Dimbola

Past Exhibition: Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens
2024-02-03
Our first new exhibition of 2024 begins with “Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens”, presenting Dickens’ story through the medium of Victorian photography, with each image brought to life in full technicolour – giving the exhibition its name!
The exhibition was originally commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of his death in 2020 and was co-curated by The Charles Dickens Museum.
We are delighted to bring it to the Isle of Wight to coincide with it being 175 years since the publication of David Copperfield, partly written whilst the author was staying at Ventnor.
Using the pioneering world of this early artistry, Dickens was able to enhance his fame and reputation. In showcasing these works this collection will sit alongside the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, who although was not known to have met Dickens, there is a slight possibility that they met at Little Holland House soirées. However Julia did photograph many of his acquaintances such as Thomas Carlyle, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Anne Thackeray Ritchie and William Holman Hunt, to name a few.
A film by Jamie Langton will form part of the Dimbola exhibition entitled ‘Dickens Island’. During his time on the Isle of Wight, Dickens befriended Tennyson who became God father to Alfred Dickens, Charles and Catherine’s sixth child and was named after him.
Dr Brian Hinton MBE on the exhibition and Dickens/Cameron Connection:
Charles Dickens and Julia Margaret Cameron make, on the face of it, an odd pairing. His world view embraces the grotesque, the sentimental, and the humorous She celebrates beauty, the other worldly and the perfection of humanity And yet both in their different ways identified character, and made work that outlasts the centuries . He created a whole world of men and women, in all their aspects from grovelling to noble to laughable She created Platonic ideals of the mother, the thinker, the artist and the visionary, from her all too human subjects.
Dickens was older, and though he may well have met Julia at the Little Holland House Sunday afternoon gatherings, hosted by her sister Mrs Prinsep after she came to England in 1848, there is no record of their meeting on the Island. She certainly never photographed Dickens, though she did fellow novelists like Trollope, William Thackeray and his daughter Anne, and writers like Thomas Carlyle, Longfellow and – sadly now lost – Christina Rossetti
Dickens spent a brief holiday in Alum Bay, and a long summer in Bonchurch, erecting a power shower from the local stream, doing magic tricks, and writing part of David Copperfield
The link between novelist and photographer is a mutual friend, Alfred Tennyson. The future Poet Laureate visited the writers’ community, based around Punch magazine and the Revd White, which settled in Bonchurch. It was from here, with the young poet Edmund Peel, that Alfred shared a small boat saling round the Needles, and having landed was shown the then empty Farringford, which he soon moved into. It was there that his friend from Putney, Julia Margaret Cameron, spent many a happy visit, and Emily Tennyson found her the two newly built cottages which became Dimbola, and Julia’s home from 1860 until 11875
Dickens was inescapable over that period, not least because of the visual interpretations of his work by Cruickshank, Leech and others And the very photographic medium that Julia used, wet collodion, is the same that captured Dickens for eternity, now almost shockingly updated with skin tones from the novelist’s descendants, forms the basis of the Technicolour Dickens show.
We pair this with images of Dickens’ own circle of acquaintances and friends, photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron.
Technicolour Dickens was developed in 2020 by the Charles Dickens Museum, London, in collaboration with Oliver Clyde, with contributions from Dr Leon Litvack (Reader, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University, Belfast) and Dr Julian North (Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century English Literature, University of Leicester).
The Charles Dickens Museum (Charity No 212172) is a fully accredited museum and is the leading centre for the study, appreciation and enjoyment of the life and work of Charles Dickens (1812-1870). The Grade I listed building at 48 Doughty Street is the only surviving family home of Dickens in London, and where he began married life, became established as a writer, and shot to international fame. Founded in 1925, the Museum holds the world’s most comprehensive collection of material relating to Dickens. With well over 100,000 items comprising furniture, personal effects, paintings, prints, photographs, letters, manuscripts, scrapbooks, rare editions, and legal & financial documents, the collection is significant for its breadth and depth, and allows us to explore the many facets of Dickens’s influence and legacy.

