13/4/2007
Veronica Bailey
Bank, Los Angeles
In her most recent body of work "Postscript", Bailey formulates a visually arresting and seductive collection of photographs that document a small but revealing archive of letters written by model/muse/photographer Lee Miller during her years as a war correspondent in World War II.
Postscript
British born artist Veronica Bailey has created a recognizable body of still life
photography that fuses her interests in history, archive, materiality and
abstraction. In her most recent body of work Postscript, Bailey formulates a
visually arresting and seductive collection of photographs that document a small but
revealing archive of letters written by model/muse/photographer Lee Miller during
her years as a war correspondent in World War II.
The letters in Postscript focus primarily on the correspondence between Miller
(1907-1977) and British Surrealist artist Roland Penrose (1900-1984) prior to their
marriage in 1947, but also include communications with her wartime employer and
Vogue editor, Audrey Withers. During the years the letters were written, Miller
documented the Blitz, the liberation of Paris as well as Nazi concentration camps
and their victims upon their liberation. These were frenetic times for Miller much
like her passionately charged relationship with Penrose.
Bailey was granted full access of the Lee Miller Archive at Farley Farm in East
Sussex. Each letter is photographed long and thin, yet seduces with its soft lines
of folded paper and hinted text. The materiality of antiquated torn paper is both
sculptural and erotic. Although the viewer is never privy to the content, Bailey's
titles Don't Make Me Wait Too Long, I Love You and Mad With Envy connect directly
with the emotional charge of the letters without revealing their intimate details.1
Much of the power of these images lies in their subtle erotic mystery.
London based artist Veronica Bailey received her BA from Middlesex University and
her MA from Central Saint Martins College. Just after receiving her MA, Bailey won
the 2003 Jerwood Prize in photography for the 2 Willow Rd. Series - photographs of
books from the library of the modernist architect Erno Goldfinger and his wife
Ursula Blackwell. Her work has been published in Art Forum, Eye Magazine, Portfolio
and Grafik. She is represented by Frost and Reed in London/New York, Tartar Gallery
in Toronto and Bank in Los Angeles. This is Bailey's west coast debut.
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 14, 7 - 9 PM
Bank
125 W. 4th St - Los Angeles