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17/1/2002

Paul Hodgson

Houldsworth Gallery, London

Houldsworth is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of London-based artist Paul Hodgson. In his photographs, Hodgson draws on Renaissance and Neoclassical portraits that strived to affirm the social status and importance of the sitter. Hodgson openly utilises the same visual language - dramatic staging and lighting, the subjects posing with exaggerated gesture within a carefully constructed tableau- but employs it in order to subtly subvert, exploring the uncertainty and frailty of the contemporary human subject.
In ‘Boy with Landscape’, he freely adapts the elements of Gainsborough’s ‘Blue Boy’ - contrapposto pose, muted blue palette and sylvan background- but the inner confidence of his predecessor is replaced by a new, unfounded pride, as he hovers nervously before a digitally enlarged urban space. In a similar manner, the motif of the monumental, recumbent figure, familiar to us from Renaissance depictions of the Life of Christ, is used to heighten the unexplained drama of ‘Collapsed Figure’ and ‘Collapsed Figure on Red Ground’. Both are fallen men, overcome with exhaustion or failure, lying helplessly on the floor.

In each of Hodgson’s photographs, the strength of the composition and the flawless mise-en-scene parallels the Renaissance process of recreating the observed world on canvas. Hodgson uses these elements of ‘classical’ language as routes into his pictures, as suggestive metaphors.
Yet the scenes are not necessarily meant to evoke sympathy or compassion nor are they meant to confirm social stereotypes. Hodgson is more concerned with presenting a scene that can be considered on a personal and contemporary level. The positioning of the figures in ‘Rehearsal’ recalls Mantegna’s ‘Dead Christ’: a man lies on his back, presented to the viewer in fore-shortened perspective, accompanied by a seated figure.
The nature of their relationship is ambiguous, as are their individual feelings and the seriousness of his medical condition. The image itself is a framework, waiting for the hollowness of a frozen moment to come alive again.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, London, Paul Hodgson has exhibited in several group shows, both in and outside of London. He will be exhibiting in Art of the Ideal in Verona in early 2002. Hodgson is a tutor of New Media at Richmond University, London.

The gallery is open Monday - Friday 10 - 5.30, Saturday 10.30 - 16

Houldsworth Gallery
33-34 Cork Street London W1S 3NQ
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7434 2333
Fax: +44 (0)20 7434 3636

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