|
18th
October -
30th November 2006
"Meet
me at Sunset"
Event
organised by Gallery4allarts for the Liverpool Independents Biennial
2008
@ Gallery4allarts,
Ullet Grange,
36 Ullet Road, Liverpool, L 17 3BP
"If
you wait long enough something might happen" Belfast Exposed
Photography; "Wanderer" by Oana Camilleri Urcan; "Untitled" by
Marina Moreno
Featuring artwork from Romanian
artists based in UK (London), artists based in Liverpool and Bristol,
and International artists from Italy and Ireland, Canada.
Read
PRESS RELEASE below.
“Meet
me at Sunset”
Press release
Event organised by Gallery4allarts for the Liverpool Independents
Biennial 2008
@ Gallery4allarts, Ullet Grange, 36 Ullet Road, Liverpool, L 17 3BP
Featuring, artwork from Romanian artists based in UK (London), artists
based in Liverpool and Bristol, and International artists from Italy
and Ireland, Japan, Canada.
Exhibition dates: 18th October - 30th November 2006
Private View: 18th October 2008, 5pm-9pm
Live
art performance day: Saturday 1st November 4.30pm – 7pm
Artist’s
talks: dates and details to be confirmed.
Closing event: 30th November 2008, 4pm-8pm
“Meet me at Sunset”
Curator and organiser:
Nicole Bartos, Gallery4allarts
*
Motto:
“ I believe that, most people have watched sunsets and at least once in
their lives they have been overwhelmed by one. If you are between those
who missed out, think about the next one.”
To offer a glimpse
of the work to be seen at the Ullet Grange, as part of this project
and exhibition, I could mention just a few works and statements.
From Birgit Deubner’s 3D installation, “Journey
through the Forest with Virgil”, symbolising the “unstable,
un-secured journey, the higher one reaches on it, the more risky, the
more treacherous
the fall, a journey, also, that at it's end may lead to nothing… or
to the heavens…”, the show presents the audience with a
variety of art forms that surprise and delight one’s eye and
spirit, such as Roxana Tohaneanu-Shields’s “Liquefied
Light” and “Black
Madonna”, exquisite traditional photography giclee prints; Sue
Ironfield’s octagonal acrylic paintings on wood, relating to “a
new form the tradition of painting which emulates music, with its expressive
numerical language, in order to reach a meaningful abstraction.”,
but also to ‘light’ and ‘dark’; Lynn
Jackson’s
3D installation knitted from metal wire and ‘rooting’ into
the artist’s childhood memories and emotional world: ”My
work compels others to recall their own childhood sadness, loss, happiness
and frailty. These sculptures act as delicate sketches inviting the
viewer to respond. It attempts through its fragility to be vulnerable
to the viewer accepting a variety of childhood backgrounds and experiences
into the work.”; Christine Oreilly Wilson’s
abstract canvases with the intensity of vibrant colours that “flood
the blank canvas “and
where the “physical interaction with the paint on canvas is a
vital method of communicating” ideas and where “The whole
process is an attempt to relate the human condition by means of the
pure aesthetics of abstract colour.”; Ada Villa’s “Musca”/”Flies”,
in relation to metaphysical idea of sunset as ‘death’,
where at sunset joins the idea of passing time and then, of old age
and death… the awareness of an inevitable end…”;
Michael Meldru Medjivepjis’s “PIANO MUSING”, “research
and experimental music composition and video production of improvisational
music based on subjective release”, in which progressively filmed,
static and nostalgic piano music performance, sequences overlap with
and open into transitional spaces of Venetian night and water rhythms;
Marina Moreno’s video installation of 4 monitors
in which “the
idea of displacement”, “is the essence” of the work. “Coincidentally,
another factor in this work is the use of sound, which floats within
the space, beckoning the audience, and displacing them, calling and
collecting them to the narrative moving within the space. The 4 monitors
are set out on the floor and the loops of the films are left to roll
over and over while the sound is perceived in various parts of the
building and attracts the audience, leading towards the installation.
The visual presentation with the monitors at equal distance from each
other and the wires being very visible give a sense of cold and clinical
work; in total contrast with the video shown which is personal, intimate
and sensual, melting with the sounds of the bells (in particular the
Marangona). Bells function as a calling in many parts of the world.
