Susan Derges
dal 14/6/2006 al 21/7/2006
Segnalato da
14/6/2006
Susan Derges
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
Using the raw materials of light and chemically sensitised paper, Derges pushes the boundaries of her medium in innovative ways that balance a delight in scientific experiment with a philosophical contemplation of our relationship to the natural world.
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Susan Derges is one of the leading and most respected photographers working in
Britain today. Like contemporaries Christopher Bucklow, Adam Fuss and Garry Fabian
Miller, her work looks back to the very origins of photography. Using the raw
materials of light and chemically sensitised paper, Derges pushes the boundaries of
her medium in constantly innovative and exciting ways that balance a delight in
scientific experiment with a philosophical contemplation of our relationship to the
natural world.
Among Derges’ most celebrated works are her River Taw and Shoreline series’ made
near to her studio in Dartmoor from 1997-1999. Using the night as her darkroom, and
the river or ocean as her transparency, Derges created extraordinary images by
submerging positive photographic paper beneath the surface of the water. A
milleseconds flash of brilliant light, controlled by the artist, fixed a brief
moment in the waters constant ebb and flow onto the paper.
These unique works were highly acclaimed and are now held in important public and
private collections worldwide. Derges then resolved to make no more, turning instead
to experiments seeking to somehow incorporate the sources of ambient light, the moon
and stars - crucial determinants of colour in her earlier photograms - eventually
resulting in the Starfield and Moon series’ in 2002 (ongoing). These works retain
elements of the earlier making but are now constructed in her darkroom using a tank
of flowing water and photographic transparencies of celestial phenomenon projected
onto the waters surface.
In 2003, Susan Derges’ was commissioned by the Eden Project in Cornwall to create a
major series of glass windows and in the making of this project she was compelled to
return to the source of her earlier work, so creating a final body of River and
Shoreline works. We are delighted to be showing these last original photograms in
Derges’ third solo exhibition at the gallery, alongside a small group of works from
her most recent series.
Susan Derges was born in London in 1955. She studied painting at the Chelsea and
Slade Schools of Art before turning exclusively to photography, and later cameraless
photography. Her work is held in highly respected collections including the Victoria
& Albert Museum, London; Arts Council of England; The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Hara Museum, Tokyo.
A 32 page linen bound book with text by Christopher Bucklow will be published to
accompany this exhibition. Twenty copies will be special editions, each containing a
unique photogram, a fragment from the first works that Derges made on the River Taw
in 1996.
Private view Thursday 15 June, 6-8pm
Ingleby Gallery
6 Carlton Terrace - Edinburgh