Odd Times
dal 22/5/2001 al 17/6/2001
Segnalato da
22/5/2001
Odd Times
CGP London - Cafe Gallery, London
This is the opening exhibition of the Cafe Gallery in Southwark Park in its new incarnation as simply ‘The Gallery’. It features work by Simon Read, an artist who was a resident in Butlers Wharf in Southwark until it was burned down in 1979 and subsequently redeveloped. One intention in the show is to revisit aspects of his concerns then, and explore their continuity into the present day, working on the Suffolk Coast. Then as now, photography has taken a central role for him as has the building of his own camera apparatus. Starting as a misgiving over the extent to which orthodox photographic equipment prescribes a relationship with any subject, over the years this has become extended to encapsulate a whole discourse where photography performs a role parenthetic to the larger question of how, in our culture, power and control are gained through the act of rendering experience as information.
This is the opening exhibition of the Cafe Gallery in Southwark Park in its new
incarnation as simply ‘The Gallery’. It features work by Simon Read, an artist
who was a resident in Butlers Wharf in Southwark until it was burned down in
1979 and subsequently redeveloped. One intention in the show is to revisit
aspects of his concerns then, and explore their continuity into the present day,
working on the Suffolk Coast. Then as now, photography has taken a central role
for him as has the building of his own camera apparatus. Starting as a misgiving
over the extent to which orthodox photographic equipment prescribes a
relationship with any subject, over the years this has become extended to
encapsulate a whole discourse where photography performs a role parenthetic to
the larger question of how, in our culture, power and control are gained through
the act of rendering experience as information.
It would be wise to say that the works themselves are not polemical. Reflecting
the communities and landscapes the artist operates within, they afford a space
to contemplate the act of converting reality to image, where the degree to which
the self-conscious use of an idiosyncratic apparatus makes overt the role of the
artist as broker. By using the commonplace the focus is transferred to the point
at which we transform our world through predilection and prejudice.
In the early 20th century there was a retired sea captain living in Suffolk, who
divided his time between acting as a river pilot and going fishing. By the
nature of his occupation he was not always able to work the tides as did most
other fishermen, which prompted the name of a new-built boat as the laconic "Odd
Times".
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday 23rd May-Sunday 17th June 2001.
Private View: 6.30-8.30 pm, Tuesday 22nd May, 2001.
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 5pm (closed Mondays/Tuesdays).
Tube: Canada Water on the Jubilee Line.
Buses: 1,47, 188, 199, 395, P13, 381.
The Gallery is fully accessible to people with disabilities
Cafe Gallery, Southwark Park, London