The dialect, whispered by the various passers by, is reminiscent of
a specific place and yet still remains universal. Water symbolises
a constant travelling, longing and change, mixing. Rhythmically, the
movement of the waves has the same timing as the heart beat and the
same quality of the rolling movement.”; Acitore Artezione and
the artists core group from Belfast, working with Belfast Exposed
Youth Forum, Belfast Exposed Photography projecting a collaborative “dialogue
between the Ports of Liverpool & the Ports of Belfast, People & Place
through a series of photographic actions scheduled over 12 weeks, from
the 14th September – 30th November 2008.”; Nicole
Bartos – configuring “metaphysical
journey of the ‘Sun’/’Light’ in parallel, with
man’s journey to joining this trajectory and meeting with the ‘Light’.
A site specific white installation, using 29 meters of fabric and recycled
card tubes, symbolising this trajectory together with series of photographic
mixed media and wax work; series, resulted from the previous successive
land art experiments during her meetings at sunset; Joanne
Ashbridge’s
and Japanese artist’s, Nagachoo (“The
chair”) live
art performances, 2 very different presentations, during 1st of November
2008; and to paintings such as “Collective Phenomena” by
artists, Fanchon Fröhlich and Alison
Appleton and to the contemporary
Chinese innovative style and colour mixing of acrylic on Pi paper
by Lei Liang (China, Beijing).
The idea for this art project was born purely from a meditative state
and the inspiration while watching numerous sunsets in Liverpool
and French countryside. The decision to work on it this year and
include
it in the Liverpool Biennial came later on this summer, after meeting
with a London Romanian official, promoting this late autumn’s
Romanian cultural events taking place in Liverpool.
I decided this was the time to organise it and involve also Romanian
artists living in UK, promoting this way more Romanian culture.
I have been provided, by the Romanian Cultural Centre London, a list
of contacts referring to Romanian artists based in and near London
and I have started from there, sending my project proposal and welcoming
their submissions.
When local and international artists also where willing to become
part of it, I was already very enthusiast and excited about the idea
of
the project coming together, materialising.
The main event of this
project is the international group exhibition taking place at the
Ullet Grange,
during 18th
October and 30th November
2008 at the address mentioned below. In total there are 24 artists
involved. From all participating artists’ 6 are Romanians based
in UK; 5 from Ireland; 6 based in Liverpool; 2 based in Bristol and
Venice, 1 artist based in Canada and Liverpool, 1 based in Japan,
1 artist based in Italy and France, 1 based in China
In total there will be 24 artists participating to “Meet me at
Sunset” project.
Main objective/exhibition:
The main event of this project is the international group exhibition
taking place at the Ullet Grange, during 18th October and 30th November
2008.
Exhibition venue address: Ullet Grange, 36 Ullet Road, Liverpool,
L17 3BP.
Other activities:
- Artists’ gatherings at sunset /past
During 19-23 September, prior to the exhibition, participating artists
(audience welcome), will meet each evening to watch and admire the
sunset and sky, (if weather permits), use their spontaneous creativity,
communicate, share experiences related to sunset, meditate.
Places, for sunset gathering, as chosen by the curator, are the following:
Pier Head and Princes Parade (by the landing stage), Otterspool Park
and Promenade (by the Mersey
Sefton Park (main field),
Princes Park (main field),
Anglican Cathedral plaza (and maybe top of the cathedral); top of
Duke Street.
Some of the activities that artists might carry out during these
meetings, according to circumstances, could involve: site specific
installation (land art), photography and film recording, poetry reading,
live art performance (dance), abstract painting, etc.
- Artists’ talks
During the exhibition, according to circumstance, artists’ talks
are intended to take place, along 1-2 days. (Dates, times and artists
to be announced; all information will feature on the www.gallery4allarts.com).
Negotiations are ongoing now with Hope University Art and Media Department
and the Liverpool WEA (Workers Educational Association)
- Live art performance day: Saturday 1st November 4.30pm – 7pm
with Nagachoo, Joanne Ashbridge, etc.
Participating Artists
Artists involved in “Meet me at Sunset” come from various
ethnic & cultural backgrounds, and places such as: Britain, Ireland,
Romania, Italy, Germany, Canada, Japan, New Zeeland. There are 24
artists participating.
