Fiona Crisp - Subterrania

Fiona Crisp Subterrania at the Impressions Gallery. visited 23/01/10
solo exhibition by the British artist Fiona Crisp. The photography of Fiona Crisp is presented within the gallery space in large scale format this adds to the imagery's seemingly overwhelming affect, the imagery has been collected over the past seven years, using a diverse range of locations
I personally found the use of light in the photographs to be key to their awe inspiring effect, communicating in a sense the idea of being whiteness to something, this feeling compounded by the images large scale format, taking over the gallery space, becoming independent of it. I would draw a parallel with the experience of entering a Cathedral even though the images where on the wall they carried the sensation of looking up, Turing again to the importance for me with the affect of light almost ethereal

An extract form Fiona Crisps website says of the images

'Ranging from Early Christian Catacombs to a Second World War underground hospital, the apparently disparate locations for the images were chosen primarily for the sense of physical power that they evoke but also for the fact that they are all now tourist sites where complex relationships between heritage, leisure and history are brought into question. Here, contrary to a location’s specific historic purpose that allowed access to a defined group of users, these sites have now been opened up for tourism where the boundaries between modern experience and historical truth are unavoidably blurred'

Neeta Madahar at the Media Museum

Neeta Madahar exhibition at the National media Museum. visited 23/01/10
The Five bodies of work segregated into five sections within the exhibition space each series varies incredibly from each others. At first glance there is no apparent relationship between the works, without Madahar's name being placed next to each work it would be easy to think the work exhibited was produced by three different individuals however in in his article for ‘archive’ Derek Horton comments on this difference as being merely superficial as running thorough these three bodies of work ‘is a concern with the relationship of nature and the artifice'

In ‘Falling’ Madahar combined still and moving imagery of sycamore seeds in motion all artificially set up for the event/image these images reflecting a naturally occurring event. The focus is of the sycamore seeds falling no context is given other than sky. These images might be seen as evocative of childhood memories focusing on a small wonder experienced, remembered and stored as a snapshot

In the ‘Cosmos’ Madahar created a series of unique photograms using handmade origami flowers, the tones created by light shone through the paper pettels are practically indistinguishable from those that would be expected if ‘real’ flowers where used again bringing home what Horton said in his article of the works ‘relationship of nature and artifice’

Sustenance is a series of Documentary photographs Madahar produced while studying in the USA. The images of birds in their habitat where taken form the balcony of the apartment where Madahar was staying in Massachusetts. A similarity might be drawn between these images and those of Jill Cole’s series ‘Between hear and there’. Images where taken on a nature reserve within and army garrison, Cole’s images document a conservation project involving the capture and identification of birds. Both Madahar’s and Cole’s series can be seen as reflecting on issues of home and belonging, both using as mediator simpler creatures. Madahar watching the bird feeder just bejond her balcony, Cole looking into the nuances of army life hear in briten from the inside of the army garrison.

'Photography shows us not what the world looks like but what the world looks like photographed, but we see the photographed world so much that our vision and perception is fundametally changed by it' Derek Horton 'archive' journal October 2009