Port Glasgow Town Hall Christmas Party (Betty)

2005
Neville, Mark
In 2004 I spent a year working in Port Glasgow, the world centre for shipbuilding fifty years ago, now a town facing economic decline. The result of this stay was a beautifully produced coffee table-style book. Conceived as a symbolic gift and unavailable commercially, the book was delivered uniquely to each of the 8000 households in the community by the local boys football club. Rather than having a public artwork imposed upon them, the Portonians received a document of their lives and of their participation as both the hosts and protagonists of an artistic experiment. 'Newborn Lamb' and the film 'Fancy Pictures' were commissioned for an exhibition at Mount Stuart, on the Isle of Bute, in 2008. 'I was fascinated by the context; the triangular relationship between Mount Stuart Trust, the artist, and the community on the island. When you look at the history of painting, the notion that a commissioned art work can look objectively at the relationship between a land-owning commissioner, and those who work the land, seems contentious, and thus a fertile position to explore. This involved engaging, over a sustained period, with a closely knit, working community, and giving substantial authorial control back to it, as both the subject and primary audience. As with the photograph 'Newborn Lamb', the film draws on the mystical relationship between people and animals on the Isle to create an elegiac fantasy.' Mark Neville
  • Artwork Details: Image, 102 x 127cm Paper, 124 x 153cm
  • Edition: Ed 3 of 5 +2APs
  • Material description: c-type hand print
  • Credit line: © the artist
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Photograph
  • Accession number: ACC10/2009

Share

Close
Artists
Artworks
Exhibitions
Articles
Other

The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

With more than 8,000 works by over 2,000 artists, it can be seen in exhibitions and public displays across the country and beyond. This website offers unprecedented access to the Collection, and information about each work can be found on this site.