The Day Remains_II Peltz Room Gallery Birkbeck School of Art and Screen Media 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H
Last Thursday saw the opening of a small exhibition at the Peltz Room Gallery, part of the Birkbeck School of Art.The show, entitled The Day Remains, takes its title from the famous novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day), suggesting a similar use of memory to juxtapose past with present. The show features work by seven different artists (including the curator, 2006 UAL graduate Victoria Ahrens), each of whom was invited to explore the theme both visually and metaphorically.
The show is in fact a continuation of an earlier version of the exhibition that took place at 23 Grafton Street in Mayfair last year. The show was so successful that curator Victoria thought it would be worthwhile to propose the exhibition to other spaces including Birkbeck, with the notion of using the space as a temporary museum/ gallery space.
A piece that particularly stood out was that of Camberwell College MA graduate Rachel Hunt. Entitled “They do Things Differently There”, the work is part of a series of projections using 35mm slides the artist found in the street. The images are then projected onto two uneven blocks of pink and orange Styrofoam creating a fragmented re-interpretation of found items that held no previous meaning to the artist. By leaving a gap between the two blocks of Styrofoam and coordinating this with the location vanishing point on the image creates a further sense of visual dialogue. Subtle and understated, the piece also highlights the fascination that photography and sculpture combined together hold for Hunt. She began experimenting with printing onto various materials to see how it would change the perception, connotation, and narrative of an image. The origin or utilitarian aspect of the object is unimportant; it is the material itself and its possibility as a vehicle for the photographic image in creating it’s new physical context.
Also amongst the exhibiting artists is Cecila Jardemar, a visual artist based in Stockholm who uses photography, video, performance, and participatory practice to explore social and psychological aspects of the human condition.
Victoria Arney combines found images with processes such as print making and cut-paper installations to set the stage for revisiting forgotten sites of memory and erosion. Her exhibited work references the work of Albrecht Altdorfer.
Patic Sandri’s ambiguous paintings explore the blurring of the real with the imaginary, reminding us of the shortcomings of human memory through manipulation of the image. He uses drawings of his own private recollections before distorting them through the physicality of uncontrolled painting.
Altea Grau Vidal tackles the theme of memory with very little use of visual imagery, relying instead on acts and traces of writing that are then interacted with as a site of memory rather than read by the viewer.
Curator Victoria Ahrens also has works featured in the show: her practice is a combination of drawing, printmaking, photography and projection in order to interrogate what we know and what we think we know about the places around us and their memories.
The show will run until the 25th of May and is accompanied by two events:
20th May:
Open discussion on memory, fragment, and ruin (6-7:30pm)
21st May
Opportunity to speak to the curator and artists about their work (6 – 7:30pm)
“California Couture” Dior Men capsule collection guest designed by ERL has arrived at the Dover Street Market store in London with a special Ground Floor installation.
‘Factory Reset’ is the debut solo exhibition by artist Duncan Poulton, with new work spanning digital collage, moving image, digital painting and installation.
