There will be a book signing at the Edel Assanti Project Space on Saturday, 19th June between 1-3pm.
I remember a whirl of colourful outfits, music, and every kind of face you could ever imagine. As the quiet lane in front of me turned into a hybrid of a theatrical stage and a travelling circus, I was left wide-eyed and spellbound. It was the end of the festival in the early 80s and the beginning of my love affair with Glastonbury… Venetia Dearden, 2010
Edel Assanti is pleased to present Glastonbury: Another Stage, the culmination of a body of work that represents a journey Venetia Dearden has undertaken for the last six years. Having grown up with the festival on her doorstep, a constant in her life since childhood, it seems only natural that it should provide the inspiration for her largest body of work to date.
As a photographer I was magnetically drawn to witness and understand what lies at its core. I decided to create an oasis amongst the crowds where I could meet and document some of the thousands of individuals who travelled from all around the world to make up this vast, eclectic gathering.
For anyone that has experienced the hedonism of a festival, it is impossible to view Dearden’s colourful, fleeting glances of Glastonbury’s landscapes without enjoying the warm pangs of nostalgia. Whilst these high-speed images echo our collective memories, they starkly contrast with the intense immediacy when Dearden’s gaze is turned upon Glastonbury’s crowds.
Set against an austere white backdrop, Dearden decontextualises the sitter, temporarily removing them from their disparate tribes. With the trappings of the festival stripped away, the viewer is compelled to address the subjects as individuals. Every multicoloured strand of hair, fleck of mud and square of tattooed flesh evokes an imagined narrative for each portrait; but what unites this multifaceted depiction of the world’s most celebrated festival is the sitters’ shared reverie of self-expression.
Like the festival itself, these images are a visual feast. An adventure playground of memories, the portraits are intensely personal and respectful, managing throughout to capture the playful exoticism that will drive people of all walks of life to reach for the wellies and rub shoulders in the mud this summer.
Venetia Dearden completed her postgraduate course in photojournalism at the London College of Printing in 2000. Images from Dearden’s celebrated Somerset series were shown for two consecutive years at the Photographic Portrait Awards, and in 2007, she was selected by Art and Commerce for their emerging talent Peek Awards. In 2008, Dearden published her book “Somerset Stories, Fivepenny Dreams”, followed shortly by “Glastonbury, Another Stage” in April 2010, which accompanies the present exhibition. Selected works from this series are currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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