RCA DEGREE SHOW PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

My initial responses:
The catalogue which consisted of expositions and interviews with the exhibitors was very interesting in view of our own projected ‘flyer’. It was beautifully presented in a Black Plastic bag [similar to those that come with Photographic Paper] and printed simply on substantial white paper. Each exhibitor had a folded section that included an interview or an Artists Statement that really clarified the work and two A4 reproductions of their work. It was very impressive, in a world where presentation contributes considerably to the integrity of the work.
1. Martin Clark: Semena Series: Postwoman / Runt / The Gospel [ landscape – Road – Preacher man standing in the winding road.] / Lady Boss. This series seemed to me to be evocative of a hidden narrative and triggered memories of stories told about rural small town USA and the kind of mythology that revolves around this notion; the insularity and social hierarchy that exists in a small town.
Virginia Litzler: Untitled / Amit / Cesure – large B&W prints of a single person against a wall, crouching.. Medium format Camera proportions.
The strength of these images lies primarily in their composition and graphic imagery. There is an inherent tension exhibited between the figure and the setting….the setting being monolithic and concrete, whereas the figure is captured in a moment of physical stress and poised like a spring.
2. Kirk Palmer: HD Video: ‘Murmer’.. of trees blowing in the wind with wind sound effects… The narrative builds slowly and is underlined by the increase in volume of the sound track. The pace is unhurried but the effect is mesmeric.
3. Peter Jacques: 12 Labours of Hercules: Pieces that are created with chemicals drawn onto photographic paper. He is concerned with writing and books… he is dyslexic. The work is difficult to ‘unpack’ and the significance of the marks defies explanation. As a viewer I ask, what has this to do with Photography or painting with light? It is very opaque and, in spite of being explicitly titled, it is only on reading the artists extended explanation in the catalogue that his intentions and methodology become clear.
4. Neil Wissnik: Pugwash. ‘Staged’ photos of an American ‘town’ in the evening. These are large colour C Prints of a town as evening draws in. The light is diffuse and fading thus rendering the scene dark and with an ominous tinge, as if something bleak has or will happen. The images are devoid of people. Why is this town deserted?
5. Brigida Mendes: disturbing photos [very large black and white] of pairs… old women / chairs / etc. The chairs are cut up and placed to give the print a symmetrical feel. There is something very unsettling about these images. They are not portraits but convey feelings of the even unevenness of these women’s lives. Furniture cut in half and composed to give an illusion of symmetry, without clearly being manipulated as mirror images.
6. Ben Young: Video ‘ The Sons of L’Homme Dore’… very surreal and influenced by science fiction. Story of a Crab, and a young man cavorting in the waves…. walking on snow / on bluebells / dancing [upside down] narrated by Brian Blessed. This video benefits from the voice-over narrative directing and explaining the sequence of images to the viewer. Although it initially begins with a series of unreal/surrealistic sequences, it then descends/degenerates into a more recognizable fantasy that relates to a contemporary action-based story of conflict between a giant crab and a young man by the seaside with a more traditional ending where the young man runs into the sea and swims out into the sunset….?
7. Wiebk Leister: Hals uber kopf- C Prints close up of a small child being tickled. These are dynamic, close cropped square images which are close-framed in simple black wood frames. I question the framing on these images? They seem to give them a claustrophobic feel? The proportion of the prints indicate they might well have been shot with a medium format camera which is used for good portraiture, but is not as immediate and instinctive as a smaller 35 mm S.L.R. So, although they seem to be spontaneous, they are more considered due to the awkwardness inherent in the use of the camera.
After these initial responses, I read the notes in the catalogue where considerably more of the artists’ intentions and process were revealed. I wonder now, how much the viewer is expected to tease out of what he sees and how much relies on the thoughts and revealed background to the work that is built-in by the artist?
The catalogue was a very impressive collection of single folded pieces of substantial card . Each one consisted of a printed text -an exposition or interview with the artist and two pages of selected images.