The Baltic Open Submissions 2024 Audio Description Script

Outside the Entrance

The entrance to the exhibition, is on the ground floor.  The outside wall is covered in a pattern of 1 meter wide light green and dark green circles.The light circles are on dark green squares and the dark circles are on light green squares, interspersed with slices of half circles like half-moons. 

At the foot of the wall to the right of the entrance, is the logo of Fenwick, the exhibition sponsor.  The logo is in a white handwritten-style script on the distinctive dark green of the Fenwick store. 

Higher up the wall in large white letters, across a light green circle, is the title ‘Baltic Open Submission 2024’.  On the left side of the entrance, in three lists down a light green circle, are the names of the 107 artists whose work is in the exhibition.

Moving into the exhibition

Moving through the open double door entrance we arrive at a large gallery space. Spotlights illuminate the works of art and reflect with a dull shine on the black tiled floor.The walls are painted off white or dark grey.

To the left, in a corner at the end of the entrance wall, is an introduction to the exhibition, black print on a white wall. The first two paragraphs state-   ‘16th March – 1st September 2024

Baltic Open Submission in association with Fenwick is a major new exhibition involving over 100 artists and makers based in the North East of England. The works included in the exhibition, and the vast number of entries submitted, highlight the exciting variety of artistic practice taking place across the region. Showcasing painting, sculpture, photography, video and more, the exhibition features work by established artists who have been making throughout their lifetime, to self-taught creatives who are just beginning. Artworks were selected from over 1400 submissions by our expert panel.’ // moving on…

In the same corner, a large seaside painting hangs on the adjoining wall, adjacent to the introduction.  This is Family Beach Outing, by David Baillie.  A mother and three children build sandcastles on a beach beside lapping waves.  Factories crowd down to the seawall that surrounds the beach and industrial chimneys billow out smoke.

The wall where the painting is hung is dark grey and it runs straight down to the bottom of the gallery.  Next to the painting there’s a doorway through the wall that leads into a second room with more artworks.

As well as the artworks on the outer walls, four large metal display panels create partitions around the centre of the gallery at right angles to each other. The frames are made from shiny steel with legs attached floor to ceiling.  Two are filled with grey panels and the other two with metal grids where paintings can be hung in any position. Paintings are arranged on both sides of the partitions. Within the partitioned area there’s an installation and a number of plinths displaying sculptures.

Exploring the exhibition

Turning to the right from the entrance, we follow a white wall in an anti-clockwise direction. 

The first painting we reach is a large oil painting in striking colours by Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves. Entitled The Exhibitionist, the painting is described in the artist catalogue as: 

‘A cowboy on a horse with his girlfriend in Arizona, displaying his riding prowess by leaping over a several-eyed bison’.

The title hints at the absurdist style of the painting.It has cartoon-like characters placed before a spectacular Grand Canyon backdrop.

In a desert scene a blue barrel-chested bison stands on vivid orange sand in the foreground.  In the background two massive rock structures tower like cathedrals against the sky. 

Behind the bison a band of green grass stretches across the centre of the picture and provides a contrast between the vibrant reds and oranges of the desert.

The cowboy and his girlfriend ride together on one horse in a languorous embrace, silhouetted against an amorous pink sky.

The horse has a spotted coat like a starling. As he leaps his head is low and his skinny legs dangle as he clears the bison.

In the foreground the bulky blue bison stares nonchalantly out at us with his many eyes that float around his head like ghosts, seemingly oblivious to the horse leaping over him……………………………………….

Moving on along the wall we reach the corner of walls 1 and 2. Here there’s a collection of three-dimensional works. 

Hanging from the ceiling on a butcher’s hook, is a construction made from life-sized photographs of hands. The hands have been cut out and joined together with bulldog clips, forming a mass that hangs like a hunk of meat from the butcher’s hook.The hands reach out with open palms as if to shake a hand, or extend in emphatic gestures, pointing and gesticulating. The work is by photographer Mark Duffy andis entitled- ‘A Parliament of Empty Gestures’.

To the left of Empty Gestures is Liam Paul’s ‘Self Portrait’.   This is a small sculpture of a head that could fit in the palm of your hand.  It is mounted on a black metal rod armature, on a shelf on the wall.

The head is made from clay and its rough textured surface is coloured with patches of oil and acrylic paint in an expressive experimental 3D interpretation by an artist more used to working in graphics.

