Monday, October 31, 2016

HELEN SEAR: NEW WORK RELEASED

WILD FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS (2015)

Wild Flower Arrangement No. 1 (Daucus Carota)


Size: 39.3"x39.3" image on 43.3"x43.3" sheet
Medium: Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Cotton Rag
Edition: 5+2AP



Daucus Carota, wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace and Queen Anne's lace, so named as the red flower in its center is thought to represent a droplet of blood, where the wife of Kings James I pricked herself while making lace. Another story refers to the earlier Anne Boleyn, the beheaded wife of King Henry VIII, the white flower representing the lace around her neck and the red center, the point of decapitation.

These wild flowers, found at the side of agricultural fields and roadside ditches were once popular as a contraceptive for women, and simultaneously in ancient ritual and spells, to increase sexual potency in men.

Helen Sear's Wild Flower Arrangements show the flower heads of Daucus Carota, at different stages of maturity—which often display at the same time on the same stem—and have been cut and rearranged in unnatural configurations, as constructed portraits. The complex beauty of the weed that thrives in wasteland, is heightened by its isolation within an interior space, reminiscent of the opulent surroundings of society portraiture.

Please contact Debra Klomp Ching for purchase inquiries. 


Saturday, October 15, 2016

ELAINE DUIGENAN: IPA AWARDS

We are delighted to announce that Elaine Duignan has been awarded a 2nd Place in the 2016 International Photo Awards. The award is given for the Blossfeldt's Apprentice series, which we debuted at the AIPAD Photography Show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York earlier this year.

Elaine Duigenan's work takes a close look at objects. Things are never quite what they seem, and her work is pared down to find singular beauty. Pale specimens glow in inky black spaces and appear to hang by a thread. There is strength and fragility, perfection and imperfection. Her work teases the viewer as images hover somewhere between quirkiness and elegance.

Blossfeldt's Apprentice (2016)


Artworks are available for collectors as follows:

16.5'' x 11.5'', Edition 3+2AP
11.75'' x 8.25'', Edition 3+2AP

Archival Pigment Prints with Certificate of Authentication



Tuesday, October 4, 2016

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

ODETTE ENGLAND: EXCAVATIONS
October 8 – November 19, 2016


KLOMPCHING GALLERY is delighted to present Excavations—a collection of new photographs by Odette EnglandExcavations was premiered at the AIPAD Photography Fair in New New York in April 2016, and we are now pleased to be showcasing the full breadth of the series.

Please join us the Opening Reception on Saturday, October 8, 6pm–8pm.
We hope you can make it, and we look forward to seeing you.


Excavation, No. 3 (2015)

Home is the center-weight of Odette England’s artistic practice, with memory and forgetting being the counterbalances. Her photographs are fragile, contemplative and temporal spaces. Throughout her practice, she works with expired film, vintage cameras, damaged negatives and alternative photo processes; exploring volatility of identity, emphasizing the unstable nature of the past/present and the parent/child seesaw. These overall themes continue to be examined with Excavations, which utilizes historical photographs from the artist’s family archive.
The 18 color photographs presented in the exhibition, are one-of-a-kind and unique, having undergone a meticulous and labor-intensive process of being partially erased and obscured. This process of manual manipulation, is evidenced by the trace of the artist’s hand—gestures in the form of lines, sweeping arches and circular movements, through to dense areas of almost total obliteration of the original image. Across the artworks, this stripping away of visual information is carefully balanced with glimpses of substantive visual clues—a sitting figure, a landscape vista, a tree or lamp-post. 
“Preserving family history via photography is like archaeology: it involves the exposure, processing and recording of remains. But to uncover the truth of an image – or at least an interpretation of a truth – a ‘hunt’ or ‘dig’ is required. Excavationsexplores the invisible social space of family storytelling through photography. I make c-prints in the darkroom of family pictures from expired Kodak film, as well as using original snapshots from the album, then carefully hand-sand them with various types of sandpaper. I aim to loosen the complexities of material encounter with intangible concepts. Mine is also a literal assault. I cross into taboo territory, the transgression and squeamish horror of destroying original personal possessions”.—Odette England

Diffidence, 2015
  

In addition to the manipulation of the photographic surface, scale and format is a key element of this series. With some of the artworks, England has re-presented the photographs as enlarged contemporary pigment prints and squared-off, thus situating the subject outside of its original context and intention. Alongside these, original vintage c-type snapshots are presented in deep-set boxes, maintaining the intimacy of the family album, but clearly contextualized as museum-like artifacts.
Excavations is a thought-provoking body of work that is meticulously made, both in terms of physical execution and conceptual vision. These are quiet, meditative artworks, incorporating elements of abstraction, preservation of history and nostalgia, together with an active and critical comment on the malleability of the photograph, which runs counter to its continued link to truth and reality.
Odette England (b.1975) is an Australian/British artist, whose artwork has been exhibited across the US and internationally. Awards and accolades include winning the 2012 CENTER Project Launch Award, shortlisted for the 2015 Australian Photo Book Of The Year, Finalist for the 2015 Cliftons Art Prize (Asia Pacific region), and more recently shortlisted for the prestigious 2016 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award (Australia). Collections holding her work include the George Eastman Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art and MoCP. Odette England lives and works in Rhode Island, US.