Exhibitions

8th British International Mini Print Exhibition, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
http://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/exhibitions/8th-british-international-mini-print-exhibition
Mostly ink and paper prints, but with some digital work. 

Word and Concept, Eve Kask.  Digital Print, positive/negative reflected.  A still life with paper, cut -out text.  In the positive image the shadows aren't noticed, but glow when reflected in negative.  I had to look back at the positive to find them there.  An interesting effect.  The mind expects shadows and so disregards them, but when they glow, it takes note.  Here's my first try at the technique:

She did it much more subtly. 

Au Lever (Awakening), Guy Langevin.  Mezzotint.  Chiaroscuro, only the lower legs of the sitting model emerge from a curtain of dark.  The sharp edge of illumination draws a line across the floor.  The model appears to be putting on stockings.  An image that intrigues and makes the viewer think.  An idea worth trying.

Hair Just Right, Reti Saks http://www.reti.ee/graphic-art/miniprints  Interesting pose, with both hands on one side of the face - and I know just the model!

West Midlands Open 2012 at Wolverhampton Art Gallery 16/10/12

http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/events/west-midlands-open/

A pair of photographs, part of a series, of older women still in posts of authority.  Large: 1m square; colour images, each showing in its centre a mature woman standing in her workplace, facing the camera.  The heritage of such photography goes way back before August Sander’s 1920s People of the 20th Century.  Many others have done the same sort of thing: E O Hoppé’s London Types and, more recently, Hiroh Kikai’s Asakusa Portraits.  But these images did not engage me, being very plain, unary photographs in Barthes’ definition (Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, 2000, Vintage, London pp40-42.)  Indeed, I even forgot to take down their details.  For me, the most interesting thing was working out how they had been lit: twin flash, high up, so that there were no shadows either side of the subject, yet objects nearer the edges cast diffuse shadows outwards.

Syrian Girl, Anthony Blood, 2012.  Monochrome picture of a girl in a headscarf in a Birmingham square, looking away, out of the frame.  The artist’s statement says that she’s been protesting the government’s non-involvement in the Syrian civil war.  Only the context is important; without it, the picture lacks interest for me.

 

Crossing the Road, Worcester'  David Trippas, 2012.

Colour, street corner, shop to the left, open street centre leading into suburb, at right an articulated truck is parked.  Young people are walking out of frame right, behind the truck.  I repeat here the artist's statement:
'Reportage with digital, automatic kit is like gunslinging, you make as many decisive moments as you like.  This image has a lot going for it.  The figures are unaware of the camera and seem to be reacting in that one hundredth of a second to the Eddie Stobart truck.  The words on the signs cry normality in a capitalist country and the calm lead-in of the road to a sunny sky has an almost pastoral feeling, contrasting with the life threatening presence of the truck.  It is almost like Peter Breughel's portrayal of "the fall of Icarus".'
The Breughel: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/PBrueghelElderIcarus.jpg

To me, the Breughel depicts pastoral life going on as usual, with the fall of Icarus unnoticed except by the painter.  Trippas' image shows the intrusion of a huge truck into quiet streets, yet it's barely noticed by the people.
What I like most about this image is the statement: 'Reportage with digital, automatic kit is like gunslinging, you make as many decisive moments as you like.' 

 After Vermeer: The Woman with the Pearl Necklace, Simon Francis, 2012.  Approx 18 inches square.
An appropriated image, the Vermeer has been copied, cropped, multiplied and processed, blurring the original image while retaining the composition: the figure of a woman at right; the dark shadow of the window at left; a soft glow fills the centre.  The artist's statement:
'The image has been developed from a Vermeer painting, "The Woman with the Pearl Necklace" using camera movement, long exposure and digital editing.  Vermeer's interiors convey a sense of permanency and an emptiness of space which frame an understated but succinct human action.  My aim was to rid the image of its permanency and representation and then to merge the interior light and its space with the human gesture.  The result is a perception of unbounded movement and transience held in a frame of an unmoving photograph.'
The Vermeer: http://4umi.com/image/art/vermeer/1664_Woman_with_a_pearl_necklace.jpg
The work invites comparison.  Has Francis improved on the Vermeer, or produced something new and different?  I think the character of the image has changed; in the photograph, the necklace is undetectable; the girl could be holding her hands up in fear; the dark shapes on the left may be threatening.  The blurring has left space for the viewer to interpret and create what the picture's about for himself.    The central glow makes me think of JMW Turner's aetherial paintings.  The more I look at it the less I dislike it.  My favourite image from the show.

I was impressed by the artists's statements in the show.  Those above are by no means the most ornate and highfalutin.  If I intend to compete in this company I need to go on a statement-writing course!