More about the artists involved here
4 December 2010 - 26 February 2011
Riverside Gallery
Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond
Disease, dissection, and Darwin become the subject for artists displaying at the Riverside Gallery, Richmond from 4th December 2010. Orleans House Gallery presents Picturing Science, an open exhibition which examines the collision between two harmonious and contrasting fields of symbolic representation, Art and Science.
]]>October 28 - November 1, 2010
Currently showing work with Bleachbox at Art Toronto
Founded in 2000, the Toronto International Art Fair is one of the most successful fairs in North America.
Art Toronto is held annually at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, located in the heart of downtown Toronto.
PRIVATE PREVIEW
WHEN: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
6:00 PM- 9:00 PM
Curated by Nathaniel Hepburn at Mascalls Gallery, this exhibition will be at the 13th century St Peter’s church,
Preston Park in Brighton. This group show includes Tracey Holland’s series of lightbox works ‘The Almond Tree’
‘From the Darkness’ is one of a series of exhibitions from Brighton to Canterbury. It’s open daily 11 - 3pm.
For more information contact Mascalls Gallery on 01892 839039.
This body of work was made between 2006 and 2008, and grew out of a fascination with lightning storm imagery and it’s associated myth. I was awarded a research residency at the Bakken Museum and Library of Electricity in Minneapolis, USA in 2006 and my time there was split between researching and documenting both books and artefacts.
The resulting work was inspired by the archaic texts that illustrated the journey of how science evolved out of the early alchemists investigations into substances and reactions. Writings of the 15th century by such people as Maxwell (De Medicina Magnetica) and Kircher (Magnets and the Art of Magnetism) marked the beginnings of scientific investigation, but it still remained intertwined with magic, religion and mysticism. These were beautiful and very rare books with hand printed Latin text and illustrations. I was able to photograph these books, as well as read translations.
The colour transparencies of leyden jars, (invented to store the electricity generated by early electrostatic machines) vacuum flasks, and associated tools taken at the Baaken Museum are back projected onto drafting film. Combined with these are projected images of galaxies and stars, and in some images, another layer of dusty redundant spiderweb, or seed-head. The resulting images are then photographed.
In this work, the volume within the jars (which historically captured the usually invisible electric energy) is contrasted with the symbolic importance of the inner space and energies of other ’sacred’ enclosures like a temple or a theatre stage, expectant of some sort of performance. Some of the images contain forms that traditionally conduct energy/power and refer to the age-old desire to connect to the heavens reflected in symbolic, sacred sights (the Ziggurat, the Tower of Babel). This work draws together images and narratives in order to reflect the electrical impulse of the macro and microcosmic environment; to contrast these two aspects; the religious/mythical interpretations of the creation of the heavens and the planet, and the electrical creative energy and the earth itself as a fragment of this, still continually changing.
In other images, stars and galaxies are overlaid with images of Christ’s wound. Sections are taken from early northern Renaissance paintings, chosen for the artist’s photo-realist dedication to a subjective image of a mythic character. Christ’s body, according to Joseph Campbell “rather than being a physical object comes to symbolize our own psychological and metaphysical inner space.” In these images, the symbolic importance of Christ’s wound and blood are contrasted with the infinite, never still, heavens and the stars. This comparison of local and universal brings to mind certain questions; where is the ‘centre’ of the world, what and where is heaven and why does the human mind require this morphogenic field to exist.
View images on Flickr
The Baaken Library and Museum of Electricity
Solo Exhibitions
(most recent first)
2006 Photographic prints, The Workstation, Sheffield.
2005 ‘Resurrection Stories’ Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham
2004 ‘States of Matter’ Folly Gallery, Lancaster
2003 ‘The Almond Tree’ and recent work MAC Birmingham
2003 Photofolio, Salts Mill, Saltaire
2001 ‘Magic, Murder and the Weather’ Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery, Leeds, Nov - Dec Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
1999 ‘Photo works 1989-99′ The Heart Gallery, Bastille, Paris.
1998 ‘Vessel’ Photo 98 Comission, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield.
1997 ‘The Twelve Keys’ series Workstation, Sheffield
1997 Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
1996 Worcester City Art Gallery.
1996 University of Central England, Birmingham
1995 ‘The Twelve Keys’, Installation and other works, Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough, Halifax.