List of exhibiting artists:
• Acitore Artezione
• Joanne Ashbridge
• Richard Ashworth
• Alison Appleton
• Nicole Bartos
• Crina Boros
• Oana Camilleri Urcan
• Birgit Deubner
•
Fanchon Fröhlich & ‘Collective Phenomena’
• Sue Ironfield
• Lynn Jackson
• Johanna Leech
• Lei Liang
• Michael Meldru
• Marina Moreno
• Nagachoo
• Christine Oreilly Wilson
• Silviu Pascalin
• Irina Dana Popa
• Nicholas Ryder-Martyn
• Roxana Tohaneanu Shields
• Ada Villa
• Ruairi Watson
• Kathy Young
Art forms to be exhibited:
Photography, Video art/film, installation/sculpture, mixed media,
performance art, abstract painting.
Selected artists’ statements
Acitore Artezione - Statement
“
The intention of the proposed participation in ‘Meet me at
Sunset’ is to open a dialogue between the Ports of Liverpool & the
Ports of Belfast, People & Place through a series of photographic
actions scheduled over 12 weeks, from the 14th September – 30th
November 2008.
Collaborative
Artists & photographers in Belfast will meet on 12 consecutive
Sunday’s at sunset on the banks of the Lagan River at sites,
both historical and contemporary, that are associated with the movement
of goods and people between Belfast and Liverpool.
Belfast & Liverpool as port cities have a shared historical legacy
of an industrial past, the decline of the shipbuilding industry,
migration and working class poverty.
Belfast Locations
Lagan River – Ports of Belfast – Belfast Harbour
Locations associated with the transportation of people and goods
by sea to and from Liverpool
Liverpool Locations
Mersey River – Ports of Birkenhead/Liverpool – Birkenhead/Liverpool
Harbour
Locations associated with the transportation of people and goods
by sea to and from
Belfast
Artists/Photographers Brief
meeting with the unknown…the immediacy of the moment in tension
with the transitional time and space of sunset… the ambiguities
of historical and contemporary resonances… points of departure,
points of arrival… the last images, the first sightings… the
journey as a space… the setting of the sun, the twilight as
a zone underlined with longing…
…
The objective of the approach is to allow a visual language of communication,
specific to the project to emerge, a language that deepens and expands
the parameters of the brief, a language that may even subvert or
override the parameters of the brief, a language that invokes its
own narrative and metaphysical reading.
An open invitation will be extended to artists and photographers
in Belfast & Liverpool.
Lead Artist/Project Facilitator in Belfast:
Acitore Z Artezione
The core group in Belfast are young artists/photographers working
with Belfast Exposed Youth Forum, Belfast Exposed Photography
www.belfastexposed.org
Five BXY Forum participants & facilitator will be in Liverpool
from the 18th - 23rd September 2008”
Joanne Ashbridge
Art form: live performance art
Birgit Deubner - “Journey
through the Forest with Virgil”
(Art form: Installation)
”
From Babylonian times man has striven to reach the skies, to equal
or rival divinity. So we continue to climb today still. Be it to
reach goodness in life, be it in arrogance in the belief of our individual
or collective supremacy (political for example, also see Babel as
a reference…), be it in the hope that things will improve from
bad to better or good to greater. We may seek love or status in society,
godly/ divine blessing.
The aim is always upwards, ascent. The ladder describes an unstable,
un-secured journey, the higher one reaches on it, the more risky,
the more treacherous the fall, a journey, also, that at it's end
may lead to nothing… or to the heavens… this is open
to interpretation. The ladder is the most immediate vehicle to ascent
and in the way that I use it I also think of it as signifying the
growth of trees, I make the ladder the tree in a forest which is
created throughout our lives. (…)
To achieve an abstracted folk tale/ dreamlike/ readable but non-direct
narrative with references to today's society's focal points as well
as to those of past times.”
