OLD AGE

Old Age

Old Age

Richard Blandford



Old age lies on all our horizons. A whole life can be filled with the ways we’ve devised not to think about it, properly. The first step - a pension plan can worry on your behalf, as long as the payments are maintained. Now, look after the body well, the skin, the joints, the teeth and the rest. Disguise all signs of decay, so as to avoid offence. Remember, family is insurance. Covers, with certain conditions, loneliness, pointlessness, and hopelessness. At the very least, take care to breed, and grow your own future carers. All of these have been proven to work well, and can decrease the terror that old age can generate by up to 65%.

Except the questions keep on coming. What pile shall be larger, the golden memories or regrets? Shall the missed opportunities of today loom larger in my mind, when there are no more chances left? And will I still feel joy when I know death is so near?

Death, the elephant in the room. So, who will go first, my love or I? Will they be able to carry on, when I’m gone? And what about love itself, does that change when the body starts to fail, and beauty is a memory transposed onto an aged face?

Perhaps it’s all easier than we think. If its true that with age comes wisdom, then the fears shall fade, leaving acceptance of what was and what is. Resigned. Contented? It’s a possibility.
Old age lies on all our horizons. Some day, it will be high overhead.

Castle Road
City of Portsmouth
First Prize
Best Dressed Street (1977)

The Third Corner

Goodbye

You’re saying Goodbye and a hundred things,

your voice is regular as rain.

And you’ll still be talking when I’ve gone,

with no apparent change.

By Chris Martin

Gristle Mountain/GM Gallery Project

What is Gristle Mountain? Or more importantly, where is it? Why would you want to go there? And what would happen to you if you did? All these questions have answers, and some of those answers are here.

Gristle Mountain is a GOOD THING, and inside it are other good things. Many of the good things are what you could call works of art. Often the good things are people, the people who make the good things that are up on the wall or down on the floor, and of course the people who look at them.

Gristle Mountain moves. It’s in a shed right now, but it could be in a shop tomorrow, or on a boat. In a field. Down the pub. At the back of a garage, behind the paint tins. Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. It’s really only planning to hang about in Gosport for the time being. Lovely place. Down on the South coast of England, right by the sea. I’ll send you a map if you like.

Gristle Mountain’s got plans. It has every intention of filling itself with the work of five young painters, all working to the theme that it’s set. OLD AGE. What they come up with is up to them, so who knows what the end result will be, or what it will do to you once you’re there.

But finding out is easy. Just step inside Gristle Mountain. It’s waiting for you.

Gristle Mountain
Currently at (insert address here)


Text Richard Blandford

OLD AGE will be the first show at Gristle Mountain

A Slug outside the Gallery on the floor

Gallery Door