4 March – 7 April 2001

Terry Setch
Four decades of work from this idiosyncratic artist whose work derives from natural materials and environmental issues.

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JUST LOOK WHAT THE TIDE DRAGGED IN…
From 4th March – 7th April, Terry Setch will be exhibiting in all five galleries at the Royal West of England Academy, a retrospective collection of original and provocative work. He is an established artist whose work is in the collection of the Tate amongst other galleries of international importance. His mixed media pieces feature the flotsam and jetsam of the Welsh coast, and it is hoped that this exhibition will raise awareness about the effect people have on the environment and what this eventually will mean in real terms.

Terry Setch was born in Lewisham, London in 1936 where he studied art. In 1969 he moved to Penarth in South Wales which has been his inspiration ever since. For many painters the landscape presents an opportunity to escape from modern living, but for Terry Setch the landscape has become a metaphor for society’s inability to live in close harmony with the natural world. In his description of the beach at his hometown of Penarth, where much of his work is based, Setch says, "The beach is continuously used as the repository for the ditched vehicles of joy riders, the dumped rubbish of builders, the waste plastic packaging of picnickers and sun worshippers as well as the detritus of shipping".

Terry Setch avoids the traditional romance of the seaside and instead finds poetry in the conflict between the natural and the man-made. He makes art about today’s living by bringing the found object of the beach - rubbish in this case, into his studio. There is no room for sentiment, and feelings of nostalgia are prevented by Setch’s use of modern technologies such as, digital printmaking and the Internet, "cyber-art".

This does not mean that Setch’s works are not beautiful; there is elegance in the melancholy of the subject matter. Just as the driftwood is bound by the plastic fishing line, in-turn the sea erodes the metal shapes, and bonds the rocks, sand and man-made objects that have been washed onto the beach. As Terry says " My large paintings mimic the actual surfaces and the changes that take place with the tide, time and the weather and are directly involved with the detritus on the beach and how the elements alter, re-shape and unify familiar objects". Each element directly affects the other.

The exchange is continual and whilst there is a knowledge that this pollution will ultimately end in the destruction of our environment, at times there is a sadness rather than anger that it is our own destruction that is inevitable here. The complexity of Setch’s subject matter is such that whilst there is a cry for change there is also a regret for things to come.
This work documents environmental issues and the changeable time, in which we live, his work is young, vibrant and sophisticated. These graceful images are thought provoking for people of all ages and encourage us to stop and think about the world in which we live.

Educational Event
Talk by the artist, Terry Setch
Saturday 10 March at 12 noon No need to book
Please meet at the gallery entrance (upstairs) at 1:50pm

Children's Workshop
Hands-on, drop-in session of recycling fun.
The RWA will be collecting ‘clean’ rubbish prior to this event
Sunday 18th March 2pm - 5pm