Modern Palaeolithic

Modern Palaeolithic is an exhibition of work and installations which draws upon imagery from the Palaeolithic Cave Art of Southern France, Northern Spain and other locales along with the associated mythical and cosmogonical motifs thought to have been understood by the human cultures of the Northern Great Hunt. The work in this project is intended to evoke an ancient sense of the hunter gatherer in the mind of the modern viewer - more accurately, a remembrance - and uses ancient imagery but modern media.

Palaeolithic art, dating from 34,000 to 13,000 years ago and consisting of famous images of bison, bulls and sorcerer-shamans, essentially forms the bedrock from which the majority of later artistic developments have sprung and while much of the purpose of this art is as yet unknown, the fluid animal forms and abstract shapes from a wild, hunter-gatherer culture somehow still speak to the modern urban audience in a way that is not easy to define. Modern Palaeolithic seeks to resonate with an evocative remembrance through a body of work, aiming not so much to stimulate discussion but to bring about a quiet commemoration of what has passed and to make a connection with the earliest human expressions.

‘Aurochs frieze from Lascaux, France’
c.15,000 BCE – Charcoal & ochre on rock
Unknown Artist

‘Modern Palaeolithic’
2007 – Inks & Markers on card
Bruce Rimell

Above can be seen a selection of imagery from the project, which will be added to as more work is completed. Several formats to the exhibitions are proposed, from a standard gallery space viewing format to a more Palaeolithic style of presentation, either in low light or via a more randomly arranged spread of images than one might expect in a contemporary exhibition. Some of the work from the Shamanic Art series may also be incorporated into this project.