In a Quiet Space

Exhibition of pen and ink drawings by Jane Hughes
Unity Theatre
4th March - 29th March 2014

Reviewed by Joe Coventry

What strikes home most about this spidery collection of black ink on white background drawings is the mundane nature of the subject matter. Quirkily captured is a record of a part of community life that is disappearing fast in these sorry cash-strapped and technologically obsessed days.

Here the artist has caught, in almost comic book manner, the interiors and individuals using some of the public libraries in Liverpool, including Edge Hill and Woolton, which have already been closed down.

The local library, traditionally a place to relax, borrow from or reference literature and knowledge is seriously under threat. Hughes captures these pursuits in simplistic fashion: Brian Doing the Crossword, (Old Swan); Computers and Chinese Lanterns, (Toxteth); Between Adventure and Crime, (Garston); Pram and Mother, (Netherley); Luna Corona - Nerve Event (Wavertree).

Spaced out on various bits of wall space across floors one and two, the viewer is engagingly drawn into the grainy images that capture cultural life in a warm and safe environment that people will miss once it has gone.

Hughes also has a small selection of her work on show in the Turiec Gallery in Martin, Slovakia until May. Quite what they will make of that exhibition and the reasoning behind capturing routine, humdrum people, events and locations in one of the richest countries in the world, before they disappear forever, is anyone's guess.

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