Past Exhibition:David Tunnicliffe: Images of An Antique Land
2023-09-23 - 2024-01-01
23rd September -31st December

Several times over the last few centuries, Egypt has exerted a special fascination for European travellers and audiences. It features in Biblical history, if not always in a flattering light. It was a major element of the Orientalist narrative, exotic and mysterious, and a primary location for international mass tourism of the modern era. It featured in both opera (most notably Verdi’s Aida) and trade (especially with the opening of the Suez Canal), and in the two World Wars and in the struggles of decolonization. In recent years, Egypt has become the archetype of active civil society in the Arab world.
In this exhibition, David Tunnicliffe’s photographs show the physicality and excitement of an Egypt that is both modern and also, without interruption, ancient. The images were captured over a span of four and a half years as David and his family embarked on a remarkable journey through the ancient land of Egypt. Throughout this period, David held the esteemed position of resident staff photographer for the Egypt Exploration Society. However, these diverse images go beyond his professional role, offering a glimpse into his everyday encounters. They vividly portray the essence of life, the ever-changing landscapes, the rich historical tapestry, and the vibrant culture of this enigmatic and biblical land.
“The selection for this exhibition was really hard to achieve,” David admits. “Without exaggeration I have tens of thousands of images of Egypt amassed over the four and a half years we lived there. “What I wanted to do was to show a side of Egypt that is seldom seen by the ‘tourist,’” he added. “I hope I have been successful!”
This exhibition runs until the 31st December.
The book and calendar will be available to buy in our gift shop.

Past Exhibition:Light Bends in Imaginary Gardens by Syd Buron
2023-09-23 - 2024-05-19
23rd September 2023 – 19th May 2024
Syd Buron (born in Birmingham, 1977) has followed a meandering path in the arts, with a consistent desire to fan the faint embers of magic that still smoulder in small patches of woodland trapped between farmers fields, hedgerows, misty coast lines, ancient trees and hollow ways (as well as junk shops, auction houses and art galleries).
Ever since moving to the Isle of Wight twenty years ago, Syd has sought out these magical embers. Exploring the island’s liminal spaces, where at certain times of the season and day, the veil seems thin and embers glow. Capturing nature at its most ethereal with his camera; and in the past year, taking his negatives into the darkroom, and creating pieces for this show – ‘Light Bends in Imaginary Gardens’. The first darkroom was achieved by blacking out and converting the caravan where he lives with his partner Molly in Atherfield (the island’s wild south west). Since last Spring, Syd was able to work with larger pieces using the fabulous darkroom in the basement here at Dimbola. The darkroom process he uses shares much in common with the process Julia Margaret Cameron would have used.

The pieces are made up of Syd’s collection of antique frames and mirrors. On which he paints a photo sensitive liquid emulsion and exposes negatives his photographs (some manipulated, as well as some found, vintage negatives) onto the coated surface. The mirrors are then developed and fixed in the darkroom, as you would a print. The resulting images have the quality of reflections on water – imaginary gardens existing behind the veil. Transient images, changing as the reflection changes when viewed from different angles, and changing as the ambient light changes at different times of season and day.
Some of the frames have been manipulated by Syd – fused with branches and root systems found on the island’s beaches and woodlands. Working in a converted old greenhouse on the farm where he lives, his audio companion in the workshop has often being Daisy Rickman’s incredible album ‘Donsya A’n Loryow’. As it was the soundtrack to the creation of many of the pieces, he reached out to Daisy who agreed to let it be the soundtrack to the exhibition. Unbeknownst to Syd, Daisy is also an artist and filmmaker and her film “Belisama” serendipitously felt like the missing piece in the show. Shot on location during Daisy’s travels through Cuba, Iceland, Venice and Cornwall in 2016, “the footage has been kept at it’s most natural state and no ‘special effects’ were applied during post production. All of what you see here is what was captured within the visual trinity of light, water, and in the camera’s eye”.
Syd would like to thank Molly for her support and patience, especially whilst living in a darkroom-caravan last Winter.
A price list of the pieces in the exhibition can be obtained from the front desk

