New exhibition by artist in residence explores Denmans Garden

SussexWorld

For the past eighteen months Bognor Regis artist Oscar Romp has been Denmans Garden’s artist in residence.

Transcript

00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:05Lovely this morning to speak to Oscar Romp.

00:07Now, Oscar, you've got a fabulous exhibition,

00:10which is the culmination of your residency at Denman's.

00:13And it opens August 7th. It's going to run until Christmas.

00:17And it's you looking back on the 18 months you spent at Denman's.

00:21And it sounds like Denman's has become a really important place for you

00:25for so many different reasons.

00:27It absolutely has.

00:28It's primarily an escape from the realities of everyday life.

00:35When one is painting or drawing, there's no room in your brain to fit in anything else.

00:42So whatever you've been struggling with in so-called real life has to be left behind

00:49because you require all of your intelligence and inventiveness and creativity

00:56and energy to resolve the problems that you have set yourself in that particular drawing and painting.

01:05So it calls for huge concentration, but I guess it's healing and soothing too, isn't it?

01:10To a point, yeah. Although, yeah, you have to be a bit careful with that.

01:15Painting is not a holiday.

01:18I wasn't suggesting it was.

01:20It's like everything else. It's a struggle.

01:23And there are good bits and bad bits.

01:25There are uphill struggles.

01:26And then you get into a flow and a momentum.

01:30And it's like coasting down a hill on your bike without having to...

01:34Fantastic.

01:35So you're coming up for the show, which is the culmination of your work at Denman's.

01:39When you look at the work you've done, you must feel a certain pride.

01:43So what does that work say about Denman's, do you think?

01:46What are you conveying?

01:46So the work focuses on the will and desire of people to interact with nature

01:58and to kind of impose design ideas and philosophies on nature,

02:04but also not in a repressive way, but in a playful way

02:08and kind of exploiting the things that nature does anyway.

02:14So it's a kind of compromise between the sort of chaos and infinity

02:20of growth and nature and the sort of design and making instincts of people.

02:27It seems to be very, very primeval.

02:31I've observed going through life that, you know,

02:33people have no interest in gardens or parks

02:35and then they find themselves in control of a little piece of land.

02:39And all of a sudden they sort of spring, they become a gardener

02:44and they get interested and they, it's like this,

02:47they're connecting with something that's quite primeval, I think.

02:53And so, yeah, it's this thing of what, what a garden,

02:57apart from enjoying the environment and responding to it

03:00and trying to make images about it,

03:02it's also a sort of discussion of what is this gardening thing all about?

03:10I mean, it relates to ecology and conservation,

03:14but it's not the same thing.

03:17They share some goals, but actually the motivation is different.

03:22It's more instinctive, I think, with gardening.

03:25Fantastic.

03:25Well, it sounds, it sounds a fascinating exhibition.

03:28Congratulations on the residency.

03:30I have to add.

03:31And on the exhibition.

03:32I'm not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination.

03:36So it's something that I observe and I enjoy.

03:41It's like, it's like they're doing all the work

03:45and I'm appreciating and philosophising about it.

03:50It's like, you know.

03:52Your appreciation and your philosophising will continue in the exhibition

03:57until Christmas at the very least.

03:59Oscar, really good to speak to you.

04:02Thanks a lot.

04:03Thank you, Phil.

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