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Suspension I (Pompeii I, 6, 4)
Suspension II (Herculaneum V, 17, 18)
Suspension III (Remote Sensing)
Suspension IV (Pompeii VII, 4, 48)
Beth Harland's work explores relationships between photography and
painting, particularly in terms of representing memory, both personal
and collective. She uses her own photographs and archival collections
as source material, images which are then re-inscribed through the
painting process to uncover traces of the more fugitive aspects
of seeing and remembering. The work manifests a desire to retouch,
revise and decipher the image through process and to question how
history and experience become image.
The paintings for this exhibition focus on the properties of smog
and the physical and psychological impact of its invasive contamination.
The senses are disorientated in the shrouding presence of smog,
fragmenting one's experience of space as it permeates interiors
as well as enfolds landscapes. The surface and colour register of
the paintings suggest the opaque, yet at the same time, the reflective
surface of fog produces its own particular light and colour. Source
images include glimpsed interiors photographed in Pompeii; images
which suggest suffocation and extreme fragmentation. The multi-layered
surfaces of the paintings act to create a density that disorientates
vision and evokes a feeling of suspension and enclosure; a holding
of the breath.
Biography
Beth Harland studied at the RCA, London and Ruskin School of Art,
Oxford and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.
In 2000, she was awarded a scholarship to the British School at
Rome, exhibiting there and in Naples.
Other exhibitions include:
Closer Still, which she curated, ArtSway and Winchester
Gallery 2001, The Wreck of Hope, The Nunnery, London 2000,
Sleight of Hand, 5 Years Gallery, London 2000, John
Moores Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1999, After,
solo exhibition, the gallery @ Central School of Speech and Drama,
London 1999, Reading Matter, Norwich Gallery and Standpoint
Gallery, London 1999, Rhizome, Kolo Gallery, Gdansk, Poland
1999, Inter Views, Studio Gallery, Budapest 1998, Close
to Home, U.F.F. Gallery, Budapest 1998, Whitechapel Open,
Whitechapel Art Gallery/Tannery, London 1998, Join The Dots,
5020 Galerie, Salzburg, Austria 1996, Sad, Gasworks Gallery,
London 1996, Now Wash Your Hands Arnolfini, Bristol 1996.
last updated
17.12.2002 | designed and maintained by Adrian Cousins |