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4/7/2012

If on a Lonely Night a Traveller

Transition Gallery, London

Darren Marshall, Helen Maurer, Dafna Talmor, Mimei Thompson

A lonely road, perhaps it is night time. No one is around, no cars, no houses. Only a few details emerge through the fog, as you walk along, trying to piece together this place where you have found yourself. Stones slide beneath your feet, and you stumble, noticing as you do so that you have narrowly missed a steep fall.

The title for this show is a mis-remembering of Italo Calvino’s novel ‘If on a winter’s night a traveller’. This novel is made up of multiple interrupted stories in various styles, and continually refers to itself and to its reader, exploring the act of the reading itself.

The exhibition is based on the idea of a lonely road, along which a traveller visits various mental landscapes. There is a feeling of melancholy, and of longing, searching. The landscapes are all empty- the only figure is you, the observer, who can engage with the works, in their various languages, if you choose.

These landscapes are about the effects the images may have on the viewer, and not about specific locations in the real world. The works all have a self-aware quality, and the various mediums of their construction are prominent and evident, as much the subject of the work as anything portrayed.

Some of the works are about remembering, and some refer to historical modes of representation. With certain works there is a constructing, layering and collageing of images to create new spaces, whilst others function as iconic signs and ideas of landscape.

Darren Marshall uses stripped-back, minimal imagery from various sources to create his atmospheric paintings, in muted, chalky tones. They are constructed through stretching linen over canvas and cutting into it, leaving silhouettes with hanging threads, or sometimes incorporating objects under the surface of the top layer of fabric.

Helen Maurer works with glass arranged on an overhead projector, re-creating fragments and amalgamations of remembered scenes. There are two landscapes in each work, the arrangement of objects on the projector itself, and the projected image on the wall. The observer is also often present in the work, casting their shadow into the piece.

Dafna Talmor's 'Constructed Landscapes' series uses multiple photographs for each image. She cuts and tears and layers up negatives from various locations with personal significance, and hand prints the final work. There are often large black spaces, where there is no negative present, and the light of the enlarger has burnt into the paper.

Mimei Thompson's paintings use landscape imagery, such as caves, to reflect internal worlds, and as metaphors for states of mind. She works with fluid, translucent paint, and her marks are both descriptive and also remain themselves, as objects in the picture plane

Image: Darren Marshall, Dog Barking at Birds

Preview: Thursday 5 July, 6-9pm

Transition Gallery
Unit 25a Regent Studios
8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN
Fri-Sun, 12-6pm

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