1994 ‘Green Earth’s End Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery
1994 Walsall Art Gallery.
1993 ‘Mortal Remains’ Metro Gallery, Derby
1992 Streetlevel, Glasgow
1992 Zone Gallery, Newcastle
1992 Site Gallery, Sheffield and tour;
1989 ‘Feeding the Eye’ Chapter Arts, Cardiff
1989 Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge
Group Shows
2010 Picturing Science Riverside gallery, Twickenham, December 4th till 26th February 2011
2010 From the Darkness; Light in Contemporary Art’ Brighton Fringe Festival, St Peters church, Brighton
2009 ‘Going Underground’ Village Underground, Shoreditch London,
2008 ‘Valley of Stone’ work by 5 commissioned artists. ‘Hineingrabe’ screened at Horse and Bamboo Theatre
2008 ‘Through the Lens’ Royal West of England Academy show, Bristol
2006 Arles Festival Projections evening event July 6th.
2003-4 ‘Truth and Beauty’ Tour; Lisbon and Porto, Nottingham, Derby
2003 ‘Starting a Collection’ Art First Cork Street, London
2003 Group Show Hofer Gallery, Museum St, London
2002-3 ‘Truth and Beauty’ TwoTen Wellcome Trust Gallery London
2002 ‘Surface’ Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield.
2000 Group show Heart Gallery, Bastille, Paris
1996 ‘Touched By Light’ Iris Touring Show, M.A.C. Birmingham and Watershed, Bristol.
1996 ‘Quarterlight’ Window installation , Paternoster Row, Sheffield.
1994 London Contemporary Art Fair
1994 City Art Gallery, Stoke (part of ‘Signals’, Womens Photography Festival)
1994 ‘Catalyst’ Sheffield Cathedral
1994 ‘Beyond the Beyond’, Cartwright Hall, Bradford.
1993 A Cinema of Stills’, Ikon Touring Programme, Birmingham.
1992 I.C.I Fox Talbot Awards, National Museum of Photography, Film,and Television, Bradford.
1992 ‘Internationales de la Photographie d’Aries’. Mai de la Photo, Reims, France.
1991 ‘Still Lives’ Special Photographers Company, London
1991 ‘Flora Photographica’, Vancouver Art Gallery and touring; New York Library, Montreal Museum of Modern Art etc.
1989 Portfolio Room, Photographers’ Gallery, London
1989 ‘New Evidence’ Untitled Gallery & touring
1989 ‘Image & Imagination’ Untitled Gallery Sheffield, & touring
1987 Schwitters Centenary Wreath Abbot Hall Gallery, Cumbria
Awards
2006 Arts Council Research and development award
2004 Arts Council of England production award
2002 Yorkshire Arts Research and Development award
2001 Yorkshire Arts ‘Showing’ award for publication
2000 Year of the Artist Research and Development award
1998 Photo 98 Regional Commission
1995 Individual production award from Yorkshire and Humberside Arts
1991 Individual production award from Yorkshire Arts
1989 Ilford prize
Collections
Arts Council of Great Britain, Wellcome Trust
West Midlands Arts, East Midlands Arts
Hertfordshire County Council, Leicestershire County Council, Humberside County Council
University of Staffordshire, University of Warwick Collection
Recent projects and commissions
Spring 2005 ‘Bluebeards Castle’ Commissioned photographic work for Opera North’s production of Bluebeard’s castle.
September to October2006 Working with the collection at The Bakken Museum, Minneapolis, USA
2008 ‘Valley of Stone’ commission, ‘Hineingrabe’ video & photographic project with Rural Rossendale
]]>clip taken from 13.5 minute video
Resurrection Stories
clip taken from 9 minute 3 screen video
Installaton shots resurrection stories
djanogly gallery 2005
The Almond Tree
clip from ‘The Almond Tree’ 2004
The Almond Tree (2)
The Almond Tree clip no.02
Vessel installation
in Porto, Portugal
Vessel installation
in Nottingham, UK
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13.5 minute video
This work was commissioned by Groundwork and Horse and Bamboo Theatre Company in 2008 as part of the ‘Valley of Stone’ project. The aim of the commission was to produce work inspired by the landscape and it’s associated history.
The area of Rossendale in Lancashire has a duality about it. The landscape is grandiose and beautiful yet it’s been utilized in many different ways over the years, constantly evolving with industrial and social change. Large chunks of hillside are missing, quarried for the stone and subsidence above ground reminds us of what must have been taken out beneath our feet.
The video ‘Hineingrabe’ (to ‘dig into’) looks at the two worlds above and below ground. It reflects the areas quarrying and mining history whilst drawing on elements of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story, ‘The Mines at Falun’ in which the hero descends into the black underworld of the mine and is lead on by ghostly visions of the ‘Metal Queen’ who shows him the treasure embedded in the seam of ore. He becomes obsessed with bringing to the surface this red jewel he sees at the heart of the depths.
Descent to the labyrinthine underworld to bring back something of value is reminiscent of journeys found in many other mythologies. Also referenced in the work is the story found in local writings of the black dog or Boggart, which once liberated from underground stalks the earth and dissolves like water when struck. This dog that watches the lower world has parallels to Cerberus (translated as ‘demon of the pit’), who conducts the dead down to Hades. The film alludes to the origin of the stone’s creation, how this ancient material is itself the embodiment of the change from fluid to solid and also from the surface to the depths, from light to dark.
‘Hineingrabe’ was screened at The Horse and Bamboo Theatre in Waterfoot, Lancashire in December 2008.
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