Trout Memo - work inspired by James Bond author now on display at Arts Centre Washington

The writer had a habit of scribbling ideas and thoughts onto scrap paper, then hiding them in a book on fly fishing. He called it his Trout Memo.

Now Washington artist Peter McAdam has used the name for the exhibition of his work. Technology is central. For one section called Trip Pop Peter used an app he has developed called iCoda.

The app uses music to randomly generate images onto a screen which Peter then layers into compositions, adding a Liquify brush to create swirls, creating colourful psychedelic images.

Peter, also known as McDada, has an MA in fine art from the University of Sunderland. He has exhibited, curated and produced numerous artwork, events and exhibitions across the north east and further afield.

In 2020, during lockdown, he curated 15 artists to display work in 86 bus shelters in County Durham. Some of these posters feature in the Trout Memo exhibition.

There are six different sections to his latest exhibition, including one called Lockdown Blues.

Peter said: “During lockdown we were living in a Twilight Zone and I wanted to reflect the other worldliness of the time. I took pictures of local places such as cemeteries and Photoshopped in a cartoon character I’m calling MM – he might look familiar.”

“The work is inspired by experimental film makers from the 1960s.”

The Henryville section is of one-panel cartoons. Epitaph is another section of the exhibition. This artwork is inspired by Peter’s friends and family and features images of his younger self as well as family members.

Peter added: “Trout Memo is a multi-media exhibition consisting of extracts from dream journals, flash fiction, poetry, cartoons, small sculptures, photography and collage.

“The exhibition explores inner and outer worlds, using childhood memories, humour, bathos and digital mash-up software to create a wall-to-wall zine.”

Artwork in the Trout Memo exhibition at ACW is in Peter’s new 234-page full-colour anthology Trout Memo Volume 2 now available on Amazon. The exhibition is in ACW’s main gallery until Friday, November 4.