It’s one of the most visually striking and diverse exhibitions Lighthouse has hosted with work from an international cast of artists, but for one of them, From the City To The Sea is a chance to reconnect with a place that changed the course of his life.
Bobby Tonge, whose sculptures of everyday items cast in bronze are among the highlights of the show, first came to Poole “by accident” in 1985. This weekend he is returning for the first time since to take part in a screenprint day hosted by conceptual artist Ben Oakley, who has curated the exhibition.
“I’m fascinated, like I always am, to see what Ben is up to, but also to see Poole again – it has been a while!” he says.
“In 1985 I was doing an Art foundation course and spent the summer hitching round the UK. I got a lift with someone who worked at Channel Four who took me to Bournemouth and showed me the locations they’d been shooting at. After I was dropped off I went to the Job Centre to find some work.
“That’s how I ended up at the Haven Hotel at Sandbanks as a lowly pot wash. The day before I started the hotel had been visited by police running checks on staff – it was a few months after the Brighton bomb – and some of them had disappeared so I was made up to KP (kitchen porter) straight away and then to commis chef.
“That’s how I ended up cooking. Without that job things would have been very different.”
Art being a somewhat precarious living, Bobby pursued a parallel career in food and has gone on to cook in kitchens from Manchester to New Zealand. Today, alongside his art practice, he runs a successful business catering for film and TV productions on location.
Which is partly how he hit upon the idea of casting foodstuffs in bronze.
“I started making sculptures in papier mache and had my first solo exhibition in Paris in 1994. I picked up a few commissions, but it never really felt right until I found myself working for a French bronze furniture maker and being encouraged to cast in bronze.”
His first bronze casts were pork pies.
“Shifting from paper to bronze, it was surprising how much more seriously the work was taken. I’m fascinated by things that are slightly banal. As we walk through our day it’s full of things, objects, everyday items, some we eat, some we throw away, small things, ordinary things. I’ve been casting them in bronze to make them permanent, infinite, reconsidered.
“I once got pulled over by French customs with two Jammy Dodgers in bronze that had just been cast at a French foundry and looked like they had been dug up. The French authorities were concerned and asked as they picked one up, ‘Is this antique?’ ‘Mmm, no (well, not yet) I replied.’”
:: From the City to the Sea, curated by the Ben Oakley Gallery, can be seen (for free) at Lighthouse until Saturday 19 April.
:: Hosted by Ben Oakley, the screenprint day on Saturday 22 March runs from 11am to 4pm and there’s an open invitation to all to take part, for free. Just turn up or use the eventbrite link below. Using supplied materials and a mobile screenprint rig, artists for the day will be able to produce a print from an exclusive, one-off design. For There’s ink involved so maybe don’t wear your best clothes!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-the-city-to-the-sea-tickets-1284238886079
(NC)
