This Side of the Pond

If you have been avoiding the idea of a vacation to my hometown because you feared it would be too much of a culture shock, I have great news. A local artist has decided it’s time we become more like our American cousins – the ones from Santa Monica, to be specific.

I’ve spoken of Stuart Semple before, as he is very much one of my heroes. A couple of years ago, Semple found himself irritated by the actions of fellow artist Anish Kapoor when he licensed for his own exclusive use the darkest shade of black mankind had ever been able to make.

Semple retaliated by making the pinkest possible shade of pink and adding a disclaimer to its product page. In order to buy it, you had to first confirm that you are, in fact, anyone else in the world except Anish Kapoor.

He’s been making new pigments ever since, a couple of which now reside in my own home (and are just as good as promised.) It was a wonderful reminder that art is meant for all of us, but my hometown hero was not finished.

Last weekend, he unveiled his latest contribution to the concept of art being a communal experience that should be accessible to everyone. This time, it’s an entire gallery of work that Bournemouth residents may not otherwise have had the opportunity to see.

In the UK, just as over here, department stores have had a difficult time since the advent of the internet. One particular chain went out of business a few years ago, leaving an enormous but derelict building in the middle of Bournemouth’s shopping district.

Semple sensed an opportunity. Describing the place I once called home as a “cultural desert” and saying we’ve all been resting on our laurels expecting visitors to come see us just for our eight-mile stretch of beautiful beaches, he told the Guardian newspaper that he has big ideas for its future.

“This is not the place people imagine. It is not about retirement and beach holidays. We’ve done a terrible service to articulating what is appealing about Bournemouth, as with many other places in Britain,” he said.

“Is it just laziness? Because I see it as more like Santa Monica, with that stretch of beach and people from all over the world.”

And so he put in a bid to build an art gallery in a section of that defunct department store. It’s called GIANT, it’s 15,000 square feet in size, it’s filled with work by both internationally established and new artists and it officially opened last weekend.

If you think about your own experiences here in the northeast of Wyoming, I think you’ll quickly agree this is a positive step for Bournemouth. It’s a privilege we enjoy here every day, to the point that it’s actually possible to take art for granted.

I’ve always been impressed by the abundance of artists in Crook County and its surrounds – we surely must have more creative minds per capita than most other parts of the world. I noticed pretty quickly after moving to these parts that you can barely move five feet without tripping over the latest visual masterpiece.

In Crook County, you can see the work of local creators all over the place, from the walls of our restaurants to local gallery spaces to regular craft events to the governor’s own art show, even the corridors of our hospital, and we’re incredibly lucky for that opportunity. Semple, I think, would agree with me, as he believes that exposure to art is a fundamental part of a person’s growth.

He didn’t think enough of it was available in the place where he grew up. Even so, he was worried when the doors of GIANT opened for its inaugural exhibition that nobody would turn up to witness his hard work. He needn’t have been – the lines seemed impressive.

Semple is understandably thrilled by the reaction from Bournemouth’s community and is planning new exhibitions every six weeks, all of them free to the public. The first is called “Big Medicine” and speaks to the point of the gallery’s existence: it explores the idea that experiencing art can have a positive effect and “heal cultural wounds through shared exerience.”

In that same Guardian article I mentioned earlier, Semple said he was having trouble getting any interest from the local newspaper of my hometown, the Bournemouth Echo. I’m happy to report that he’s managed to attract their attention since it was published.

Though he may never know it, he’s also increased the admiration that has long been directed his way from a Bournemouth journalist on the other side of the world. It’ll be a while yet before I can go visit GIANT for myself, but I’ll take with me the good vibes of a community that has long known the benefits of art that can be enjoyed by all.