Showcase: World of Moose

Saturday 15th August 2009 – Thursday 31st December 2009

The new drawing inspired by comments in the visitor's book during our spring exhibition of Exmouth artist Moose Allain is now on display (an excerpt is shown here).

Over 330 of you recorded your favourite words and pet names, from Albert to Ziggy and Aardvark to Zanzibar.  The resulting drawing takes the form of a grid made up of 338 cells, each containing a cartoonish character suggested by the entries.  The work is typical of Moose's style and technique, but also utterly unique in that each cell represents the fruit of his imagination in response to the words of a member of the public.   The characters themselves are weird, wonderful, funny and entirely compelling.
 
Moose says "I have been touched by many of the entries, both seemingly trivial or poignantly personal and heart-felt. They reveal a love of language and the sounds it makes. They offer a glimpse of the playfulness and affection in the way we name those we love, be they animal or human. They reflect the language of our times and the diverse, global population that passed through this quiet corner of Devon - a snapshot of Who We Are And What We Think" (the title of the new work).
 
He continues "I have learnt new words (Sesquipedalian: given to using long words; Tradescantia: Spiderwort). There are some lovely neologisms (Exstrawberry: "extraordinary as said by a 3 year old!"; Enostrillating "a mixture of nausea and nostrils, as in ‘he was completely enostrillating'"; Fanonkeydonk: "mother's word for boyfriend or girlfriend"). I have been baffled by others (Remster Pom, SEGFOB) or maybe I've simply been discombobulated (occurs 3 times) by some of the handwriting."  He adds "I hope they are not offensive!"

Some of the shortest words depicted are Hi and Pi, whilst the longest words include Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious (34) Floccipaucinihilipilification (29) Antidisestablishmentarianism (28).  The most common word, Love, appears 6 times in various combinations, Serendipity appears 5 times and Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious makes 4 appearances.  The most common pet names recorded are Boo, Pickle, Pig, Tilly and Tom which all appear 5 times in various forms, and Fudge, which makes 4 appearances.

Amazingly, visitors to the Mill gallery in our off-the-beaten track location in East Devon came from all over the world.  All parts of the UK were represented from Devon and Cornwall (not surprisingly!) to Isle Of Wight, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset, Bristol, East and West Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Gwent, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Middlesex, London, Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, West Midlands, Birmingham, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Manchester & other parts of Lancashire, Sheffield and other parts of Yorkshire, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews.  Overseas visitors came from Paris and Berlin, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Italy, also Nova Scotia, California, Bahamas, Melbourne & Brisbane in Australia and Hong Kong.
 
As a gallery, we are absolutely delighted by the success of this exciting project, which evolved from a discussion with Moose before his spring exhibition.  We both wanted to give visitors a fun and interactive experience.  Moose suggested the idea of inviting people to contribute to a visitors' book and was particularly interested to see where that would take him in his creative process.  From our side, we were keen to guage people's reactions to the exhibition and gallery space and allow you to write down your private thoughts.  It was very apparent that you loved this opportunity and really enjoyed thinking about what to write down.  It appealed to children and adults alike, both individuals and whole families.

Moose's new original drawing is now on display here.  The work is also available in poster format.  A further unique element to the project is that £5 from each sale will be assigned directly to the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of our ancient working watermill.  

This project marks an ongoing close collaboration with Moose, and we're very grateful for his agreement that a portion of each sale of this new work will go directly towards the mill's upkeep.

To purchase the work: 

The original drawing can be purchased from the gallery for £1,200, while the posters are available for £35.  If you are not able to visit the gallery in person, please call us on 01395 568008 to make a purchase over the phone.  We are happy to arrange for the work to be sent to you (postage + packing extra).  You can also email us with any enquiries via our contact page.