'In absence' curated by Jamie Durling
Preview night will commence on Saturday 13th February and start at 7pm and finish at 10pm. Free wine on arrival.
The exhibition will continue till 12th March.
Gallery opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10am till 4.30pm
The exhibition will include painting, photography and sculpture. Under Jamie Durling's curation, the exhibition will show works which express a sense of absence, solitude or emptiness. This could mean a fleeting moment of solitude experienced by the artist or the subject of the image. 'In absence' could be in the form of an image, which conjures thoughts of absence, in its myriad forms, in the mind of the viewer.
Participating artists
Angie de Courcy Bower
Whilst a Fine Art student at Brighton University (BA Hons) and later, Leeds Metropolitan University (MA), Angie's practice developed through abstraction, minimalism, conceptual art and sculpture before returning to figurative painting.
Fascinated by the complexities of the human condition, Angie strives to give form to her ideas and feelings about life and our connection to the world. Drawing upon archetypal and mythic messages, and coupling them with contemporary concerns, Angie examines the nature of consciousness: considering issues around identity, freedom and love to cruelty, suffering and mortality.
Searching for knowledge and understanding in what may be hidden, even dark, territory Angie tries to articulate the hopes and fears which permeate existence and have such an impact on our potential. Like life itself, the paintings may become joyous, gloomy, ironic, ambiguous or funny.
In using the figure as a viable conduit for explorations of modern culture, adopting familiar elements and painterly values, Angie aims to create statements which are vivid and timeless, and which invite an emotional immersion - with an engaging simplicity that not only belies deeper philosophical speculation but also resonates with the insights of a non-specialist audience, as a visitor once noted:
'As a non-artist I often feel shut out of art, as if artists are speaking in a language I don't understand. Not so with this exhibition! These painting spoke to me about my own life. Wonderful. '
Portfolio image
Angie de Courcy Bower, Being a part, Oil on canvas, 122cm x 94cm, 2000
Yuco Ota
H e A t
Through Yuco's paintings, she explores the idea of "heat" as a power source linked through the natural and emotional world to us; a synthesizing between our emotions and energy created from the heat in a state of flux.
Yuco uses physical appearance of fire, smoke, embers, and ashes as imageries of heat in her works. Yuco's responsive to the feel and look of them. And she attempts to personify them from her visceral interpretations.
Those who inhale and exhale heat, make her think of endless repetition of birth, burn, and die. The similar process also repeats in the individual mentality like a rolling wheel of fortune. Begin to be end; end is to begin. Somehow, this natural order of things is depressing, and emptiness. But still Yuco feels compelled to expose object that could be carrier of heat as in flux and unchangeable karma.
They are corpse and eggs at simultaneously, and Yuco wants to preserve them as adorable as she perceives.
Portfolio image
Yuco Ota, Singed Body No.6, Oil on Canvas, 45cm x 60cm, 2009
Tahnee Lonsdale
In 2007, Tahnee graduated from Byam Shaw School of Art. Her degree show launched her straight into the real world of Art and Tahnee immediately started showing my work in a number of galleries across the capital.
Tahnee now rents her own studio in West London, where she spends her days and nights working on new pieces for exhibitions and commissions, amongst many other things.
Tahnee's initial instinct is with colour, although storytelling plays a very important role. Her paintings, done mainly onto large canvases, depict strange and ambiguous stories wthin apocalyptic, surreal landscapes.
Portfolio image
Tahnee Lonsdale, City left, Acrylic on paper (framed), 46"x 32", 2009
Mirjam Mölder-Mikfelt
Mirjam Mölder-Mikfelt is an Estonian artist, working in oil, acrylic and mixed media on canvas.
At an early age she developed a serious interest and desire for drawing.Since then, her life has always been filled with art and the desire has grown into a passion.
She studied in the painting department of Tartu Art College in Estonia, however, she decided that the most eligible person to teach her art is herself.
Now, as an autodidact artist, she has evolved her own style and is confident in everything she does.
Mirjam enjoys the process of painting, and needs to experiment constantly always trying something new.
Over the last years Mirjam has become fascinated by the beauty inherent in the human figure and has since been painting mainly nudes. Her work focuses on depicting nudes in an untraditional, sensually exciting way. She doesn't use
models and paints mostly by heart, finding realistic appearance and correct proportions unnecessary.
Mirjam's use of colour is inspired by her synesthetic experiences and is central to her work. She love the colours she sees and feels, the colours of life, and love.
Mirjam has also a keen interest in photography. If she's not painting, she's probably taking pictures or restoring old photographs.
Portfolio image
Mirjam Mölder-Mikfelt, Untitled eleven, Oil on canvas, 53 cm x 63cm, 2009
Jo Seong Hee
This project is placed in the context of artistic urban photography as well
as night photography. Urban photography is as old as photography itself, but an artistic use of this subject was pioneered by Alfred Stieglitz, in the early 1900s. He proved that cityscape scan have an aesthetic value. Today, new types of media, such as video, pose a
challenge to architectural photography.
Jo's work aims to show that photography competes successfully with these media, as it is possible to create 'new', imaginary landscapes through a combination of shots.
