FAMAG 2009.12
A contemporary flat steel butt-cornered frame decorated with ten steel nuts and bolts holding a square mesh grill, behind which are inset three vertical tubular steel bars, to resemble one of Newquay Zoo?s secure cages.
About this work
view without frame
Brennan, Nick (born 1961): Newquay Zoo, signed, watercolour and ink, 22 x 23 cms. Commissioned with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Darwin 200 celebrations.
More information about the frame
This frame was designed especially for Falmouth Art Gallery by Nick Brennan. He commissioned his friend, Colin Trannah, to construct the frame. Colin is an ex-engineer who trained at the British Shipbuilding College. The watercolour was assembled with its frame and museum glass by Sully?s Framing, Penryn.
This design is in the tradition of mediaeval and Renaissance altarpiece frames in the shape of great Gothic cathedrals or Classical temples, which employ a significant shape to gloss, highlight or give added meaning to the paintings they house. Here, the use of bars and grill give a clever twist so that the viewer appears to be an animal in the cage looking out at the strange assortment of humans peering back. A trip to Newquay Zoo revealed that just wire mesh, not bars, is used on the enclosures there, so Nick was using a little bit of artistic licence for the sake of the frame; however, the addition of the bars indicates what very dangerous animals the spectator is guarded from.