Exhibition Blurb

Artist-in-Residence
Spencer House
Berkhamsted School
Castle Street
Berkhamsted
HP4 2BB

Exhibition 25, 28-30 June, 1 July 2010
10am until 2pm














Berkhamsted School is pleased to present an exhibition by Pamela McMenamin. The artist has created a series of new work in response to her residency at the school.


Challenging our perception and questioning reality, Pamela’s work is a contemporary response to the traditions and histories of the school.


A new series of paintings populate the panelled corridor leading from the quadrangle to the former study of Charles Greene, Graham Greene’s father who was headmaster of the school 1911 to 1927. These paintings take on the forms from the buildings around the school. Although pared-down, for those familiar with the buildings the images are recognisable, for those unfamiliar the images may conjure up something completely different. Regardless, the images can be read in a multiple of ways. Too often we see things and assume it must be true. Particularly in our image-saturated, fast-moving-multimedia, information-overloaded world. However, what you see is not always what you get.


In the former study of Charles Greene, six plinths dominate. On each plinth stands a stereoscope. Stereoscopes enjoyed a height of popularity around the time that Charles was headmaster and when Graham Greene attended and lived at the school. The stereoscope’s purpose here is to deconstruct the depth illusion our own vision creates. The images are ste­reoscopic pairs of photographs (photographs taken 6.5cm apart along the horizontal plane) from around the school.


Next door in the old hall, portraits of past headmasters and principals adorn the walls. The green baize door separates the spaces. Graham Greene was known to have struggled with the tensions between home and school life on the other side of ‘the green baize door’ and made reference to the door literally and metaphorically in his writing. In the former study hangs a portrait of the current principal, Mr Mark Steed, referencing the separation of past and present. In contrast to the old oil paintings which hang beyond ‘the door’ the portrait by Pamela has used time-lapse digital photography rather than video. The artificial speed of the movement captures the viewer’s attention and draws them in for a more intimate dialogue.

Pamela McMenamin was born in 1970 in Glasgow, Scotland and now lives and works in Berkhamsted. She has participated in a num­ber of group exhibitions locally and in London. Following a successful business career in the media industry, Pamela embarked upon a career in art, returned to uni­versity and graduated with a first class BA honours degree in Fine Art Practice, in 2009.

The exhibition is open 10am to 2pm (exclud­ing Saturday and Sun­day). For further infor­mation, please contact +44 (0)7789 115 748.

www.pamelamcmenamin.co.uk