This project is an experiment to apply the technique of collage and produce an imaginary' panorama' of high-rise buildings and other urban features seen by night.
The pictures each consist of three images tightly juxtaposed in one frame. For Jo's idea of a panoramic impression furnished by triple images She relied on McLuhan's philosophy regarding the extension of vision. By joining images, you transcend the need to read sequences sequentially. Hilliard and Scott McFarland also 'compressed' time into single images. The result combines elements of collage and voyeurism.
Portfolio image
Jo Seong Hee, Invisible Cities no 7, mixed media (film and digital), 400mm x 300mm, 2009
Mark Morris
Marks work is inspired by the exploration of space around and within a sculpture to create a subtle tension. The use of ceramic and Perspex came from the desire to bring together the historically evocative with the modern. These sculptures although all based around an angular enclosed starting point are made up of strong individual components that vie for recognition.
The circle sits in our subconscious as a strong reminder of all that affects our daily lives. This balanced symbol touches us all; from the understanding of our earth and the movement in the cosmos, through to its iconic use in pagan religion such as the ancient stone circles of Stonehenge through to modern day branding. The counter balance to this iconic symbol is the line/slice, which opens up the area of re-interpretation via the process of re-assembly to give the sculpture a fresh presence.
Mark uses Perspex from the first cut in the wet clay to look at the dynamics taking place in the piece, the Perspex opens up what was solid and creates the floating effect within the piece. This is the enjoyable and natural part of the creative process. There is then the skilled part of making that first natural act work in the finished piece via the reworking of the lines and getting the texture of the surface to come to the fore as that becomes a crucial part in the final resolution of the sculpture.
Portfolio image
Mark Morris, Slipped circle, Earthstone and Perspex, h.94x28x8cm [37x11x3in] , 2009
Tsendpurev Tsegmid
Tsendpurev Tsegmid is a Mongolian artist living in the UK, who investigates issues of heritage and identity from the perspective of her own cultural re-location. Originally trained in the discipline of traditional Mongolian painting, Tsendpurev now works in a contemporary art context. She uses photography and performance, combining both practices in such a way that her work is difficult to categorise. In some cases the camera simply documents a performance; in others the performative event is staged in order to construct a photograph as the final artwork.
Tsendpurev uses clothing and costume to take on different identities and to explore the issue of geographical and cultural displacement. In her ongoing project Packing/Unpacking, Tsendpurev wears her mother's 'deel' (traditional embroidered garment) in the context of both Mongolian and Yorkshire landscapes. Alhough geographically separated from her family living thousands of miles away, she is tied by her feelings of love and kinship. This is expressed by wearing her mother's clothing (like an 'embrace') or dressing in a police uniform as a reference to her father's professional life, during the Communist regime of his country. The camera provides a way of examining these acts of identification and emulation, and the multiple meanings that are produced once they are framed within a Western context.
Familial narratives are also woven into a research project that investigates the guarding of frontiers and the preservation of territories. Tsendpurev examines the meaning of her country's borders from the perspective of one who has flown over and beyond them. Living in a globalised culture but still maintaining an attachment to her homeland, she questions the use of the term 'nomad' for the millions of people around the world who live in voluntary exile rather than following the patterns and paths inscribed by previous generations.
Assuming an alter ego for the series Queen, Tsendpurev displays the sense of pride located in her Mongolian heritage. The warlike prowesses of the country's leaders, and the history of the Mongol Empire, provide a focus for national feeling. However, there is also a sense of irony in the mode of dressing up used to create The Queen. The clothing is purchased from shops in Mongolia and the UK, produced by multinational retail companies in a global industry that indiscriminately fuses styles and fashions. From this available mix Tsendpurev chooses to create the identity of a female warrior leader, as a re-enactment of ancestral power and authority. The Queen adopts ceremonial poses using the sword as her most potent accessory. However, she also reveals a self-reflective uncertainty as she faces the camera. Queen has been performed in different locations, including the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where it was an intervention in the museum's space of preservation, raising contemporary issues of conflicting identity.
By Juliet MacDonald MA
Portfolio image
Tsendpurev Tsegmid, Queen at Royal Armouries series, c- print framed, 100cm x 70cm, 2009
Jamie Durling
Jamie's work is created in one of two mindsets each of which has a drastic effect on the final piece. Often, Jamie will spend a lot of time developing a coherent conceptual framework which will often originate from an idea taken from the things that influence him as an artist; films, paintings, books or everyday occurrences in which Jamie have played a part or witnessed.
These ideas will then be researched and developed over time and often culminate in a single photo shoot which will be overseen with meticulous attention to detail, adding/removing objects from the frame which are desirable/unwanted. These are more often than not narrative scenes which require people to 'act out' certain parts in order for Jamie to achieve the desired result.
The other side to Jamie's work is rather more spontaneous, and involves very little thought and planning. The images shown here from Jamie's book 'One Hundred Colour Photographs' were all shot in this way, eliminating the gestation period of a concept and 'taking' whatever it is that Jamie sees in the moment for what it is, without any alteration to the frame and its content, simply a moment.
Portfolio image
Jamie Durling, 'One hundred colour photographs, no 69', c-print, 16" x 12" 2009
Thank you
Jamie Durling
Gallery Intern
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