Hosted at
Ffotogallery, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff on Thursday April 26th
2012.
Forum
kicked off to a great start this month, as it coincided with the opening night
of Chapter Gallery’s current exhibition,
‘The Institute of Critical Zoologists’. If you haven’t already, I really
recommend you have a look. (http://www.chapter.org/26352.html) Curated by Ffotogallery’s
Helen Warburton and Lauren Jury, the ICZ show investigates
our relationship with animals through archival and photographic material that
blurs the lines between reality and fiction.
The ICZ
is really just one person, artist Renhui
Zhao. Helen was the first to chat about the show and how it came about,
offering an insight into the process of curating such a large exhibition in
close collaboration with the artist. Helen first encountered Renhui’s
work at Format in Derby and decided to approach him about a project in Cardiff.
The
original basis of the exhibition was to present a sort of retrospective,
including all the documents and archival material usually hidden away or locked
in museum vault: making the invisible, visible. Helen, Lauren and Renhui were keen to experiment with alternative ways to present the work- the view-hole light-boxes in the second room of the gallery should not to be overlooked! Renhui’s practice investigates an overall concern with what is
real, imagined and invented. What information do we really gain from the media
and wildlife photography? The UV Plumage of birds informed the back gallery
pieces which were entirely digital. Artistic simulations are present throughout the show, although it is down to the viewer to deliberate what may be real or invented.
Some
pieces challenge the boundaries of the morality of food: Renhui has a
particular interest in the issue of whaling, as expressed in the ‘Whiteness of
a Whale’ project. His political views are interesting; the work is not
dogmatic; rather, his core interest is how the media represent the subject of
our relationship to animals rather than an attempt to make us feel a particular
way. The work stands alone and is open to interpretation though it inevitably
causes one to reflect on our relationship with other living creatures and how
we share and occupy the world. For example, in one piece, what appears to be
whale blood is actually human waste. As an ‘ex-activist’, he is not looking to
be an ethical ambassador, rather he is still grappling with the idea of the
institute he’s created. Part of Helen and Lauren’s role was a desire to develop
the way Renhui presented his work and explore how he reflects his ides though
collaboration.
Renhui is
currently undertaking a residency at the National Museum of Wales. Lauren and
Helen proposed that Renhui engaged with Cardiff through his work. The Museum, of
course, is an ideal platform for this having been fascinated with the abundance
of hidden archival material held in the vaults. This paved the way for Renhui
to inspire a new body of work, becoming fascinated with slides, depicting
bizarre exchanges between animals. The
Institute of Critical Zoologists continues at Chapter Gallery, Cardiff
until Sunday 17th June.
Chapter Gallery, ICZ installation shot
Rory Duckhouse presented his recent project, ’25 people with cameras’. Rory is
currently undertaking his MA in Swansea in Photography and Contemporary
Dialogues.
“The work
comes from an archive I bought from eBay, which had a collection of images from
the 1960-1970's. The last geographical location of the archive was from the
seller in Williamsburg, MA and therefore become known as the Williamsburg
archive. With this series I am interested in the process of taking an image,
what it mean in the present, and as a historical document. Through a series of
re-appropriations, I attempt to explore the limitations of the images as
informational document of events. Culturally we photograph events we deem of
historical importance, however, what is the value of the images once they are
removed from the contexts that deem them important. The work then becomes a
metaphor for the shifting nature of the documents over time.”
The core
of the work lies in an interest in archives and historical records. Rory
presents photographs in which he has erased figures, in order to dislocate the
person from any determinate social, historical or cultural links. From these photographs, he retains the
image of the camera, the core tool used to preserve a memory or document an
occasion. How does a photograph either document or become a document of an
event? What becomes of a photograph?
The image
is defined by its quality and what surrounds the figures. Influenced by James
Elkins, Rory explores the possibility of an objective experience of a
photograph. In one particular image, all that remains of the figure are the
hands holding the camera. Posing, in itself, often acts as an indication of
culture and body language. A debate on context ensues; by removing the person
do we still reserve any historical or cultural references? The camera itself
dates the image, as does the object of the photograph: it’s size, format,
quality etc. The clothing, furniture and jewellery all say something about a person and their surroundings. One person suggests the responsibility a photograph holds on a ‘document’
of that era, time, or event. Rory investigates how, through mild suggestion or
fictionlisiation, he may remove this responsibility.
You can
see Rory’s work exhibited at Swansea’s MA show, which opens on the 15th
June- don’t miss it!
Rory Duckhouse, 4 Minus Person, 2012
James Green trained as a painter at CSAD before completing
an MA in Painting at The Royal College of Art, London. He is currently half way
through his Phd at CSAD, researching through is practice: ‘To what extent does
a piece of art have a mind of it’s own?’.
“The work
I create as an artist often results in pieces that straddle between artistic
disciplines, and is inspired by a wide range of artists and ideas, in
particular artworks and belief systems of Non-Western cultures, physics,
nuero-science, art history, and the daily goings-on of the Rhondda Valley.
Hopefully, the result will be a subjective and visual inventory of parts of the
twentieth and twenty-first Centuries.”
These
cards, collectively titled ‘A Day in the
Life…’ represent just a small fragment of James’ prolific practice. He
began producing these pocket-sized collages around eight years ago whilst studying
in London, as a creative exercise to realise ideas on a small scale. He would
habitually make one or two every morning to keep active, even when ideas were
running dry to keep the ball rolling. Now an ongoing ritual, these little cards
are purely spontaneous and have ‘no particular grand theory’ behind them.
Nonetheless,
they inevitably act as little indications of pop culture, having been collaged
from newspapers, magazines and general visual debris found on his bedroom floor.
By now there are hundreds of them, kept in boxes. Only recently have they begun
to be dated. As a result, they have become an archive of each day of his life
now documented, reading as a whole as a sort of visual diary. They are often
carried around in his pocket, and sometimes given away to friends. This
evolving archive has become a kind of small, intimate gallery which the viewer
can hold in their hands, flicking through them just as kids used to do with
their sticker collections: A collection that James plans to continue for the rest
of his life- hopefully it will be much larger by then.
See more
of James’ practice and his research developments at www.jg-gallery.co.uk. He is also
curating a group show of Phd student’s work at Howard Gardens Gallery on the 21st
June.
James Green, 'A Day in the Life', 2006-
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