bernard charnley visual artist

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This work was a contribution to a thematic curation entitled 'Kiss Me Quick'. The artists involved included AirSpace and Red Nile in collaboration with the Harbour Arm Gallery, Margate. The inspiration was the opening of the new Turner Prize gallery in a seaside town which was a popular destination for industrial workers in Stoke-on-Trent and elsewhere in the past. The show was intended as a response to that history, interfacing with the new renaissance of Margate as a centre of contemporary art.

My intention with this site-responsive three stranded exhibit was an unexpected disturbance of the normal perception of a holiday resort. The event depicted takes place in an iconic cinema of Margate's heyday. The method of imaging was filmically attractive in contrast to what was being depicted. Like a film, there are central characters, Miranda and Alfie, two beach donkeys. The accompanying cartoon strip and postcards fill-out this narrative.There are a number of ideas at play including political allegory, reflection on changing identity and our engagement with spectacle, humour and entertainment. The format of painted image, cartoon, postcard is conceived as an integral viewing experience. In this respect the three strands of imagery offer an explorative format or interface between story and image.

the artist's alter ego reflects on this work