Dark Matters

Shadow Lab Time Lapse

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:29:27 +0000

A time lapse of the final day of Dark Matters Shadow Lab

Shadowing Dark Matters

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:51:23 +0000

An excerpt from an article featured on Corridor8 by stephen Iles, reflecting on the Dark Matters main exhibition in its last week on display.

Visitors enjoying 'Snow Mirror' by Daniel Rozin Photo © Liza Lemsatef Cunningham

“…The exhibition begins with an interactive piece, Floating in space is a translucent screen, upon which is projected a monochromatic image of falling pixels, falling gently, uniformly, endlessly. Like the ‘static’ on the screen of a disconnected television, it gently goes about it’s business, seemingly demanding little other than for us to acknowledge it’s presence. We are free to move around the screen, behind, to the side, from afar. Then, before we move on we give the piece a final moment, we stand four square in front of it as if to say goodbye and we begin to notice something different, an outline of a figure, life size, begins to emerge. It sways gently, moves furtively and then the penny drops, the said figure is an outline, a digital shadow of ourselves. We instinctively begin to gently lift our arms, to allow the snow settle upon our limbs like radioactive snow.”

A dematerialisation has occurred, our body passing from one state to the other, a shift from the corporeal to the virtual, a preparation of the body for a ritual investigation. We are reminded of the screen both small and large, of ‘Star Trek’ and of films like Spielberg’s ‘Poltergeist’. We are the ghost in the machine, a theme that is set to continue throughout the show.
Stephen Iles

Read the entire article Shadowing Dark Matters on the Corridor8 website.

Dark Lines – Satirical Illustration Workshop

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:06:52 +0000

Join artist Stephen Nuttall and discover a darker side of illustration. Taking inspiration from Dark Matters, you’ll be guided to create your own illustrations and even the beginnings of your own graphic novel.

Free of charge, drop in workshop to mark the end of our Dark Matters exhibition. Open to all ages and abilities.

http://www.stephen-c-nuttall.com/

Please note event change as this is in replacement of previously advertised weekend course, Serious about Art. New dates for course tbc.

Artist Talk – Elin O’Hara Slavick

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:02:40 +0000

Free talk by American artist Elin O’Hara Slavick to mark the end of the exhibition Dark Matters

To mark the end of the exhibition Dark Matters: Shadow_Technology_Art at the Whitworth , we are delighted to welcome participating American artist Elin O’Hara Slavick to the gallery to speak about her fascinating work. Slavick’s works of abstract beauty expose the horror of war and, in particular the aftermath of bombing. Slavick will speak about her drawing project and subsequent book, ‘Protesting Cartography – Bomb After Bomb’ and will focus primarily upon her haunting work ‘Hiroshima: After Aftermath’ within the context of shadow, technology and art.

This is a free event and will take place at 2pm in the Whitworth Art Gallery Lecture Theatre.
The lecture will be preceded at 1pm by a tour of Dark Matters with its curator, Helen Stalker.

Dark Matters, Behind the Scenes

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:21:37 +0000

A behind-the-scenes look at Dark Matters created by the lovely people at Scattered Images

Curator commentary on Ja-Young Ku and Hiraki Sawa’s work in Dark Matters

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:42:30 +0000

Helen Stalker Curator of Dark Matters exhibition at The Whitworth Art Gallery (mp3)

On display at the Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester

Curator — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:51:09 +0000

A major exhibition and an exciting events programme, open from 24 September 2011, until January 15th, 2012 (Main exhibition) and 15th April 2012 (Collection display.)

A view of the Dark Matters exhibition. Photo © Liza Lemsatef Cunningham

DARK MATTERS EXHIBITION

Kiss, 2010 High-definition video, colour 4 minutes, 10 seconds

Dark Matters brings together the work of ten internationally acclaimed contemporary artists who employ a range of technologies, media and machinery. In an exhibition populated by half-seen spectres, visual riddles and distorted reflections, artists engage with ideas surrounding shadow, darkness and illusion. The works are united by themes of temporality, absence, truth, mortality and wonder.
Participating artists are: Brass Art, Pavel Buchler, R. Luke DuBois, Pascal Grandmaison, Barnaby Hosking, Idris Khan, Ja-Young Ku, Elin O’Hara Slavick, Daniel Rozin, Hiraki Sawa. Runs until 15th January 2012.

DARK MATTERS : WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION

Käthe Kollwitz 1867-1945 Whetting the Scythe, 1905 Etching

This display of works from the Whitworth’s collection reveals ideas surrounding shadow as captured by the artist in a variety of media. Some of the works selected demonstrate how artists have employed tone and darkness to render solidity and structure within the pictorial space. A significant number of paintings, prints and drawings, also convey the symbolic power of shadow to evoke time, mystery, loss and solitude. Runs until 15th April 2012

Shadow Lab

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:03:31 +0000

Make a world of shadows, using light as your creative tool. Enter the Shadow Lab for a range of fun activities using light and shadow as your inspiration.

For more information visit Whitworth’s What’s On Families page.

Presented in collaboration with The Campaign for Drawing.

Artist : Daniel Rozin

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:40:08 +0000

Snow Mirror, 2006 (Silk, projector, video camera, custom software, computer, black box environment. Dimensions variable) Edition of 6. Photo by John Berens.

Peg Mirror, 2007. (650 wooden dowels, 650 motors, video camera, control electronics. 42” x 42” x 6”) Edition of 10. Images courtesy of Bitforms Gallery, NYC.

Daniel Rozin was born in Jerusalem in 1961. Based in New York, Rozin creates interactive installations and sculptures that have the unique ability to change and respond to the presence of a viewer. In many of his works, the viewer takes part, actively and creatively, in the performance of his art.

With Snow Mirror (2006) Rozin presents us with an image of ourselves, transformed by the digital magic of computer programming. Projected onto suspended fabric, a likeness of the viewer is formed by an accumulation of white snowflakes which cling to the bright areas of the image. The pace is slow and dreamlike. As shadows form within the flutter of snow, the viewer becomes a transparent spectre of themselves, transported by a combination of video, computer and projector.

Peg Mirror (2007) comprises 650 circular wooden pieces that tilt and rotate to cast an array of subtle shadows. The mirrored image produced is activated by software authored by the artist. The quietly moving wooden components flicker like jewels or coins as they ‘reflect’ the viewer upon the undulating surface. Challenging our notions about what constitutes a ‘digital object’, Peg Mirror evokes the words of Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida (1980): “cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism, the living sound of wood.”

Artist : Pascal Grandmaison

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:37:52 +0000

Fake imagery of a world upside down 2009 (Ultrachrome colour jet ink print, 36.8” x 60”) Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NYC.

Pascal Grandmaison was born in 1975 and lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Working in photography, film, projection and installation, Grandmaison presents images that contemplate the limits of perception.

Fake Imagery of a World Upside Down (2009) is one of several works by Grandmaison which have stemmed from his fascination with the book Moon Rocks (Henry S.F. Cooper, 1970); an account of how specimens taken from the moon’s surface are gathered, stored and analysed. For Grandmaison, the moon represents both the natural and the paranormal: the tangible rock being the scientific actuality of its existence whereas its supernatural associations suggest a surreal universe with different laws of gravity. Employing apparently simple strategies of photo-trickery, Grandmaison presents a figure tumbling through an inverted landscape towards an upended sky. A further flip of light and darkness creates a negative, spectral space – an area of limbo through which the figure falls. Grandmaison’s ‘fakery’ explores our perception and acceptance of the invisible forces of nature, and the relationship between the world and the photographic image.