Expositions du 23/11/2007 au 27/01/2008 Terminé
Photonet 5 & 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7HY www.photonet.org.uk info@photonet.org.uk Call: +44 (0)20 7831 1772 Open: Mon – Sat 11.00 – 18.00 Thurs 11.00 – 20.00 & Sun 12.00 – 18.00
Seeing is Believing is an exhibition inspired by the otherworldly. It will explore, through archival images and contemporary art practice, photography's strong relationship to the non-rational, the unknown, the intangible and the ethereal through a diverse selection of materials.
This exhibition will combine vintage photographs from the little known, but fascinating archive of the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature alongside a selection of works by seven international artists who share a fascination for the unexplained.
Known as Britain's most famous ghost investigator, Harry Price (b.1881, London) created an archive dedicated to collating research for the National Laboratory of Psychical Research.
Containing visual documentation of séances and other paranormal activity, as well as images of the scientific elements used in these investigations, the archive was established in 1925 and is now held at Senate House Library, University of London. The exhibition will include photographs of spiritual mediums including the ectoplasmic emissions of Helen Duncan, the last person to be tried under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735, séances with the Welsh medium John Lewis and the light emitting psychic Pasquale Erto as well as photographic documentation from the famous Borley Rectory Haunting and the Crawley Poltergeist. These images will offer an insight into this vast archive and demonstrate their influence upon the contemporary works presented in the exhibition.
The contemporary photographers explore the alchemical properties of photography and its ability to suggest unusual phenomena. The work falls loosely into two categories, the photograph used as a tool in the gathering of ‘evidence', and alternately as a means through which the non-rational may be creatively explored.
Clare Strand (b.1973, UK) creates black & white ‘aura' portraits of young women using the techniques previously employed by turn of the century spirit photographers. Photographs of empty New York streets by Tim Maul (b.1951, USA) document areas where a medium has detected a ‘spirit' presence. Susan MacWilliam (b.1969, N.Ireland) explores ideas of the visible and the unseen through psychic research, film and installation and Ben Judd's (b.1970, UK) stereoscopic works debate notions of susceptibility and delusion. The visionary power of the photograph influences Roger Ballen (b.1950, USA) who combines automatic drawing and performance to create savage, symbolic, surreal tableaux. Florencia Durante (b.1976, Spain) records the power and energy of light in her striking colour photographs and Fred Ressler (b.1941, USA) captures ghost-like faces and figures emerging from shadows.
This exhibition will discuss whether seeing is truly believing and reflects The Photographers' Gallery's continued commitment to reappraising archival collections within a contemporary context.Photonet 5 & 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7HY www.photonet.org.uk info@photonet.org.uk Call: +44 (0)20 7831 1772 Open: Mon – Sat 11.00 – 18.00 Thurs 11.00 – 20.00 & Sun 12.00 – 18.00