I was recently asked to preview a photographic exhibition for local photography gallery One Eyed Jacks.
Here’s the copy below and you can link to the One Eyed Jacks Press Release here. Exhibition runs until the 19th April – don’t miss it!
Preview by Rachel K Gillies
A new exhibition at One Eyed Jacks gallery entitled ‘Tomorrow has Passed’ has been acutely woven by guest curator Mark Peter Drolet, an avid Tumblr user whose curatorial talents came to the attention of gallery director Matt Henry. Canada-based Drolet, who is also a photographer, set out to make ‘new and interesting associations’ and has staged a bitter-sweet melancholy across the exhibition. With a strong contemporary feel that nods to online collections from the likes of Tumblr, Flickr and Instagram, the works nevertheless evoke narratives of days gone by, celebrating a chromatic nostalgia for a photographic past.
As an exhibition, this group of works engages a timelessness that stretches from early experimental surrealist photography (there is a humour here reminiscent of Salvador Dali and Philippe Halsman’s collaborative photographic works) to the contemporary self-portraits of Sam Taylor-Wood. In stark contrast, there is also a gravity that evokes the heavily staged narratives of Gregory Crewdson, as well as Cindy Sherman’s exploration of the cinematic oeuvre.
These are not traditional photographic portraits but each work contains a figure(s) gazing out of the image or without a face at all. There is a fatalistic self-awareness imbued in each of the characters that touches on the investigative work of Helen Van Meene’s portraits of teens, and Hannah Starkey or Sarah Jones’s studies of young women. These are non-confrontational photographs that allow the viewer a long gaze and their own introspection. The dreamy attitude of some of the works and the surrealist leanings of others add to this somnolent mood. This is a quiet, yet not unpowerful show.
The exhibition will feature works from Martina Hoogland Ivanow (top), Amy Harrity (middle left), Robert Chilton, (middle right), Claire Laude (bottom left), Dusdin Condren (bottom right), Acacia Johnson, Florian Bong-Kil Grosse, Pedro Alvarez, Inga Schunn, Birthe Piontek, Karina Tenberg, Noah Kalina, Thomas Chéné, Cole Barash, and Gabriela Herman.
ABOUT THE GALLERY
One Eyed Jacks is a photography gallery situated in the city of Brighton, home of the world renowned Photo Biennial and Photo Fringe festivals. Located on the border of Brighton’s ‘North Laine’ cultural hub and newly established October 2012, the venue aims to provide a platform for a medium rapidly becoming the 21st century’s most collectable art form. One Eyed Jacks aims to showcase artists with a flair for narrative and a keen eye for aesthetics.
OPENING HOURS:
WED-SUN: 11.30-6.30
SAT/SUN: 10.30-5.30
MON/TUES: CLOSED
Tagged: Brighton, exhibition preview, One Eyed Jacks, photography, press release, Tomorrow Has Passed, writing
