 Christopher Bucklow: Guest, 2003 unique cibachrome photographic print 94.9 x 74.5 cm, 37 1/3 x 29 1/3 in Recycling Lucifer's Fall Christopher Bucklow, Susan Derges, Mariele Neudecker, Doug & Mike Starn "How could light be recognised if not through darkness?" The dream as pure moment of merging between a dark world of the unconscious and the light of day emerges for each artist in this exhibition as the instance of realisation. This desire to understand, whether through the need to reconcile oneself with experiences of the sublime, or the construction of spaces that deal with the ideas of inclusion, relationship and belonging, tie the artists to the polarity of light and darkness. The darkness becomes profound in Derges' new works of starscapes that refer to Hildegard of Bingen's illumination of stars embedded in water, Recycling Lucifer's Fall into Humanity's Glory. Derges no longer takes the role of the silent observer, allowing nature to unfold to her exclusion, but instead finds herself "in the midst of the work". The images make a topographical shift; we appear at once to be looking up through water and yet we see stars or the moon play on its surface. For Bucklow the extraordinary is reached through works that attempt to exhibit self as a fractured conscious and unconscious being, through the apprehensions of the imagination. If the images appear magical then it is the magic of a dream that in its darkest depths may reveal, in the words of N O Brown, "that Heaven and Hell are the same place". This revelation of the natural power of dreams is seen in Bucklow's work as a light that penetrates the body, or radiates from it. Mariele Neudecker's double-sided lightbox records the simultaneous rising and setting of the sun on opposite sides of the globe – South East Australia and the Western Azores. The work examines the fine line between reality and fiction, the mythological imaginary and the everyday – the natural and the supernatural, representation and perception. Neudecker draws on the work of Goethe and the German Romantic Tradition, exploring notions where light and dark exist in uneasy symbiosis. Houldsworth is very pleased to be the first gallery in the world to show the new lambda prints from Doug and Mike Starn's "Attracted to Light" series; together with their intensely powerful and evocative photographic prints from the same group of works. "For the Starns, light is more than enlightenment; it is the gravity of all our past experiences and our future, the conscious and unconscious, external and internal factors that drive our lives" (Demetrio Paparoni). "Blind Spot" is to publish the Starns' new book "Attracted to Light" in November of this year, and will profile the artists in the October issue of their magazine. Catalogue available with an essay by Nick Hackworth. 15 October - 22 November 2003 Hours: Tue-Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 10.30am - 4pm Houldsworth Gallery 33-34 Cork Street UK-London W1S 3NQ Telephone +44 (0)20 7434 2333 Fax +44 (0)20 7434 3636 E-Mail gallery@houldsworth.co.uk www.houldsworth.co.uk |
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