SUSAN FRANCIS
Perpetual Bendhu is an evolving installation inspired by the imagined interior of the unique house of Bendhu, built by artist Newton Penprase on the cragged Northern Irish Antrim coastline. Nicknamed ‘the Battleship’ by locals and started in 1936, the house had no architectural plan or overall design. Instead Penprase added to it as the mood took him, using his bucket of cement to create rooms and windows, platforms and vistas to the sea beyond. Every now and then Penprase would divert his attention from his building to create artworks and details around the site, all sharing a strange, sacred, and mythical theme.
The name ‘Bendhu’ seems to refer to the rocky headland nearby of Bendoo, but perhaps Penprase was enjoying a play on words for by changing one letter to Bandhu, it becomes the Sanskrit term for ‘friend’ or ‘connections’, particularly the ties between the inner and outer world.
Taking different formations this modular installation responds to each new site, unfixed and incomplete, in honour of his memory.
