Archiving & Ordering

As I continue to make my new body of work, new things are being archived and ordered into the series. As the process continues and the grief changes so to does the work. Now one year on, I feel that these receipts should be photographed and added to the collection/ archive of objects. They span nearly seven months and represent much talking and analysis of the circumstances surrounding my grief. Each one is numbered and dated and of which I have twenty-three of them.

As the series evolves I am beginning to see this process as an ever-growing archive, of which an appendix seems the most appropriate form of cataloguing all the objects. Each one feels like it needs numbering and ultimately closing and putting away.

Winner Announced

Jim Goldberg has been awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 in an award ceremony held at Ambika P3 Gallery last night. Jim was presented with the £30,000 award by broadcaster and critic Miranda Sawyer for this exhibition "Open Sea." A friend who was there last night said Jim was very shocked and extremely humbled by the judge’s decision.

"Jim Goldberg’s series Open See documents the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries to make new lives in Europe. Originating from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, these ‘new Europeans’ have met violence and brutality as well as hope and liberation in their new homes.

Merging Polaroids, video, text, ephemera and large and medium format photographs, Goldberg employs his varied and experimental approaches to photographic storytelling to reflect on issues of migration and the conditions for desiring escape."

Although I wanted Elad Lassry to win, I do feel that in light of the recent events, Jim Goldberg is a very deserving winner. He produced work that documents stories of suffering and puts himself in places that others wouldn't or couldn't. He tells and shows us a tale in an exciting photographic way we wouldn't have otherwise seen or known.

I would like to add, after hearing about the tragic death of Tim Hetherington last week; the entire photography industry was shocked and saddened by the news as we had lost a great master in his field and my deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends in such hard times. He will never be forgotten and he inspired so many.

http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=4&show=28

http://www.timhetherington.org/condolences/

In Loving Memory

In loving memory of my dearest friend, one year on tomorrow, the 21st April. I will never forget you and will love you dearly forever.

Time Passing

Last Saturday I visited the Hayward Gallery to see the The British Art Show, which was in its final days, it closed on Sunday 17th April. There were a couple of things I had been interested in seeing but nothing more so than Christian Marclay's "The Clock." For anyone who has not heard about this piece, "The Clock' is constructed out of moments in cinema when time is expressed or when a character interacts with a clock, watch or just a particular time of day. Marclay has excerpted thousands of these fragments and edited them so that they flow in real time" White Cube. This piece is fantastic, it truly is a craftsmanship of genius.

As you enter the room and take a seat, the film has been continuously playing. You enter at a certain time, I did at 14:32 and watch the sequences of film shots perfectly edited together. The time passes and with every second matched to real time you almost become part of the film, watching the time pass as the time watches you. Certain times have a crescendo, others have nothing at all, but what is wonderful is that for those minutes that you sit watching this film, your perception of time gets distorted. I left feeling like I had been in there for hours, but knowing that I had only been over 30 minutes! Brilliant.

This really is a stunning piece of cinema, wonderfully put together and amazingly produced, I could of watched the entire 24 hours and feel sorry I missed that opportunity on the 5th and 6th of March at the Hayward. If you haven't seen it, keep looking because I am sure it will be playing again in another gallery, another country soon.

http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/cm/

Demand, Ethridge, Goldberg or Lassry?

Today I took a trip over to Baker Street to see the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize at Westminister University. Firstly what a great exhibition space they have there, it reminded me a little of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, just without the graffiti, skaters and the Parisian culture - brilliant all the same.

As you walk into the space you are immediately faced with Thomas Demand's "Heldenorgel, 2009" against panels of wallpaper. This towering structure, in both physical and content terms dominates the room. I am, and have been a fan of Demand's work but felt a little cold after this exhibit, I felt the space could of taken more, another piece would of added just a little bit more warmth and given a greater understanding when viewing Demand's work.

After Demand's you pan across the room to see an installation of Jim Goldberg's series "Open Sea." Under the stairs are four video pieces playing at once, pauses of black interrupt and a burst of voices grows then fades. The Polaroids are beautiful and the installation of different sized, framed imagery is stunning. An added bonus, is a A1 sheet detailing objects from the project which you are encouraged to take away with you. This is the only show I have seen out of the four and I felt that the curation at P3 was superior to the original at The Photographers' Gallery, maybe it's space that let it down before.

Then in a smaller side room were both Ethridge and Lassry, where the works almost merge into one. For me, this was a real shame, I had hoped that the two artists would be separated, providing both bodies of imagery with more space to breath. Nether-less I was very pleased with what I saw.

Ethridge's playful boundary blurring examines important questions about photography and its positioning within contemporary art and culture. Juxtaposing commercial work with fine art imagery, he uses the medium to question the very nature of what the medium is and can be, something which is extremely important for the future of photography.

Lastly, Elad Lassry's photographs and 16 mm film projections. The size of these images is wonderful, they are small-scale and really invite the audience to 'look' at the photograph. Collages, overtly plastic-like imagery is so familiar, yet you view in a different way, you see through the banal and into what constitutes an image. The film projections add a new dimension, the 16 mm format is perfect as the imperfections of the film are played out in a continuos humming, as we watch colours, patterns and people pass from one side of the frame to the other.

For me, considering the point at which we are at with Photography, the important questioning that is needed and is taking place the winner is Elad Lassry. I feel he is really producing work that examines the very nature of what Photography is and can be. He bridges the gap between stills and film and examines fundamentally what it is to 'look' in an age where we see millions of images everyday. Let's wait and see!

Image copyright Elad Lassry, "Burmese Mother, Kittens, 2008."

Automatic

As I continue with my new body of work "Little Gifts" it evolves softly with new elements being added in all the time. I have been working on a few textual pieces over the last three weeks and have only felt ready now, to upload an example of what they look like. The pieces of text are automatic writing, pieces of text which simply express my thoughts as and when I write them. They are raw, unedited and honest and at times disclose my deepest thoughts and all the emotions that are brought up through that. They are written on an old typewriter, the sound, motion and action of this feels so right for the content of this series. I have already produced 6 and will continue to do so, as and when it feels right.

Image copyright Melinda Gibson 2011.