Past Exhibition: The Isle of Wight: Its Places, People, and Literary Connections by John Bradshaw
2023-09-23 - 2024-01-01
This photographic exhibition explores some remarkable people, where they lived, and also the literary connections associated with their presence on the island. The people include Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Osborne House, Julia Margaret Cameron at Dimbola, Alfred Lord Tennyson at Farringford and others. For the literary connections, quotations by Tennyson, Cameron, John Keats, Longfellow, W H Auden and others provide relevant links to the images. The wartime PLUTO project and Sir Winston Churchill’s tribute are also included, together with some infra-red landscape images with appropriate quotations.
All of the images have been produced digitally but include some ‘replicas’ of 19th century early printing techniques.
John R Bradshaw FRPS
www.johnbradshawphotography.co.uk

Past Exhibition: Experience The Isle of Wight Festival 2002-2023
2023-05-27 - 2023-09-17
© Isle of Wight Festival
27th May – 17th September 2023
Our summer show was a celebration of 21 years of the Isle of Wight Festival since it was relaunched by John Giddings in 2002.
This is the first ever retrospective exhibition of the Isle of Wight Festival that has featured great artists such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Pink, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul McCartney, Blondie and so many more.
Sponsored by Solo, Barclaycard, The Daisy Rich Trust, The Price is Wight, Wightlink, Briddlesford Farm, The Isle of Wight County Press, Signpost Express, Isle of Wight Distillery, Goddards Brewery and Wight Karting. ‘Experience – the Isle of Wight Festival 2002 to 2023’ will feature photographs from all years of the Isle of Wight Festival, along with atmospheric crowd shots from around the site – you might even spot yourselves!
John Giddings cleared out his IW Festival cupboard to bring a host of items to the exhibition, along with loaning photographs and footage since the Festival began – this is a real trip down memory lane! Dr Brian Hinton, Chairman of Dimbola, has built an extensive archive of the new Festival and many of these items will also feature in the exhibition, which will take you on a journey through several galleries at Dimbola.

