Interview Rupert White

Hweg gallery has existed for about 18 months now, but I understand this show, 'in flower beds', is the first mixed show you've had here.

Yes. A mixed show is less about the individual artists themselves - I mean their practice does come into it -  but it also becomes about my own direction, and the gallery's direction. So it's informed what could be coming up in the future, and how best to bring together local artists and artists from further afield in the same space.

Was there a particular starting point for this exhibition?

The starting point was this object that I found in Tokyo in a marketplace (image right). It's a small bookmark that was printed in 1922. It's an advert for a poetry book, and it's got this lovely wood block print on it, showing a woman holding some flowers looking up at a chapel.

Its quite melancholic and sensitive, and there's the words 'the flowers and the language of flowers' and I just thought it a lovely sentiment. It's a really poetic starting point for a show about flowers. So that's been in my head for a few years. Then I met Ben Sanderson at CAST...

He's really made flowers his thing now...

Yes. He talked me through his process, and it has the same level of sentiment, and consideration and thought. It's also really interesting and dynamic: almost like composting existing works into new creations, and it's got this poetic, gentleness which suits the gallery.  The gallery's name 'Hweg' means gentle and kind in Cornish by the way. 

So then I thought: who else can I bring into this that's going to add a new layer, or a new perspective whilst maintaining the same feel?

You mentioned the Cornish language. What's your connection to Cornwall?

I grew up in North Cornwall, on Bodmin Moor. From there I lived in Cambridge, and worked at Kettle's Yard. I spent a year living in Tokyo, where I came across some really wonderful contemporary spaces.

But for years and years I always knew I'd move back to Cornwall. I used to come down to West Cornwall when I was living in Cambridge, and so I got to know the place and I could see that there were all these ingredients in Penzance that would make it a good place for me to live. I always cite Kettle's Yard and the spaces in Tokyo as sort of coming together to make this space here. Because I live upstairs it's about opening up my home and modelling a way of life that includes art. And if the way I live can help towards Penzance's creative programme, that's also a good thing to do.

The white cube galleries that you get in cities like Tokyo, London, whereever: having that in Penzance, I thought, why not? It's great to support local artists by having a space to show them, but also good to support them by bringing new people in and bringing new ideas down here, and actually being part of a  wider network.

So in this show I've got Ben who's really local, and there's other artists from the UK, but then there's an artist from Tokyo, a duo of artists from Toronto, and I've borrowed this Winifred Nicholson painting from a collector (image below), so that's reaching back into history and the legacy that we've got here as well. Kind of harking back to it, but also bringing it forward and yeah, it's really nice to connect that and introduce that here on Causeway Head.

Winifred Nicholson had a really great show at Falmouth Art Gallery a couple years ago. What's interesting about Kettle's Yard is that it feels very Cornish. It's like a celebration of the first generation St Ives artists really isn't it, because he didn't really collect any the later people such as Lanyon.

There are a couple of Roger Hilton works there...

But there's lots of Alfred Wallis and early Ben Nicholson there...

Yeah, Jim Ede was really good friends with Ben Nicholson. 

I struggled with living up country, actually. I was very aware of a difference in culture and values. So having all that Cornish art around me was nice, it brought me back home in a way. The people there, as well, were really familiar with Cornwall, and there is this really strong link between Cambridge and London and Cornwall.

Have you got any plans for the gallery over the next six months or so?

Yes. The next show is a ceramics show. The artist is called Elena Gilever, and she makes sculptural ceramics. There used to be a pottery in this building in the 70s: a student of Janet Leach opened it up. So the gallery will continue to have ceramics fairly regularly.  After that an artist from Tokyo is going to stay here and make an installation...

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