SAX IMPEY
EXHIBITION DATES : In person and online from 1/9 - 21/10/23
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INTRODUCTION :
Anima Mundi are delighted to present ’To The Water’, the latest solo exhibition from environmental artist and mariner
Sax Impey.
These works are derived from first hand experiences at sea - having sailed many thousands of miles around the world, these journeys continue to have profound resonance for the artist. Some of the works in this show are based on experiences from his most recent transatlantic trip made last year, where others draw from a broader history of sailing voyages, for Impey this show has become more of “a general hymn to the oceans”.
These works are derived from first hand experiences at sea - having sailed many thousands of miles around the world, these journeys continue to have profound resonance for the artist. Some of the works in this show are based on experiences from his most recent transatlantic trip made last year, where others draw from a broader history of sailing voyages, for Impey this show has become more of “a general hymn to the oceans”.
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There is also a sense with this exhibition of the journey that takes place on land, and in the studio, where experience must be translated in to form. There is notable evidence of continued experimentation in the diversity of mark making in this body of work in the search for something immersive and elemental, where the use of medium reflects the behaviour of phenomenon. Impey recollects his awe at the confidence and immediacy captured in the seascapes of 19th Century Norwegian artist Peder Balke, and a desire for his work to incorporate this expressive and dynamic, sinuous energy alongside an adeptness
for precision.
As Impey has said, “sailing allows the experience of a constant duality, of both intimacy and immensity, and while you’re up close and personal with it, you’re always aware of yourself as something of a speck in the vastness”, and the changing scale of works is his attempt to embrace that duality.
Accompanying the paintings is a film work, which is structured to echo the Beaufort scale of wind speed, so begins flat calm, and proceeds with gradually increasing intensity. It is bookended by two passages, and interspersed with visitations, which reflect the correlation Impey holds with dolphins and the faeries of Yeats’ poem ‘Stolen Child’ from which the exhibition title derives - entrancing, enchanting apparitions from another world, a siren call to a realm we cannot fully inhabit, but remain deeply connected to.
Indeed, it is through these works that we are invited to experience this unmediated attempt at reconnection with our natural world. As Albert Einstein wrote “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” A seemingly complex task perhaps, but nonetheless one aided by these works, and the continued courage and endeavour of the artist who made them.
Joseph Clarke, 2023
ONLINE CATALOGUE :
EXHIBITION ARTWORKS (CLICK FOR FULL DETAILS) :
‘TO THE WATER’
single channel video, duration 53:45 - click to view :
“Here dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.”
BIOGRAPHY :
Sax Impey is a British artist born in Penzance, Cornwall. He currently works from one of the prestigious Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives. From 2005, he has collaborated with the cross-cultural, environmental art group Red Earth in the creation of site-specific installations including a multi media performance at Trafalgar Square, London and Birling Gap in Sussex. In 2007 Impey’s work was selected for the ‘Art Now Cornwall’ exhibition at Tate St Ives where he was placed on the cover of the associated publication. The same year he was heralded in The Times as one of the ‘New Faces of Cornish Art’. In 2010 he was featured in Owen Sheers’s BBC4 Documentary ‘Art of the Sea (In Pictures)’ alongside Anish Kapoor, J. M. W. Turner, Martin Parr and Maggi Hambling among others. His work was selected as a finalist the 2013 Threadneedle Prize and the year before was elected an Academician at the Royal West of England Academy. Most recently Impey was included in ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner : Big Read’ project alongside artists including Glenn Brown, Linder, Cornelia Parker, Marina Abramović, Yinka Shonibare, Charles Avery, Gavin Turk, Fiona Banner, Mark Dion, Derek Jarman, William Kentridge and John Akomfrah accompanied by readings from renowned voices including Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, Hilary Mantel, Simon Armitage, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Alan Cumming, Rupert Everett and Alan Bennett. Impey’s paintings are in multiple collections including The Arts Council, Warwick University, the Connaught Hotel alongside other private collections worldwide.