Exeter Flying Post - March 2002

Kurt Jackson Carnsew

An exhibition of paintings, from a winter spent in Carnsew Quarry, Cornwall. Exeter Phoenix, until 4th March.

No one could accuse Kurt Jackson of bagging free holidays in the name of art. Carnsew Quarry in winter sounds uninviting and Jackson lets us know about it in the titles of his paintings: “Rain, hail, gales, dusty, noisy”, “Winter sun, cold north winds”, “Dumper returns with a load for the crusher - sitting in gorse and budlia”. What comes through in this latest show at the Phoenix, is not discomfort, but fascination with the scale and the elements at the quarry. The result is many strong, energetic drawings and work in various, often unusual media.

One senses that Jackson paints prolifically, he enjoys it, and wants to spend his time doing it. He works with haste and concentration, with scratchy quick marks and layers of texture that come from a great deal of labour. He uses great surfaces, thick edged-torn paper, industrial filter paper, and paints on pieces of important-looking forms from the quarry - Certificates of sampling, Particle Size Distribution charts. What must it be like living with Kurt Jackson? Does he paint on the gas bill and on the coffee filter paper you were about to use?

He also piles on the media. In some Carnsew drawings jackson uses bitumen and quarry chalk and what could be more appropriate to describe the quarry, than the very stuff of it? Sometimes it is plastered, with wit, across a printed Partical Size Distribution chart. At other times he cuts and pushes the medium to reveal his well noticed quarry men and landscapes.

The exhibition filled both downstairs rooms at the Phoenix, the second room housing more polished work and slower media, such as etchings and prints. In all, close observation - and representing what was there in front of him at Carnsew, made the images immediate and arresting. With obvious ability, Jackson had gone out, worked extremely hard and achieved considerable results. Its success with the crowd at the Phoenix was evident in the guest book: “Alf. Decent stuff for a change”.

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