“If you had told me in 2002 that we would still be doing it in 21 years, I would have laughed…” said John Giddings. “We managed to lose a million pounds in the first two years but broke even with The Who and David in 2004. Thankfully it has gone from strength-to-strength year after year and is now one of the top five UK festivals.
“I would never have done it if I hadn’t been there in 1970 – it was the Woodstock of Europe, bringing the island to a standstill with 600,000 people watching Jimi Hendrix, and then getting banned for 32 years…“Looking back on it, I think I had blind faith, people were talking behind my back asking how can you have a festival on an island you can only get to by boat. I believed that was one of the attractions -it is like going on holiday (and has the most sunshine in the uk…)
“Thanks to everyone who have helped create it over the years, and thanks to the people on the Isle of Wight for welcoming us…“I can sincerely say it is the best thing I have done in my career – long may it continue. “This exhibition is to celebrate what we have achieved, and to get some money for Dimbola – a cause close to my heart – enjoy!!”
Dr Brian Hinton MBE said: “Dimbola, which commemorates the 1970 Festival, held within sight and sound of the house, is so pleased and proud to celebrate 21 years and counting, of the revival of that earth-shattering event. Solo allows us to host a marquee every year on site showing the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, images from the Afton 1970 festival and the new Festival, which continue the spirit and good-natured character of the original event.”
The IW Festival 2002 to 2023
After a hiatus of 32 years, the IW Festival restarted as a one-day event in 2002, called ‘Rock Island’, and Robert Plant and The Charlatans topped the bill, playing to an audience of around 8,000. By 2003 the festival had grown to encompass Saturday and Sunday, starred Paul Weller and Bryan Adams, Starsailor and Counting Crows and the audience had almost doubled to 15,000.
In 2004 David Bowie headlined on the Sunday, with The Who on Saturday and Stereophonics on Friday – the three-day festival was born and 35,000 people attended. David Bowie played a stunning set – the last UK gig he ever played.
David Bowie ©IsleofWightFestival
Michael Stipe menaced the crowds with blue striped face, as the sun went down behind the stage on Sunday 2005. REM were supported by Snow Patrol, Travis and Roxy Music headlined on Saturday and Faithless and Razorlight on Friday, and around 50,000 people attended. Kidzone with loads of free kids’ activities appeared this year, run by Islander Liz Cooke, who also makes the colourful flags around the festival site.
Lou Reed refused to play Perfect Day on Sunday 2006 – an act that was later rectified by headliners Coldplay, joined by the entire crowd. Richard Ashcroft supported them, Foo Fighters and Primal Scream headlined Saturday and Prodigy and Placebo on Friday.
Buses ferried festival-goers to see the statue of Jimi Hendrix at Dimbola in Freshwater, commissioned by John Giddings to commemorate Jimi’s performance at the 1970 IW Festival held nearby. The Bandstand debuted, run by local music college Platform One, who now have their own stage every year and a contest called ‘Wight Noize’ – the winner gets to open the main stage on Sunday.
The Rolling Stones headlined on 2007 and over 60,000 people came to see Mick strutting down into the crowd on their ‘B Stage’ (which cost an extra £100k) and duetting with both Amy Winehouse and Paolo Nutini, both of whom played over the weekend. Keane supported the Stones, Muse and Kasabian headlined on Saturday and Snow Patrol and Groove Armada on Friday. The IW Festival deservedly won the ‘Outstanding Contribution to UK Festivals’ award for this year.
John Lydon ©IsleofWightFestival
It seemed to be punk year in 2008, with The Police and The Kooks on Sunday, The Sex Pistols and Ian Brown on Saturday and The Kaiser Chiefs and N.E.R.D. on Friday and this was the first year that The Big Top hosted music for campers on the Thursday night. The Kashmir Café made its debut, with local bands and beers, raising much needed funds for Quay Arts (Wet Leg played their first gig here).
Veteran rocker and superlative songwriter, Neil Young headlined on Sunday in 2009, supported by Pixies; Stereophonics and Razorlight played Saturday and Prodigy and Basement Jaxx on Friday.
P!nk twirled above the crowd on a trapeze strung across the auditorium before a blinding final set by Paul McCartney on Sunday 2010. On Friday the crowd went wild when Jay-Z was joined on stage by surprise guest Kanye West, and The Strokes and Blondie headlined Saturday. Kasabian and Beady Eye headlined Sunday in 2011, Foo Fighters and Pulp on Saturday and Kings of Leon and Kaiser Chiefs on Friday. Then in 2012 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers headlined on Friday with Elbow, Pearl Jam and Biffy Clyro on Saturday; and on Sunday after NoelGallaghers’ High Flying Birds, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band rocked out Seaclose to close the festival.
The amazing Bon Jovi headlined Sunday 2013 following The Script; on Saturday it was The Killers and Bloc Party and on Friday Paul Weller followed by The Stone Roses. In 2014 The Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined on the Saturday following The Specials, Friday it was Calvin Harris and Biffy Clyro and Sunday was Kings of Leon and Suede.
John Giddings said that he cried when Fleetwood Mac confirmed as headliners for Sunday 2015, who turned down Glastonbury to play the Isle of Wight. They followed Paolo Nutini; Blur and Pharrell Williams went down a storm on Saturday and The Prodigy and The Black Keys headlined on Friday.
Status Quo played the Big Top on the Thursday night of 2016, Faithless and Stereophonics the main stage on Friday, with The Who and Richard Ashcroft on Saturday, and an outstanding performance from Queen and Adam Lambert closed the festival.
Apparently, John Giddings asked Rod Stewart why he’d never played the IW Festival and Rod said, “Nobody’s asked me.” “They have now,” replied John for the 2017 Festival. Razorlight played the Big Top on Thursday, David Guetta and Run-D.M.C Friday’s main stage, Arcade Fire and Catfish and the Bottlemen on Saturday, with Bastille on before Rod, who gave a stellar performance.
©IsleofWightFestival Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro
The Killers and the Manic Street Preachers headlined on Sunday 2018, Depeche Mode and Liam Gallagher on Saturday and Kasabian and The Script on Friday, with the Wombats in the
Big Top on Thursday. Wet, Wet, Wet played the Big Top on the Thursday of 2019, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds headlined the main stage on Friday, George Ezra and Fatboy Slim on Saturday and Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro last thing Sunday.
It was pandemic year in 2020, so no festival, and it was touch and go in 2021, but the team worked very hard behind the scenes to ensure that the festival went ahead in September. Many of the acts booked for 2020 played, with Scouting for Girls and Sophie Ellis-Bextor in the Big Top on Thursday, Liam Gallagher and Tom Jones on the main stage Friday, Snow Patrol and David Guetta on Saturday. Sunday was The Script, then headliners Duran Duran rounded off the night firing confetti canons and releasing huge beachballs into the crowd to ‘Rio’.
For 2022 the Happy Mondays entertained campers on Thursday in the Big Top, (and local band Wet Leg played there on Sunday), Lewis Capaldi and Madness headlined Friday’s main stage, Kasabian and Pete Tong provided party beats on Saturday and Rudimental and Muse closed the Festival on Sunday.
This year, superlative entertainer, Robbie Williams closed the main stage on Sunday, The Chemical Brothers followed by George Ezra got everyone dancing on Saturday night and Blondie and Pulp headlined on Friday.
Experience – the Isle of Wight Festival 2002 to 2023 runs until September 17th 2023. Limited edition prints and other merchandise are available from the museum shop or by emailing shop@dimbola.co.uk