Christine O’Reilly Wilson – Statement
“ My starting point for creating a painting will always be to flood
the blank canvas with vibrant colour. This colour is applied in thin
translucent layers that build up the intensity and opaque appearance
of the base layer. Contrasting colours are applied in stages. Paint
is brushed, sponged, poured, and dripped down the surface. I will
then soak areas of freshly applied paint, scrap into the surface
to soar and reveal what is beneath thus giving a history to the construction
of the image .The physical interaction with the paint on canvas is
a vital method of communicating my ideas. I will become so absorbed
in the creative working process that my conscious and unconscious
intellect seeps into the piece of work. The whole process is an attempt
to relate the human condition by means of the pure aesthetics of
abstract colour.”
Crina Boros - Artistic statement
“Loosing a paradise
or having it misplaced is the moment when one goes through significant
change. One either
turns to chasing
profanity, or strives to remember who they were despite the inability
to return to that stage. One finds themselves entrapped in another
routine for assembling a fresh world, meant to bring happiness, only
to lose it afterwards in the vicious circle of degradation and nostalgia.
My work addresses the sense of home and belonging, using as primary
source the globalization phenomenon and its impact on the preservation
and alteration of identity. Through photography, sound and writing,
I document the articulations and transformations of intimate inner
worlds at the edging of refuge and home.”
Dana Irina Popa – “Landmarks” -
Statement
“
Alf Kebbell has been living in Elephant & Castle since 1982.
He is blind; or "registered blind", he prefers to say as
he has some sight out of his right eye.
Alf can distinguish extremely strong lights, as in a neon bulb. He
can sense and see a shape if something is moving towards him at a
very close distance. Most blind people do not live in complete darkness.
On a bright sunny day though, his sight would not be of any help
at all; everything under the sunlight would appear too washed out
to get any shape and the shadows would become black confusing patches.
His greatest difficulty is to walk when it has rained and the sun
shines on the pavement. That blinds him completely.
Alf uses a cane. Though
in Elephant & Castle he does not need
one to find his way around. He uses it so that people do not bump
into him; they still do. He has been taking the same routes, stepping
on the same pavement, passing by the same shops and street poles.
He has gained the most precise notion of where everything lies in
Elephant & Castle. Alf navigates precisely relying on his landmarks.
The subway was harder to learn as the sounds are all the same inside
it and if you are blind there are no clues where you are, except
for the light at its end, extremely contrasting to the darkness around.
One door in the wall is one of those landmarks without which Alf
would find it more difficult to find his way around. Touched by the
cane, the door sounds completely different than the sound of the
cane on the wall. He has to turn first on the right simply to reach
the shopping centre. A neon bulb, reflecting extremely strong light
stays for the cigarette shop. From the tall advertising board, he
has to walk only 5 paces at 45 degrees in a diagonal line to get
to the mailbox. He has used this mailbox for 19 years. A dip in the
pavement, the reminiscence of a tree, tells him exactly where he
is. Alf feels this dip in the pavement every day. The telephone booths
are an essential landmark towards the same bus stop, every morning.
An old wall, of which he is aware for 19 years, now, marks the end
of the park. From the gate of the park, Alf knows that there are
approximately 120 meters along the fence to the last set of traffic
lights closest to his home. And the football pitch, that leads Alf
home, lies next to his house, on Newington Estates.
I tried to recreate the space Alf navigates through every day, portraying
his landmarks at the moment of his passing by. Without them, Alf
would be completely lost.”
Lynn Jackson – Statement
(Art form: metal wire sculpture and installation)
Drawing on memory, old photos and my mothers fading recollections,
I have been recreating the clothing that I wore from infancy into
childhood.
Using textile techniques and domestic skills my mother taught me
many years ago, metal wire is knit or crocheted to recreate birthday
dresses nightgowns, bonnets and booties that were thought to be lost
in a distant childhood. Replacing the clothing has led to replacing
the toys which I played with, such as Tabatha Twitchit, Peter Rabbit,
the Mopsy Bunnies and
an un-named little yellow elephant that has a habit of sniffing up
his dreams. Dreams being G.I. Joe, sports cars and a life of magic
and fantasy. The dreams are cast in brass to become something permanent
in my present recollections. Focusing on themes centred around emotional
and physical displacement, the delicate sculptures recall the loneliness
that I recall of living inside these clothes. The clothing is presented
in a way we don’t expect to see it. An obvious and narcissistic
obsession with pleading for maternal love, the work appears fragile,
expressing the oneliness and fleetingness of time. My work compels
others to recall
their own childhood sadness, loss, happiness and frailty. These sculptures
act as delicate sketches inviting the viewer to respond. It attempts
through its fragility to be vulnerable to the viewer accepting a
variety of childhood backgrounds and experiences into the work.”
