Tenderly

5 March 2008
Tenderly Gently - Neil Roberts Neon

Following my post And Kinder on Derek Jarman yesterday, Barbara Campbell sent me a link to this lovely work on Neil Roberts’ site. She wrote:

“Neil did quite a few of these neon works sending out messages across cities and lakes. They were more kind than angry – he tended that way. I think they are just beautiful. There are so many stories wrapped up in them, both before and since his death. But anyway, the one I sent was from a commission in Perth in the 1980s at the height of the first resources boom there where commerce was going crazy and tycoons were buying Van Gogh’s and America’s Cup winning yachts and UK-sized tracts of the country and there is something touchingly provisional about the quality of neon isn’t there – it just seemed to stop all that madness in its tracks, or at least that’s how I romantically imagined it to be.”

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I’m writing again for Barbara’s amazing 1001 Nights Cast next week. Hard to believe but the three year project has just eleven more nights to go. More from me about here soon I am sure. It’s very much on my mind.