Past Exhibition:Larry Ellis: A Retrospective
2023-02-11 - 2023-05-14
© Isle of Wight Festival

©Larry Ellis
11th February -14th May
Our first exhibition of 2023 is a Retrospective of Fleet Street legend Larry Ellis, which includes iconic images from big stars such as Catherine Zeta Jones, Cary Grant, Joan Collins, Johnny Depp, Tina Turner and more.
In 1963 Larry Ellis performed a dual role for the Express Newspaper group whereby he’d shoot celebrities for the Daily Express during the week and would then switch to sports coverage over the weekend for the Sunday Express – predominantly football, rugby, golf and cricket.
Throughout his career he covered a multitude of assignments all over the world, often touring with the stars themselves and accompanying performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on their travels. Ellis was also assigned many film and television location shoots and during his time with the Daily Express covered a wide variety of movies including the James Bond films.
David White, vice chair of trustees at Dimbola, said: “Having worked freelance for Fleet Street newspapers myself, I became closely acquainted with Larry, having the privilege to be one of the photographers exhibiting in the 2019 exhibition. “Knowing the collection of images he had produced over the years, it was an obvious choice to arrange a one man retrospective show of his work.
Now in his 90s, after living in retirement on the Island, Ellis has recently moved to Surrey to be near his family. The last exhibition of his work appeared along with four other Fleet Street photographers at Dimbola in 2019. The exhibition runs until the 14th May.

