Charlie Booth
writes:
On an unusually sunny day for March, David Knowles, Roy Voss and I took
a trip to the neighbouring village of Haworth to visit the meadow at the Brönte
Parsonage, one of the new sites for MISS.
MISS is the latest in a
series of annual commissions for South Square Gallery, developed in partnership
with the Brönte Parsonage Museum, which provide the opportunity for artists to
engage with the context of the surrounding landscape.
Roy Voss, a London
based artist will use the Brönte Meadow to site a series of ‘signs’ or
‘notices’ amongst the natural landscape, repeated three times they will spell MISS.
Giving the heavy
significance Voss places on the single word within his work during the site visit
I asked him to expand on the significance of the word ‘Miss’:
‘Given
we are in Bronte country, there is an idea of missing the three Misses. Miss
is simply a title that suggests singleness or youth. It could also suggest a
longing for someone or something, but it has several other meanings of course:
To not hit a target, to fail to be somewhere, to overlook or not comprehend
something, to not take a chance, to fall short.’
Voss’ signs will be
made from untreated steel which will gradually begin to rust, so as to form a
kind of physical proof of the weather, rather than being weatherproof. It is
possible to draw links between the literary work of the Bronte sisters and Voss
signs, as the Brönte sisters’ work are heavily influenced by the dramatic,
unruly nature of the Moor’s weather. I think his choice of material is
particularly fitting for the context of the piece, when you consider the
surrounding industries located on Thornton Road. As I travel to South Square
and drive through the outskirts of Bradford up to Thornton I pass many industrial
builders yards and steel works. By locating manufactured steel structures
directly in to the picturesque rural landscape, I see in Voss’ work the connotations
of the historical landscape of the area; a history of industry and
manufacturing in the heart of the picturesque Yorkshire countryside.
Running simultaneously alongside the work at
the Brönte Parsonage, Voss will open an exhibition within the South Square Gallery.
A theatrically over-sized backdrop cuts diagonally across the first space,
emphasising the domestic scale and feel of the room.
In what will become the second gallery space, small collages featuring
found images and words will hang. Synonymous with the tourist industry,
postcards are used as mementoes of the picturesque settings of destinations,
but also as correspondence between absent loved ones. In my opinion, by
selecting singular words frequently written on the back of postcards, such as
‘MISS’, Voss is highlighting the absence of the intended receiver.
Located within some of Voss’ previous work there is a commentary on English
tourism marketing strategies. By simultaneously emphasising the depiction of
the ‘ideal’ countryside, as seen in his picturesque epic scenery, he suggests
that this ‘ideal’ is a façade to the reality of the countryside. That a
postcard selects what the visitor wishes to remember about the visit – an
idyllic holiday, or it serves to communicate with the absent loved one that
they somehow missed out, ‘wish you were here’.
Personally, the hand-painted backdrop and the postcards placed together
in the exhibition comment on the attempt by the tourism industry have to
portray a realistic and authentic image of the countryside. Yet both are
selected and edited and become a constructed view designed to promote the
locale and attract more visitors. They ignore some of the many other less
attractive issues prevalent in rural communities.
Accompanying MISS, Voss has created a special edition print booklet
which will be available at sites, South Square gallery and Brönte Parsonage
Museum.
