Call and Response: Interacting with Gert’s work

Works of art are evocative. They call out to us. And it can be surprising how many layers and dimensions of meaning they carry. Meanings for the artist which often unfold while making the work and thinking with and about it. And meanings for viewers of the work, which might be quite different. That is as it should be, and it is intriguing to bring such diverse responses together.

This is our aim with the section of this website under the “Current Works” tab. This section is a growing showcase for new works, several of which will be included in "Towards Easter Sunday 2025: Who am I?" at the Tatham Art Gallery from 23 February to 27 April 2025.

As you click on the images on this page, in many cases you will discover Gert’s own ruminations. But what additional responses might be added?. If a work calls out to you, please email your responses to Gert – remembering to include the title of the work.

Here’s an example. In this instance, the call comes from Gert’s The Dilemma of Twenty-One, 2005-2024.

In the words of Gert

-   I started carving the crab claws as a direct result of meeting a very shady character who, as the saying goes, moved sideways like a crab. This person became the bane of my life over the next decade!

-   Over the years I started conceptualising the crab claws as part of a portal.

-   The base of the portal takes on the shape of a crab's exoskeleton. The bottom half of both of the portals’ jambs begin to resemble crab legs.

-   The crab's claws block the passageway through the portal. However, if one approaches from the other side, it could have a very different feeling about it.

-   As if to counter the threat of the crab claws a pair of stigmata-hands thrust outwards and upwards from the corner of the portal's lintel (referencing Goya's 3rd May painting), appealing to forces beyond the confines of the portal.

-   These hands reinforce the V-shape of the upper half of the hourglass, displayed by the abacus. i.e., they are feeding into the here-and-now of time.

- The twenty-one beads of the abacus represent the twenty-first century, a coming of age of Humankind, Anno Domini's apotheosis (crucified hands).

-   This coming-of-age of the twenty-first century, and all that that conjures up, is expressed by a turgid hourglass with the same number of beads above as below so that symbolically, the 'sands of time', in a sense, have been arrested for our contemplation.

-   The abacus is contained in a flat disc-like shape that could represent the earth. This symbol of the earth is suspended above the crab claws as if being dandled there or trying to bait something.

-   On closer inspection of the hourglass within the abacus, there comes the realization that although the beads are seemingly 'tessellated' they can be manoeuvre sideways thus disrupting the stasis of the hourglass. This moving sideways gives impetus to the crab's sideways movement, but it must be noted that any sideways movement will take the concept of the earth hanging in the confines of the portal and the appeal of the pair of hands to forces beyond the portal, with it.

Notes:

- In my PROPELLER CRUCIFORM there is a whole different dynamic there. If the propellers were to start up, they would rip the cruciform apart etc.

- In PIETA: GROUND ZERO has a locked in feeling to it. The ‘key’ to the piece resides with what the viewer will do next.

- In YEARNING there is that gap between the house and the boat-form that can only be bridged by faith.

- In PROPELLER CRUCIFORM there is the anchor and the bollard that needs careful consideration. Salvation is moored to the death and resurrection of Jesus, our anchor.

A response: In the words of Walter Hayn

I take note of what you say above Gert, but the first thing that I notice is that there is a strange tension between the hands and the claws. The hands are capable of doing the fine work of manipulating the abacus, yet they are stretched out and stiffly elongated in surrender - “We can no longer work under these conditions!”, they seem to cry. Or they are signalling to ward off an approaching person? Instead of the hands doing the work, it is as though the crab claws are reaching up with the intention of rearranging its own physiognomy, or perhaps they are simply warding off and guarding itself from an approaching person who might want to enter its space. Furthermore, the smooth base, which forms the passage through the portal, is literally a slippery slope. This piece is guarded with obvious and hidden threats. Even the fork-like uprights of the portal, resembling the claws, look at though they could become weaponised at any moment.

For me however, the overall impression of the portal combining the negative space created by the frame with the hand/abacus/claw composition (while squinting at the piece and using one’s imagination) is that the hands mimic ears, the round abacus, with its square hole and its beads, acts as an open maw, with rows of teeth, and the crab-claws are merely the appropriate arms of a Japanese Pokemon-like fantasy creature. The soft-looking organic lower portions of the portal frame even give the impression of the haunches of such a creature, and finally the beads give the mouth/teeth a pixellated quality, somehow reinforcing the impression of a computer-generated creature. I am just left wondering how the animal will move and have the feeling that it could definitely shuffle. It could even right itself, if it fell over, with those handy ears.