Past Exhibition: IW County Press Camera Club BIG 50
2022-10-22 - 2023-01-01
© Isle of Wight Festival

22nd October 2022 – 1st January 2023
This exhibition showcased 50 shortlisted images from the IW County Press Camera Club competition. Entrants were requested to submit photographs taken on the island since 22nd July 2021. The IW County Press Camera club has over 1400 members. Anyone can join and share their photos of portraits, landscapes, wildlife shots and news pictures. Images may be used in the County Press and its respective publications, websites and social media channels. Join the facebook group here

Past Exhibition: Marilyn Stafford: A Life in Photography
2022-06-10 - 2022-10-10
© Isle of Wight Festival

Past Exhibition: Marilyn Stafford: A Life in Photography

10th June – 16th October 2022

Our summer show was a Retrospective of decades of archive photography by 96 year old Sussex photographer Marilyn Stafford.
The first ever retrospective exhibition of US born Sussex based photographer, Marilyn Stafford (b.1925), encompassing the most comprehensive display of the photographer’s work to date. Works came from an international archive spanning four decades, and included celebrity portraits, fashion shoots, street photography, humanitarian stories and newspaper reportage.
This exhibition, A Life in Photography provided a reflective and engaging look at a period of 20th century history through the photographer’s unique gaze. It featured many of the stories from her career, which remain untold, with images never seen before by the public and specially organised expanded content such as a film about Marilyn’s life and more. This special touring exhibition was curated by Nina Emett in collaboration with Stafford’s daughter Lina Clerke.
Marilyn Stafford’s photography career got off to a remarkable start when she was invited, as a young woman, to take stills of Albert Einstein. Since then, she has accumulated an eclectic body of work, spanning from 1948-1980, including further portraits of famous and influential figures such as Edith Piaf, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mulk Raj Anand, Indira Gandhi, Albert Finney, Twiggy and Joanna Lumley. She has also photographed many ordinary people like the illiterate Sicilian peasant woman, Francesca Serio, who took the Mafia to trial for murdering her son.
Stafford also engaged in street photography, mainly in the 1950s, documenting the Parisian children of the Cité Lesage-Bullourde neighbourhood living in slum housing conditions as well as the bustling, and sometimes downtrodden, street life of Boulogne-Billancourt.
Stafford witnessed some significant, and sometimes turbulent, periods of modern social and political history – she photographed Algerian refugees in Tunisia fleeing the Algerian War of Independence in 1958 which gained her front page of the Observer; she captured Lebanon in the 1960s during a time of peace before civil war would ravage the country a decade later which was published by Saqi books; she created a unique and intimate documentary about Indira Gandhi, India’s first and only woman Prime Minister, during India’s intervention in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Alongside her humanitarian focused photography, Stafford took advantage of opportunities open to her as a female photographer, including commissioned portraits and fashion runways for British, American and international newspapers and magazines, as well as co-running her own fashion photography agency. Her work has been included on magazine and newspaper front covers, including the Observer. In 2020, Stafford was awarded the Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Picture Editors’ Guild.
“I think of myself as a storyteller, speaking through the lens of my camera. I have always endeavoured to find a way to bring awareness to the public eye, to tell stories that are socially relevant and to create change for the better. As a young, impressionable child of the 1930’s Great Depression in the US, I witnessed poverty-stricken people and early holocaust refugees coming to our door, selling everything from steel wool cleaning pads to fine embroidered linens. I also remember seeing Dorothea Lange’s powerful photographs of migrants fleeing the severe drought in the Dust Bowl states and I understood there and then how photography could make a difference. During my life I have lived through periods of extraordinary change and have been able to capture both trivial and momentous events of my time. I have been very fortunate during my life to have had good friends and also good luck along the way.”
Marilyn Stafford
“It has been a wonderful privilege and adventure to curate the exhibition ‘Marilyn Stafford – A Life in Photography’ and to compile/edit the accompanying retrospective book of the same name. At times, I truly felt like I was behind the lens with her, indulging in poignant vignettes of life from a bygone era – whether in the picturesque streets of 1950’s Paris, the Tunisian refugee camps of the Algerian War of Independence in 1958 or on Indira Gandhi’s speaking tour of India following her heroic intervention in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. I could see reminiscences in style from some of the greats of her time – a geometrically formed André Kertesz, a decisively caught Henri Cartier-Bresson, a painterly but photojournalistic Homai Vyarawalla. But mostly I could see Marilyn Stafford. The work reveals a devilish eye for detail, a curiosity to ‘pop the hood’ and look behind the scenes, a huge respect for form and structure, a penchant for humorous juxtaposition, an emotional connection to whoever lies beyond the shutter curtain, and there is always an intriguing storyline.” said Nina Emett Curator/Editor of Marilyn Stafford – A Life in Photography and Photographer/Director, FotoDocument
An accompanying retrospective book of her work Marilyn Stafford: A Life in Photography includes an essay by art critic Jennifer Higgie and a foreword by the late photojournalist Tom Stoddart.
Photos
© Marilyn Stafford Photography
Model having fun at the end of the fashion shoot, Ready-to-wear, Louvre, Paris, c1950.
Joanna Lumley with models backstage during the Jean Muir fashion show.
Mulk Raj Anand with a village victim of the Bangladesh Liberation War, Bangladesh, 1972.