Lei Liang –“Sunset
over mountain and water”
Art form: painting; acrylic on Pi paper
“ Creation for the majesty and splendour of the Sunset over mountain
and water;
Anthem for the heroic exploits and prominence of emperor.
I will only create great painting for heroes.
Who are heroes? Those who show the utmost fortitude, always charge
forward, dare sacrifice and go well up to bridle.
Art is a heavenly steed, powerful and unstrained, soaring across
the skies.
Lava rolls so strongly that one can't express oneself without pouring
out. Accumulating so long time that one would not give up if no wreaking
one's thought.
The painting is quite special with my painting methods. People have
never seen such kind of paintings before. The colour is that of Cezanne's
strokes while the image mode includes Chinese traditional painting
spirit, unique and refresh. This experimental painting in Chinese
style is a courageous testing! Keeping painting on this way, one
can auspicate a new painting style.
The painting contains strong emotional billows, a tangled combination
of despair and optimism, gloom and vehemence, sorrow and joy, and
at the same time, there exists a permanent placid as a sangfroid
feeling after big sorrow and big happiness experiences.”
Marina Moreno – “Untitled”
Art form: Video Installation
“The title “Untitled” is
coherent to this work, wanting to allow the viewer a broad margin
of interpretation and
feeling. I purposely avoid any suggestion in the title outlining
what the work is about, but rather present to the audience an experience
of the piece avoiding preconceptions.
The idea of displacement, examined in many of my latest pieces is
the essence of this work. Coincidentally, another factor in this
work is the use of sound, which floats within the space, beckoning
the audience, and displacing them, calling and collecting them to
the narrative moving within the space.
The 4 monitors are set out on the floor and the loops of the films
are left to roll over and over while the sound is perceived in various
parts of the building and attracts the audience, leading towards
the installation.
The visual presentation with the monitors at equal distance from
each other and the wires being very visible give a sense of cold
and clinical work; in total contrast with the video shown which is
personal, intimate and sensual, melting with the sounds of the bells
(in particular the Marangona).
Bells function as a calling in many parts of the world.
The dialect, whispered by the various passers by, is reminiscent
of a specific place and yet still remains universal.
Water symbolises a constant
travelling, longing and change, mixing. Rhythmically, the movement
of the waves
has
the same timing as the
heart beat and the same quality of the rolling movement.”
“Surrounding Evidence of A Dancing Eye”
(Art form: Video Art installation, film and photography)
“ Meditative walk through light and darkness
a dance piece through the camera
the camera as performer.
absence
patterns
and shadows envelop the surrounding mysteries revealed by the lights
of our own personal visuals
accompanying our lives
and yet
dismissed by others.
“ In a very famous city such as Venice, known by everyone,
possessing countless stereotypical imageries,
this film unveils by way of its particular and fragmented narrative,
the feelings and visual memories of a removed native.”
Michael Meldru Medjivepjis - Artist Statement
(Art form: film and photography)
“ I am an inter-disciplinary contemporary artist based in Bristol England,
working primarily in music based video and film production, photography,
theatre, site-specific performance / installation. I am interested
in producing innovative and experimental artwork.
As a sound artist I work reflexively from my soul, my daily experiences
influence me rhythmically and melodies are plucked from conversations
and movement. I allow my music to flow without inhibition or self-judgement
as an echo to the noises that surround me.
I am interested in producing innovative and experimental work. Improvisation
is a fundamental tool in the process of producing work and is a vital
part of my process.”
Michael’s work includes video, film, digital and traditional
photography, theatre, site specific performance / installation, sound
and music.
“ I am a sound artist who trained as a musician since the age of five.
All of my teachers beneficially informed me and raised my awareness
of my identity as both creator of noise and as composer of music.