Left again, fromthe small head we reach Andrew Livingstone’s ‘Emoji Fruit’.  This is placed in front of a large canvas of a self-portrait by the artist. 

In front of the canvas on a low white plinth stands a round, wooden table, highly polished to a deep-blue, glass-like, finish.  The table bears a red goblet-shaped, glass fruit bowl.  Lying in the bowl are brightly coloured glass fruits.  A shiny black aubergine, a red apple, and a banana.  The banana’s yellow skin flops open, half peeled, andthe curved white banana flesh pokes into the air. 

An image of this table and fruit is transferred onto the painting behind. The painting is entitled Future archaeology, how will they tell? It portrays the artist to the right of the painted table and fruit bowl.  He is seated nude, with the leaf of a cheese plant masking his genitalia……………………………….

Moving on to the central section the side wall turns to grey. 

Halfway down this wall there’s a group of six large and small paintings, and a drawing, that feature assorted family portraits.   The grey wall creates a calm background for the warm colours in the paintings.

Viewing the pictures from left to right the first is a large oil and acrylic painting on canvas by Nancy Harper entitled Mother and Daughter.

This painting is described as ‘a celebration of living’ in the catalogue.  It portrays the emotional connection between a mother and her daughter.

There’s a close-up head and shoulders view as mother and daughter relax on a sofa. On the right the mother sits upright leaning back. She has her glasses on, but her eyes are closed.She has a mop of dark brown hair cut in short curls.  Her young grown-up daughter is nestled, eyes shut, in her lap.  She has the same dark brown curls as her mother, who has cupped her hand over the top of her daughter’s head.

Fluid, vibrant colours describe the background and the daughter’s silky white blouse and the mother’s dungarees and stripy yellow shirt, and her arm in shadow and light.

Moving to the right- ‘Sheltered’ by Sarah-Lee Bailey is a neat pencil and gouache work on Plywood.

This records an intimate moment hours after their second daughter was born. 

The mother is in bed, eyes closed. Her face is turned to the left resting on a pillow. Crisp white bed sheets are tucked around her waist with a plain magnolia wall behind. Her body slopes up towards the top right corner.  Her khaki green top is pushed upwards for the suckling baby.  The baby’s soft head is just in view in the centre at the bottom of the painting. 

Hanging above this piece is the next artwork. A smaller canvas. In dream-like colours it portrays a different aspect of family life. Rachael Cutmore’s painting Can I please be as happy as my dog in Jesmond Dene? Is painted with an exuberance that matches the dog’s enthusiasm.

Down the centre of the picture a small river tumbles over a waterfall in the Dene.  Energetic brush marks paint choppy waves in whites, purples, and blues. The river flows between pink layers of rocks with grassy areas either side. 

On the right a piano rests on the grass and a patchy terrier has climbed up to stand with its back legs on the piano-stool and front paws on the keyboard.  Ears pricked the dog surveys the scene before it.

Across the waterfall there’s a red, triangular warning sign with an exclamation mark in the centre.  Further left is a large glass of red wine that stands on the edge of the river.

Behind, tall green trees sway up into a pink sky.

Next along are two oil on canvaspaintings by Sally Roberts one above the other. At the top is-

Unconditional – The female figure in this painting adopts a conventional pose, sitting in a chair, hands cupped on her lap, smiling.  She wears a plain white T shirt with a central motif, trousers, white socks and spotty slippers.  The background is an earthy orange, a blacked-out rectangle suggests a door, In the top left-hand corner there is a sheet of paper hung on the wall displaying female life-drawing sketches. // The painting below is entitled

Quarantine 2020 by Sally Roberts

Four figures sit at a long table with despondent expressions. The far end of the table starts in the middle of the canvas and pushes out towards us. The woman from the portrait above can be recognised in the group.

The composition is diagonally divided in two halves running from just above the bottom left corner to the top right. The table and figures exist on the right-hand side.  The left is almost completely blank but for an empty terracotta wall and a thin, black, banister and spindles on a staircase leading upstairs.

The figures are waiting with empty plates in front of them. A plate has been set before an empty chair at the head of the table at the centre of the picture.

The group of paintings ends with a pencil drawing in a small black frame beside Sally Robert’s canvases. 

Me and Tatay is by Llana-Karylle Abraham.

