Falmouth Art Gallery: Magic of Movement: Automata and the Memory Cafe

This exhibition finished on the 9th May 2026

Falmouth Art Gallery commissioned a number of automata by local artists.  The town has a history of automata makers and one lecturer at Falmouth College of Arts had persuaded many artists to explore them int heir practice.  The smaller automata then toured the county visiting different memory cafes.  These are social groups run to help those with dementia and other memory affecting conditions as well as their caregivers.  The aim is to give emotional support and a sense of community while reducing social isolation.  The automata gave people something to interact with and talk about, as well as being something enjoyable in their own right.

The first room contained a number of larger automata which had been too large to go on tour while the second room displayed the smaller automata along with photographs of the automata being used at the Memory Cafes.

The inventiveness of the automata makers was impressive.  There is something fascinating and beguiling about an automata.  They were full of quirky and whimsical details and they embody such a sense of fun.  I wanted to take videos of all of them in motion but this was not easy as you often needed to keep holding a button or keep turning a handle.  Even the simplest of automata is fascinating.  There is just something about adding movement and having to interact with it, that really pulls you in to the pieces.

The first piece I looked at was the Cornish Cultural Triangle by Keith Newstead.  It celebrated the three most well known artists colonies in Cornwall, Falmouth, St Ives and Newlyn and highlighted a female abstract artist from each (Grace Gardner, Dame Barbara Hepworth and Dame Laura Knight).  A boat with a man decked in yellow waterproofs and a seal moves amongst waves at the front with a collection of quirky buildings behind.  Each building houses an artist and lights up at the appropriate time as the man in the boat narrates the cultural tour and talks about the artists.  Each artist moves as well while lit up.  It is a charming piece.

Many of the automata in the first room were connected to art in some way.  I learnt that the artists Charles Napier Hemy liked to paint Mackerel and a quirky automata by Paul Spooner explored the idea that he could have kept a tank of them to paint.  The automata gave us a glimpse of a swirling mass of mackerel in a tank kept beneath a carpet in the artists home.  This lovely touch of whimsy was delightful.

I learnt that John Singer Sargent came to Falmouth and painted his friend Charles Napier Hemy.  Apparently he threw a mass of paint around the canvas, without drawing first and muttered in many languages and seemed generally unhappy with it all.  After three days, Hemy told him to knuckle down and throw his cigarette away, which he did for half an hour.  Then he lit another cigarette, painted in some highlights and clothing and declared it down.  You might assume this would not lend itself to producing a great painting.  This would not be true, as it was sat next to the automata and was absolutely beautifully produced.    It looks precise and detailed, but then you look and see the pocket handkerchief is a single swirl of white paint.  Its hard to believe that such a painting could be finished in three days.  Keith Newstead's automata depicts the scene as Sargent paints a little and the painting goes from rough and unfinished, to finished in a second.

Other pieces were less educational but just as fascinating.  Paul Spooner's cute little teethy creatures on Who's Who on the Tree of Life.  Carlos Zapata's depiction of Dolly Pentreath and the Cornish Language with lots of lovely handles to turn.  A beautiful castle with opening doors.  An old fashioned wheeled beach hut turned artists studio, complete with a seagull and moving bucket of fish....  Just so much to delight anyone who saw them.

The next room of smaller automata was no less lovely.  Peter Markey's View from Tuke's Cottage showed a boat with a fisherman rowing through turbulent waves accompanied by a whale, a seagull and a mermaid with a rainbow arching over.  Carlos Zapata's Hemy's Chair looks simple with just an artists chair with a cup of tea on it, but the tea cup contains a boat in a storm swirling around.  Patrick Bond's Ships Passing repurposed a lovely old handle to turn ships on two different rings so they passed each other.  And there were more...  lab birds and seagulls with fish, a mum skating with a trolley and her baby, a man playing as a woman dances.....

There were a couple of automata that had been removed or marked as out of order.  I imagine it is very hard to repair such potentially delicate machines while they are being exhibited and that the wear of so much use can be difficult to manage.  I think this is something that is common if you go towards the end of an exhibition.  In the second room, there was a recording playing, which I enjoyed, but found distracting when I was trying to read.  I really do need to take some ear plugs with me to exhibitions.  The last thing is difficult, when there are not many people present in a gallery, the attention of the attendant can end up feeling a little weighty and un-nerving.  This is less a reflection on the attendant and more a reflection on me!

This was my first exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery and I look forward to future ones on the basis of this lovely visit!