I studied Classical Piano administered by Catholic nuns, Spanish
Classical Guitar with Ben Caserta, a student of Segovia, these giving
me discipline. Charlie Cooley, who toured and played guitar with
Duke Ellington, smoothed me out with jazz, swing and bebop during
my early teens. Russ Faith who scored many successful films guided
me on composition and harmony, all very fortunate karma.”
Nagachoo
Art forms: live performance arts and mixed media on wood
Oana Urcan - Statement
“ My practice encompasses film, video, photography and painting, woven
with narration, poetry and sound. It is a continuous search, as I
always follow my wildish nature.
This weaving is a natural yearning – it is story-telling. It
is quite mysterious how disparate elements come together to form
a whole, an entity. A poem here, a fleeting memory there, a leitmotif,
the sound… Sound can bring it all together.
Secretly, but also overtly, I want to alter the time of the viewer.
As an artist, most of all, I am interested in creating ‘atmosphere.’
The intention being that the viewer is for a brief moment engulfed,
engaged with the work in a form of reverie, a daydream of sorts,
like Bellour’s pensive spectator.
I often make reference to literature and poetry. The fairytales of
childhood are still vivid in my memory, the books I’ve read,
the poems I’ve heard, and Tarkovsky’s films somehow make
their way into my work.
There is a tinge of melancholy, a romantic tendency that is quite
Romanian in nature.
And sometimes, a slight unease- it is a mystery!
Take time. Time is a re-occurring theme in my work.
Time, as the fabric of our lives.
Mircea Eliade, a Romanian intellectual and writer, who wrote the
most comprehensive work on comparative religion, used to write fantastic
novels with a particular interest in time travel and metempsychosis.
When I was growing up, his books were banished and publishing ceased.
But my mother had a few in her library.
And Chris Marker’s ‘La Jetee’…the story that
starts and ends at the same moment in time!
Whether time travel, as in my film, ‘The Dakota,’ or
being in two places at the same time, as in ‘The places where
I live,’ I want to make time the fabric of my work.
In ‘The wanderer,’ time is again touched, albeit in a
different way.
The character in this short piece is a young man who wears a World
War II coat. Shot in colour and black and white 16mm film, we join
him wandering through the English countryside, from a meadow with
a windmill, onto a bridge, then into a forest and finally on a beach,
throwing pebbles into the sea. Using black and white film and shooting
with a 1950’s Bolex, I tried to convey a post war feeling to
the film. He could have just returned from the war. We don’t
know. We don’t know where he comes from or where he is going.
This is the mystery I want to keep.
The sound, provided by my composer friend, Dan Grigson, aids the
suspension of disbelief, adding an extra dimension, which I feel
is necessary.
The excerpt from the 10th century Anglo-Saxon poem ‘The Wanderer’ is
compelling and still so relevant. It belongs to the ‘ubi sunt’: ‘where
are’ tradition of elegiac poems, a meditation on mortality
and life’s transience.
The photographs of the crossroad somehow belong to the film, or the
film belongs to them. I would like the viewer to be drawn to them,
into them, as a start of an imaginary journey, the journey of the
wanderer."
Ada Villa - Statement extract
“
Regarding the issue “Meet me at Sunset” my position is
metaphysics, where at sunset join the idea of time passing and then
old age and death.
In many of my paintings is found the anguish “Pasoliniana” of
the absence of knowledge linked to the future, to the uncertainty
of day, while the sacred place of memory is none other than what
we want it to be.
My exhibition in Florence last year was called “Cutting memory” because
it was based on the sunset life and the memories tied to childhood.
Even my new series, flies, is none other than the awareness of an
inevitable end, to which we can not shirk (sometimes irony helps).
Then the sunset not only died pink but also in tone of pearly grey
or darker blue night in a symbolism where rather than the actual
canvas landscapes are saturated by emotional situations.
Currently my paintings are exclusively oil on canvas, although in
the past I experienced pigments and wax.”
Richard Ashworth – Statement
(Artform: mixed media)
“ At present my aim is to produce some assemblages, hoping somehow
to push them beyond the boundaries of my intentions, the illumination
of the literalness of the material, and this in relation to my personal
sensibilities.
Man in relationship to his environment
Or man in relationship to his self, creativity the evidence of man's
existence.
Birds by their nature make nests and so it is evident that man in
his nature, he is creative.”