In the Philipino Tagalog language, ‘Tatay’ means ‘Father’ or ‘Grandfather’.

The drawing is of the artist as a young girl held in the arms of her grandfather. An intimate portrait drawn with fine pencil lines. 

Karylle’s grandfather in a short-sleeved shirt, holds his granddaughter with two supporting arms.  He appears middle aged with dark hair parted at the side and glasses.  The child has dark curly hair framing her face and wears a silky dress with no sleeves.  Both man and child gaze out at us with quiet confidence…………………………………………….

We now move across to the centre of the gallery and the partitioned display area, and we come to the first metal grid.  An unframed poster-style print, about half a meter square, hangs halfway up the grid. ‘Renationalize The Parmo’ is a mixed media collage print by Meg Mcwilliam.

As the artist catalogue explains, this is an ode to Teesside’s favourite dish.

The flattened chicken covered in bechamel sauce and melted cheese is a garish orange colour at the centre of a pink sunburst with a yellow jagged outline.  This fills the middle of the print. Behind is a blue sky and wispy clouds.

The word ‘RENATIONALIZE’ in white capital letters, is stamped across the top of the print and beneath the sunburst are the words ‘the Parmo’. Parmo is written in a pink, flowing, calligraphy-style script.  Underneath the word Parmo in tiny black writing are the words ‘I’m sick of explaining what they are.’

Following on around the corner, on the outside of the grey partition, is another foodie picture. An oil painting on MDF wood; Becky Hush’s ‘Frog on the Tyne’ is a bonjour to the Tyneside cuisine that Geordies hold dear.

As explained in the catalogue the artist ‘wanted to mix the most quintessential Geordie and French food stereotypes’. 

In the painting Becky has created a larger-than-life portrait of a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne with a Newcastle Brown Ale label stuck on, and a croissant ham, cheese and salad sandwich pushed into a Greggs paper bag…………………………………………………………………………………….

Moving across to the corner of the third and fourth wall there is a dual-screen video installation by Bethany Dallas, entitled Back and forth. 

Two screens are placed touching in the corner attached one on each wall, appearing like an opened book.  There is a grey box to sit on to watch the film and the screens are set where they will be head height to the person sitting.  Headphones are provided to listen to the film.

The visual is of talking heads. In the left side screen, a young woman with a pale complexion and long black hair tucked behind her ears, faces the screen on the right and is shouting. A young man with red hair, cut short at the sides and brushed back on top, occupies the other screen and snarls back at her. The film is just over a minute long and explores the themes of domestic violence……………………………………………………………………. 

In the centre of the room, inside the partitioned space, is a large installation by Peter Kellett  -  Thinking about plastic constructed from single-use plastic objects. 

The structure is built using plastic mushroom trays, re-cycled from the People’s Kitchen.  The trays are flimsy, dark-blue latticed plastic.  They measure about 25 cms by 40 cms and are 12 cms deep. 

The trays are built together with the long side pointing up and the recess open, forming shelves. They are stacked; six boxes high and 3 boxes wide, held together with plastic ties, creating a blue shelving unit with 18 open chambers on both sides. 

The stack is 2.4 meters high and .75 meters wide.  There’s a gap in the middle on the third layer with no trays, leaving an open space. 

On one side the stacked boxes are filled with large 2 litre plastic water bottles, two to each box.  The empty bottles twinkle as they catch the light and blend in together, coloured by their blue surroundings. 

On the other side of the stack are a neat arrangement of plastic bleach bottles with a curved toilet duck head.  The bottles are all the same shape and have the same red caps, but they are coloured light and deep blues, bright reds, yellows, greens and a pink. Two or three stand in a line in each box……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 

The Second Room 

Moving to the top of the fourth wall we reach the open doorway on the right that leads into the second room in the gallery.  This space is as long as the main exhibition space but about a third as wide.  The walls at the top and bottom are dark grey and each hold a metal grid that’s attached to a metal frame against the wall.  The floor is the same dark grey and is smooth and polished. 

There are two tall, grey plinths spaced down the middle of the gallery, topped by cube-shaped, glass cases, that contain sculptures.

The long side walls are white and display a selection of artworks. Natural light flows in from two windows at the top and bottom of the left-hand wall. The windows open onto a view of the river. 

