Barnflakes’ Top 23 of 2023
Unfamiliar Territory: my infrared photos on display at Falmouth Art Gallery – six in the middle on the wall, and the grid of 24 in the glass case.
Essentially, a year that consists of family, friends, travel, nature, music, art, film, photography, books and meeting interesting people is a good year, and such was this year.
1. Unfamiliar Territory exhibition { Infrared / Photography }
Even though this took place at the start of the year (though it lasted for four months), I had a feeling it would still make number one in my end of year chart; it was a fantastic experience to have my infrared photos displayed next to such famous Cornish artists as Kurt Jackson, John Tunnard, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter. Previous posts about it here, here and here.
2. WOMAD Festival { Music }
Four days camping, seeing over 30 bands hailing from Bristol to Nigeria. Highlights include Jungle Brothers, Theon Cross, Orchestral Qawwali Project ft Rushil Ranjan and Abi Sampa (perhaps my favourite), Snapped Ankles, The Comet is Coming, Ukulele Death Squad, Dakh Daughters, Nakhane, Ganstagrass, Kuunatic, MadMadMad, Mokoomba, Montparnasse Music, Susana Baca and Glenn Tilbrook. We came across Tilbrook, lead singer and guitarist in the band Squeeze, in the spoken word tent talking about songwriting; he had his guitar and also performed several of my favourite songs ever – Tempted and Up the Junction.
The best thing was stumbling across a tent containing an amazing band you’d never heard of. In truth, some of the so-called headline acts – The Cinematic Orchestra, Bombay Bicycle Club – were a bit of a damp squib. Nevertheless, overall an amazing experience. We also did laughter yoga!
Walking the Cornish Celtic Way
3. Walking the Cornish Celtic Way { Travel / Pilgrimage }
We walked over 160 miles, largely along the coast of Cornwall, in 11 days, sleeping in village halls and churches along the way. The weather was glorious, spring was in the air and the hedgerows were exploding with life.
Previously on Barnflakes
The ‘golf ball’ radar at RRH Portreath
The other holy well near Holywell, Cornwall
The flooded oratory of St. Piran’s
4. Ireland { Travel }
A quick tour of Ireland from Cork to the Giant’s Causeway.
Previously on Barnflakes
James Turrell’s Irish Sky Garden
Non-political Belfast murals
Belfast political murals
Irish post boxes
Untitled (FIX UR CRACK)
Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
Wester Ross, Scotland
5. Scotland { Travel }
We went straight from the WOMAD festival with 38,000 people, to a remote cottage in Wester Ross in the Highlands, with no people and 38 sheep (approx.). A tranquil spot surrounded by mountains and lochs with the family; my brother as guide and lichen expert.
6. Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions 1996-1997, 5CD Box Set { Barngains / Bob Dylan }
In rip-off Britain, the 2CD version of this came out for £25. Yes, for two CDs. I held out, not quite being able to part with my hard-earned cash. The waiting paid off; I saw Amazon US selling the 5CD deluxe edition for $27 and snapped it up* – even after tax and shipping it only came to £40 (whilst Amazon UK and HMV were selling it for way over £100).
Even though this was a Barngain, £40 for 5 CDs still isn’t that cheap. Especially when disc one is essentially a remix of a pre-existing album and disc five was previously available on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs.
Dylan’s Bootleg Series has become a bit like the Star Wars franchise – the more there are, the more convoluted the story gets, and the more repetitions, overlaps and alterations are needed to reshape the story into some coherent whole.
*For the record, I dislike Amazon and buy only one or two items per year from the website that has two whole car park of Prime vans a stone’s throw away from where I live.
7. Nos Lowen at the Cornish Bank { Music }
The Cornish Bank is our favourite new venue for gigs – they do lovely food and cheap beer too. Nos Lowen is like a ‘Cornish congo’ (as the Guardian referred to it in an article about the evening) with hundreds of strangers linking arms and dancing around the dancefloor in what is actually called the serpent dance. Great fun, despite record levels of Covid afterwards. It was worth it.
8. Home is Not a Place – Johnny Pitts, Roger Robinson and Angeline Morrison at the Writer’s Block { Literature / Photography / Music }
A bit of a surprise event this – I knew we were seeing a talk with a writer and photographer, discussing their new book of photos and poems, Home is Not a Place, which explores black Britain in out of the way, non-urban coastal areas, including Cornwall. I didn’t realise we were also seeing Angeline Morrison, a black folk singer living in Cornwall, who performed some stunning folk songs from her album The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience.
Peter Doig at The Courtauld
9. The Morgan Stanley Exhibition: Peter Doig { Art }
I’ve loved Doig’s paintings for years. See amusing anecdote here.
10. Three Cornish films { Film }
It was great to see three engaging Cornish films at the cinema, two with Q&As afterwards with the directors: Enys Men (★★★★), Mark Jenkin’s intriguing sophomore effort after Bait, a folk horror of sorts set on a desolate fictional Cornish island. A Year in a Field (★★★★★) charts the seasons in the life of an ancient Cornish standing stone in minute detail. Long Way Back (★★) (my least favourite, it felt like a student film road movie not going anywhere, a mix of The Sixth Sense and Aftersun) shown at the Hall for Cornwall, featured a live score.
11. Bob Dylan – Shadow Kingdom CD { Bob Dylan }
I know! More Dylan! And I say this almost every year – I honestly do listen to other music all the time (vinyl, CD, radio, Spotify, live) and not just his Bobness.
Also good this year was: Heaven is a Junkyard – Youth Lagoon; Anohni and the Johnsons – My Back was a Bridge for you to Cross; Lankum – False Lankum; Paul Simon – Seven Psalms; Blake Mills – Jelly Road; Partrick Wolf – The Night Safari; Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily – Love In Exile; Blur – the Ballad of Darren; John Cale – Mercy; Bonnie Prince Billy – Keeping Secrets will Destroy you; Belle and Sebastian – Late Developers; Sufjan Stevens – Javelin; PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying. I know #2: most of these musicians I’ve been listening to for years.