ROXANA TOHANEANU-SHIELDS – STATEMENT
Art form: traditional photography, giclee print
“
Because a photograph needs to be “a photograph of something”,
photography as an artistic process seems to be predetermined by the
existence of particular real subject. Sometimes I accept this predetermination
and try to capture the magic of mundane urban scenes, but other times
I choose to rebel and create images where the boundary between what
is real and what is not disappears.
The ongoing contemporary debate about photography as an art form
raises interesting questions about the ontological status of photography.
For artist photographers the medium of photography is indubitably
a modern art form which deals with all aspects of life. My main interest
in this debate is crystallised in two ways: theoretically through
my philosophical enquiries into Aesthetics of Photography and practically
through my own work, especially my abstract photography. Although
there are some leading philosophers of art who argue against photography
as an art form (see Roger Scruton) I take the challenge of producing
work with evades a clear categorisation therefore, rebelling and
creating unrecognisable images.
Description of the works:
The ‘Liquefied Light ‘photographs are a series of work
where the light is the subject and the tool at the same time. Trying
to capture the beauty of light is attempted through traditional photography
(no manipulation is allowed) and particular points of view (usually
close-ups).
In ‘Unitary Ascendance’ (Homage to Brancusi) I attempt
to capture the repetitiveness of municipal architecture. Hopefully
in the process of constructing my collage I have paid homage to the
great Romanian sculptor.”
SUE IRONFIELD – STATEMENT
Art form: painting: acrylic on wood
“Sue Ironfield
takes up in a new form the tradition of painting which emulates
music, with
its expressive
numerical language, in
order to reach a meaningful abstraction. She is stimulated by the
qualities of intervals - octave, fifth, third etc. These emerge in
the natural harmonic series or overtone row. Intervals are the building-blocks
of music and represent universal principles of order-in-chaos.
Her springboard was Johannes Kepler`s analogy in his Weltharmonik
or Harmonic Theory of the Universe of 1619 between intervals and
polygons. These figures are shown by Sue to evolve from the fission
of the circle, forming a mandorla or almond-shape, an iconographic
element sometimes shown as a face. Sometimes a Yin-Yang curve instigates
division and growth.
These heartfelt abstractions become dynamic, with strong line and
vibrant expressive colour, and are enriched by various symbolic allusions.
The simple number series of the intervals, 1 2 3 4 5 etc, with their
crystalline forms, are then connected to the Fibonacci series, 1
2 3 5 8 etc, a formula for growth related to the Golden Section.
From Sue` s poem HARMONIC IMAGES
Around its core number moves
pure forms
in and out of chaos, telling how the cosmos
means a flowing order. In music it vibrates
and speaks from the heart of my microcosm
and yours, where the own sound broods a folded
row of overtones longing to evolve.”
Excerpt (translated from the German) from a talk given by Art Historian
Dr. Peter Holzwig at Sue`s exhibition in the Robert Schumann Music
College in Düsseldorf.
Nicole Bartos – “Meet me at Sunset” -
Statement
(Art form: land art & indoors installation, photography, mixed
media
“ Preoccupied
with the philosophical and spiritual side of art, I create and
curate as
a means towards
therapy/healing, growth
and expression of both spiritual and physical wellbeing. I love the
idea of freedom through art and aim towards connecting and communicating
energies. Mostly, I create 2D works, paintings, mixed-media, photography
and also installations, using organic and natural materials which
store energies and resonate with time, love, light, etc. and I work
spontaneously.
I believe that, most people have watched sunsets and at least once
in their lives they have been overwhelmed by one.
To symbolise a metaphorical journey of the sun/light and, in parallel,
man’s journey to joining this trajectory and meeting with the ‘Light’,
I intend to create a series of interactive, progressively developed
and metamorphic installations which will include, at the last stage,
series of photographic work and film.
The work will be interactive and presented outdoors (as land art,
created during the sunset gatherings, in various open places around
Liverpool) and indoors (during the final exhibition at Ullet Grange);
will develop and change progressively.”
updated 8 October 2008, Liverpool
Text put together by Nicole Bartos/Gallery4allarts
Statements copyrighted to named artists.
For more information please, contact Nicole Bartos:
nbartos@gmail.com or
07756912911
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