this week is called Consignment by artist Glenn Ibbitson. An on-going multi-media project comprising paintings, prints and film, Glenn’s work developed from an initial theme of escapology into a meditation on the contemporary social and political environment.
The composition of the figure, physically enclosed within the confines of the frame, was chosen for its symbolic potentiality. It suggests simultaneously both penal cell and hiding place or refuge. Glenn deploys it as a visual metaphor for the individual as the object of political oppression and human trafficking. The paintings are designed to hang any way up. They are not given titles outside a numbering system as individual units linked in batches, which increases the sense of commodification – ‘humanity as contraband’.
The exhibition invites us to recognise what it might feel like to be reduced and objectified and you can experience it for yourself at Buxton Museum until Saturday 29 November. Glenn’s past artistic experience includes working as a scenic artist in film and television before moving to Wales. More of his work can be seen at www.smokingbrushfineart.com
Buxton Museum has acquisitioned some new paintings this week. All three are purchase prizes from the recent Derbyshire Open Art Competition; funded by Derbyshire County Council and the Friends of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery respectively. They have been moved to our high-tech storage facility to join over a thousand other artworks in the county’s art collection.