Carn Brea castle
12. Valentine’s Day dinner at Carn Brea castle restaurant { Food }
I’ve been wanting to go here, a gothic castle on top of Carn Brea hill, for years.
Patrick Lowry’s Metro: Red River Line at the FLAMM Contemporary Arts Festival, an installation imagining a metro line in Redruth using the old mining tunnels.
13. FLAMM Contemporary Arts Festival, Redruth { Art }
If not quite the Venice Biennale, it was a fantastic day of art all over the town, exploring back streets and courtyards we never knew existed, culminating in an ‘art rave’ in a church.
Most exciting, though, was a pop-up shop where I bought a Simon Bayliss sperm jug (you’ll have to Google it; it’s not as bad as it sounds). I’ve been admiring his pottery for a while, ever since seeing his wonderful Mermen of Zennor teapot in the Tate in St. Ives. I never thought I’d actually own a piece of his, so I was happy to get a jug for less than I thought I’d have to pay.
14. Carpets of pink magnolia petals covering the ground at Lanhydrock { Capricious Cornwall }
15. Laundry, Eden, Oppenheim, Beard and Penguins
{ Art / Music / Photography / Capricious Cornwall }
A somewhat unexpected day this which started with doing the laundry. We then visited the wonderful Open Studios at Krowji. We got chatting to – rather, she got chatting to us – Marella Oppenheim, actress, photographer, founder of The Red Light Collective and once the lover of Peter Beard, legendary adventurer and photographer, described as ‘half Tarzan, half Byron’ (I mention him in my post on Max Pam). Marella has produced an amazing photography book, Under Dark Roots, ‘a photographic investigation into the disappeared linked to the German enclave known as Colonia Dignidad, and into the activities of the German colony during the Pinochet regime and beyond’.
We had to rush to Christmas at the Eden Project (along the way being swamped by Santas on a Bike – the mass charity bike ride from Plymouth to St. Austell) where I got told off for breaking a sculpture in an art exhibition – just a small bit off one, no big deal but I was made to feel like a naughty child. Anyway, the teller offer was actually very nice, and showed us around the other artworks, obviously to keep an eye on me, and eventually gave us a cup of artemisia annua herbal tea, used in Africa as a therapy for malaria but suppressed by pharmaceutical companies who can’t make any money from a plant that grows in people’s gardens.
Finally, a surprise for me in Bodmin – I had no idea what (no, not the jail). It turned out the Penguin Cafe (the Orchestra formation of the group disbanded when the lead singer died in 1987; the new band formed in 2009 with the lead singer’s son, Arthur Jeffes) were playing a gig in a church. We met a friend there and the band were brilliant.
P-P-Pick up a penguin head (photo by Helen Tanner)
16. Live at Scorrier House { Music }
One day music festival. I hung out with people who were there for Leftfield and 808State – neither of which I ever cared for. I was there for Hot Chip, who were great.
17. Nighthawks { Music }
We watched an amazing swing band on a rainy night in a church in Gwennap (yes, of Pit fame), mainly performing jazz standards from the 1950s with a healthy dose of Sinatra, but not afraid to play a bit of Madonna and Bette Midler too.
18. Other films { Film }
At the start of the year I always promise myself I’ll go to the cinema once a week. A year goes by and I’ve probably only seen a dozen or so. Still, this year I enjoyed Tár (★★★★★), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (★★★★), EO (★★★★), Saint Omer (★★★★), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (★★★), Killers of the Flower Moon (★★★★★), Dream Scenerio (★★★), The Boy and the Heron (★★★★) and The Creator (★★★★★) (a sort of Vietnamese Blade Runner meets Star Wars meets District 9). I have finally renewed my Movie Magic card, so I’m determined to go more next year, promise.
19. Kestle Barton and Frenchman’s Creek { Capricious Cornwall / Photography }
A lovely exhibition of Fay Godwin’s photos at the distinctly out-of-the-way Kestle Barton gallery, followed by a walk through the temperate rainforest of Frenchman’s Creek.
20. Water and Stone at CAST { Capricious Cornwall }
A weekend of talks, walks and demonstrations to celebrate… Cornish granite. I kid you not.
Advertising a Grayson Perry exhibition, Cornish style.
21. Grayson Perry in Cornwall { Art }
Not only did we see a massive tapestry of his at the Helson Museum (advert above) but also a sell-out talk in the Hall for Cornwall, A Show All About You (Whilst Actually Making It All About Him), where the audience voted with their phones to reveal their true selves.
22. A week in Cornwall with mum, daughter and H { Capricious Cornwall }
An action-packed week which included chatting to artists in their studios in St. Ives, climbing Godolphin Hill and dancing until 11pm at the Lowendar Perian Festival in Redruth. Rock ‘n’ roll!
23. Finally printing Alton Estate of Mind { Barndoor Books }
I’ve been working on this on and off for, er, probably 20 years. I’ve redesigned it at least three times, twice in the last few months. I’m pretty happy with it now.
Birthday bonus { Capricious Cornwall }
On Saturday evening a dinner party with fun and games; on Sunday a wet and wild Cornish walk, starting at the Merry Maidens Stone Circle then walking through the artist colony of Lamorna, set in a lush valley, and into Lamorna Cove and along the rocky coastal path where, due to severe rain, the paths had mostly turned into streams. Bracing stuff.
Previously on Barnflakes
Barnflakes’ top 22 of 2022
Barnflakes’ top 20 of 2020
Top 30 of the year (2019)
Barnflakes’ top 20 of the year (2018)