St Ives from the Cemetery 1975

Curator: Bryan Pearce's "St Ives from the Cemetery" really grabs you, doesn’t it? The wonky perspective makes it feel like a memory, not just a view. Editor: It's certainly evocative. The flattened perspective and simplified forms, characteristic of naive art, give it a child-like quality, though the subject matter, a cemetery overlooking St Ives, introduces a somber note. Curator: Exactly! It’s that tension that gets me. The vibrant scene almost painted with a kid's enthusiasm, but then death stares you right in the face. Editor: It’s a powerful juxtaposition, death and life, stillness and movement. Pearce, who had learning difficulties, seems to be giving us a very particular, perhaps unfiltered, lens through which to view the town. Curator: I agree. It's like he's showing us St Ives as a place to be mourned and celebrated, a place of both endings and beginnings. Editor: Perhaps Pearce is offering a subtle commentary on the commodification of life versus the inevitability of death. It's a beautiful and unsettling piece. Curator: Beautiful, unsettling... yeah, that pretty much nails it.