Extras:
Listen here to Marilyn tell the story behind some of the featured photographs, and enjoy a Spotify soundtrack inspired by the display. It also features audio descriptions of five of the key photos that were in the exhibition.
WE ARE DEEPLY SADDENED BY THE NEWS OF MARILYN STAFFORD’S PASSING.
SHE PASSED AWAY PEACEFULLY AT HOME ON 2nd JANUARY 2023 SURROUNDED BY LOVED ONES.
Marilyn Stafford
05.11.1925 – 02.01.2023

Past Exhibition: Creative Cross-Currents
2022-03-26 - 2022-06-05
© Isle of Wight Festival

Past Exhibition: Creative Cross-Currents

An evocative exhibition that brought together the work of 21st century visual artists, Jeremy Bear, Sunara Begum and Dunstan Perera, with that of the 19th century pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Across the centuries and continents that reflected on the similarities in the way their different personal histories interweaved India, Sri Lanka and Britain and parallels in the way they worked and conveyed their ideas.Julia Margaret Cameron declared that her photographs should be regarded as art and in Creative Cross-Currents with India and Sri Lanka a selection of her rarely seen images made in Sri Lanka were included alongside paintings prints, films and an installation made specially for Dimbola by Jeremy Bear, Sunara Begam and Dunstan Perera, that used a variety of media and techniques.– some of which she might have chosen to try out if they had existed in her time.Jeremy Bear showcased over 20 paintings revealing the vibrant, urban life and creative spirit of the people observed by him on the streets of 21st century Kolkata and further afield.Sunara Begum presented a series of drypoint and carborundum monoprints inspired by visits to Kolkata and Sri Lanka, where she walked in the footstep of Julia Margaret Cameron. This meditative and atmospheric
work explored notions of identity and origin and drew upon Bengali creation myths.
Dunstan Perera grew up in Sri Lanka and moved to London as a young man. There and in the US he pursued a long career as a stills photographer in the film industry. A work assignment took him back to Sri Lanka and that journey, which built on a life-long passion for his country of birth and inspired the series of monoprints that were included in the exhibition. These were made using naturally occurring polymers for colour and a heliographic technique similar to that used in early photography.
Fewer than 30 photographs remain from those taken by Julia Margaret Cameron during the years she spent in Sri Lanka. Digitised versions of seven of those works in the collection of the National Museum of Science and Media in Bradford and in Dimbola’s own collection were included in the exhibition to demonstrate parallels and synergy between her work and that of the three present-day artists.
This film documents the exhibition and outreach activities of the Creative Cross-Currents with India and Sri Lanka project curated and organised by Griselda Bear and launched at the Dimbola Museum and Galleries, Isle of Wight in Spring 2022. The exhibition explores and reveals significant similarities in the lives and work of the three present-day artists, Jeremy Bear, Sunara Begum and Dunstan Perera, and the pioneering 19th century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