Three artworks, at the bottom end of the gallery, feature bright natural light, and the light that spills into the gallery from the windows mimics the source of light in the pictures. 

Starting at the end of the right-hand side wall we find three photographs hung side by side in a long row, by Giorgio Di Francesco and entitled-

Wrestling Warriors: A Visual Journey into Kushti Heritage (India)

The photographs capture glistening wrestlers as they prepare the surface of a large square earth pit arena, and warm up to fight.In the first photograph two wrestlers inside the arena are caught in the rays of the sun as it penetrates the gloomy interior through an open doorway. 

To the right of the photographs is a large oil on canvas painting by Angela Allaway entitled Late Afternoon Sunshine.

Two strong, pale barked trees grow beside a brown soil track.  The track runs back into a scrubby wood where thin trees straggle upwards. The bright light of the late sun catches the pale bark on the trees and lights up their wispy side branches and round leaves. Dark shadows cover the track.  Rough grasses glow where they push up out of the dark undergrowth.

Moving down to the bottom wall, attached to the metal grid is a large acrylic painting on plywood by Anthony Downie, entitled – 

Beacon Centre Fire Escape. 

The painting portrays the back of a brutalist-style building, 3 storeys high, with flat roofs. The highest roof steps down squarely to the next level where the fire escape is situated.  The walls are bare, grey expanses of concrete with no windows.Most of the building is in dark shadow but one vast side wall on the left of the building has been struck and transformed by dramatic orange sunlight from the setting sun. 

The colours in the painting create a marked contrast between black shadow, blue sky, and the bright ochre wall. 

At first glance it appears photographic, but then a more painterly quality is revealed.  Blacks merge with greys in the shadows and brush marks blend different tones of orange on the wall.

The fire escape of the title is a bridge made of thin metal that spans a wide gap in the middle between two parts of the building. Thin black lines cut across the sky and the top of the building.  A black shadow falls from the fire escape diagonally across the ochre wall down to the ground.  A patch of orange sunlight spills across the pavement and on to the road. .……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Moving back to the top by the entrance, nine pictures hang on the metal grid against the grey wall. Many explore a sense of place. I will describe four of them before we finish the description. 

At the very centre of the pictures is a small drawing in coloured pencils entitled ‘Reflection’ by Stuart Francis.

This depicts a modern-day ship in a bottle.

A glass bottle lies on its side, the bottle neck points to the right and is swung slightly towards us. Inside the bottle a churning sea bears an inflatable blue and white dinghy, chock full of people in bright orange buoyancy jackets.  The smooth sides of the bottle reflect purples and greens as the dinghy’s snub-nosed bow ploughs towards the bottle neck.

In the top left corner of the grid is a large oil painting on canvas of The Side, Newcastle by Brian Plunkett. It’s a view the artist remembers from childhood when his father lifted him up to show him.

It is a bird’s eye view of The Side.  The road slopes up towards a roundabout and on under the Railway Bridge.  Below are the grey tiled tops of the roofs, large creamy-stone chimney stacks and their ornate chimney pots. On the skyline there’s the tower of St Nicolas Cathedral and the old castle.

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On the bottom right corner of the grid is a landscape photograph, 60cms by 40cms, in its frame.

This is by Pawel Gajek  -  and labelled

Untitled IV, from the series, Journey Along The Foreign Lands 

The artist migrated from Central Europe as a child.  Gajek has lived in the UK for almost two decades but has struggled with national identity. 

The photograph is from his explorations of the Norths wild places.

A lake stretches across a valley to a wooded hill and onwards to a low, snowy mountain.  Clouds in the blue sky, and the white curve of the mountain, reflect in the water.  A small jetty on the left and two red and blue rowing boats abandoned at the water’s edge, are the only signs of humanity in this wild place.

To the left of the photograph is a small oil on canvas painting 

by Kim Fewell entitled- Kittiwakes on the Baltic 2023

The painting is a close-up view of a narrow ledge on the side of the Baltic where Kittiwakes nest in the spring. The ledge rises from the bottom right corner up towards the top left.  It is covered in a thin layer of brown nesting material where seven kittiwakes rest. The little gulls have white heads and bodies and tuck their beaks under their neat grey-brown wings. 

The kittiwakes leave to winter out at sea in the Atlantic but make the long journey back to the Baltic each year to nest.

This is the end of the audio description.