next1ruhr2010

Louise Gibbs - Fable

2010-03-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

These images are from an ongoing body of work.

Fable

‘Fable’ is a body of work that negotiates the fine boundary between artifice and reality; simultaneously exploring the relationship between internal experience and that of external actuality. As a means of addressing these boundaries and correlations the project deconstructs the notion of Pathetic Fallacy through the fabrication of fictitious environments.

Pathetic Fallacy, a concept coined by John Ruskin in 1856, is “The anthropomorphic projection of human feeling or volition on to nature” when strong emotions “produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things”. It is a false appearance induced by an overpowering state of feeling that makes us, for a time, irrational.

The project focuses on the artist’s own interpretation of Pathetic Fallacy, visually referencing the weather as the signifier of nature. The notion of artifice is expressed through the construction, whereas reality is represented through the use of actual weather. It is essentially this conflict between the interior and exterior, imagination and reality that are encapsulated by pathetic fallacy that ‘Fable’ desires to achieve.

‘Fable’ further aspires to denote the concept of emotion as fallacy. Due to its indefinable nature we are unable to quantify emotion, there is no way of knowing whether two people ever share a singular feeling therefore it becomes a fictitious knowledge. Something we recognise, share and group under one title, yet individual perception fluctuates. In the past a spiritual connection was established with the atmosphere, the weather considered an intermediary between heaven and earth and therefore interpreted with moral significance. Today our relationship to weather has radically changed, due to our ever increasing scientific knowledge nature no longer holds metaphysical relevance; defences have been developed in an attempt to protect against natural phenomena; rendering the weather little more than an inconvenience.

Weather is used within the imagery not only as a tangible example of reality, but also as a vessel with faint traces of past emotional significance to create a distorted vision as suggested by pathetic fallacy. The environment is constructed with multiples of broken and damaged umbrellas; chosen for their unwavering affiliation to human interaction with weather. Though through the imagery their function is rendered useless, their decaying state only provides failed protection as they transforms from practical paraphernalia into sculptural objects. This fabricated scene is affected by the weather allowing artifice and reality to collide. The work hinges on different interpretations, as the images are not created utilising an explicit emotion, but using varying weather conditions to interact with a staged scene of umbrellas. Any interpretation of emotion by the viewer is a fallacy as it was not intended by the artist; their perception aids the artifice that the project wishes to explore.

To return to the interplay between reality and artifice, weather is a signifier of reality, the material world, as it has always been in existence. However our interpretation of it has evolved over time, this changing state becoming representative of artifice. Much like a dream, the work appropriates previously seen and recognised imagery. It uses something real, for example the umbrella, to construct an artificial fiction but at the same time it works in reverse; making the artificial real when presenting it as a photographic image. In this manner, ‘Fable’ references the very nature of photography when considering the construction of an image, whether it denotes reality or complete artifice.

Louise Gibbs, born in 1986, is a final year student studying Photographic Art at the University of Wales, Newport. Gibbs predominantly photographs physically constructed, fictitious scenes as a means of exploring the boundaries between reality and artifice that are also inherent in Photography.

Charlie Goldblatt

2010-03-28T14:01:00.001-07:00

The above images are taken from an ongoing body of work.

My work explores the possibilities and limitations of photography. I am drawn to the concept of ‘reality and representation’ within photography and how photography, as a visual language, is both produced and decoded. The work is a reflection on and of the photographic medium.

Charlie Goldblatt was born in 1989 in London. Fascinated by the complicated relationship between photography and reality, Goldblatt almost exclusively photographs constructed scenes, rejecting digital manipulation in favour of traditional analogue photography. He is currently studying BA Photographic Art at the University of Wales, Newport.

www.charliegoldblatt.co.uk

David Thomas Smith - 'Anthropocene'

2010-03-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America, 2009-10

Fimiston Open Pit, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, Australia, 2009-10

Delta Coal Port, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2009-10

Burj Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2009-10

Beijing International Airport, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 2009-10

‘Anthropocene’ suggest something of the complex structures that make up the centres of global capitalism in transforming aerial views of key sites associated with industries such as oil, precious metals, consumer culture and excess. Questions of photographic and economic realities are further complicated through the formal use of patterns that potentially have their origins in ancient civilizations. This collision between the old and the new, fact and fiction, surveillance and invisibility, is part of a strategy to reflect on the order of things and the potential for photography to question and disrupt this.

BA (Hons) Documentary Photography

Biography:

David Thomas Smith is a Newport based, Irish photographer who is currently studying at the University of Wales, Newport, BA Documentary Photography.

Forthcoming projects for 2010 include an artist run exhibition entitled ‘twenty seven’ which is set to run in the summer of 2010. Smith hopes to continue developing his photographic practice and pushing the boundaries of his medium. He is currently working on two new projects.

Paul Corcoran

2010-03-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Bio :

I’m originally from Cork, Ireland. My interest in photography stemmed from my time spent traveling. My photographic practice has always been informed by a deep interest and concern for issues being faced by my immediate community/ environment. My photographic method has moved from a more traditional reportage style of image making to a more conceptually based construction. I enjoy working on series of images and then combining these to make a wider body of work. My most recent work ‘Empty Promise’ was a selected finalist for the Document 2010 award. It was exhibited as part of a group show at the Host gallery in London in January of this year and is due to be exhibited at the Surface Gallery in Nottingham in April.

My Work:

This series of images has been made in response to the downward spiral of youth unemployment in the South Wales region following the economic downturn of recent times. The portraits represent the emotional states of unemployed youth while the interiors of empty workspaces explore where these emotional states stem from and comment on the economic downturn affecting the South Wales region.