An Evanescent Fix at Vitrine Gallery

An Evanescent Fix sees the coming together of pieces by Jack Brindley, Keith Farquhar, Charlie Godet Thomas, Clare Kenny and Will Murray, reflecting the flexibility of texture, light, geometry and the very form of photography.

The idea of bringing these works under one roof is to ask the audience to question their understanding of photography and how it’s assembled. The artists use a variety of methods and techniques, as well as forms of display, to bring out what might rest beneath the image.

The show extends beyond the pieces themselves, as the audience is drawn in by how they move through it. Guided through the gallery space by Brindley’s steel structures holding flat di-bond boards, their presence encourages a certain path. The shine of the reflective flatbed prints against the plain board creates a sense of a site of construction, ever in progress.  

Farquhar portrays close-ups of patterned, inkjet-printed plastic bags. The reflective lights against the bold striking colour create beautifully textured images that feel almost 3D. The geometric patterns created in the pieces could almost be mistaken for aerial shots of  mountain ranges and desserts, if not for the vibrant colours they emerge from.

Godet Thomas plays with splashes of colour and texture using photography, sculpture and painting to create images with comforting continuity. In Comes the Good Air, Out Goes the Bad Air, In Comes the Good works with materials such as printed cotton and evaporated water to recreate the tightness of losing breath. However, with free-formed spaces next to the gathered clusters of paint, you can also see liberation in fresh air.

Kenny’s well-titled piece The Past Was Yours but the Future Is Mine works by folding an image around itself, with both sides of the print visible. It curves in such a way that it evokes the cyclical nature of time folding in on itself – methodical, yet unseen. Meanwhile, Murray blends photography, paint and layers, almost drawing the image up out of itself. In Violet Lane, the paint streaks seem to pull and tug at what lays below the surface, both opening up the image and delving inside it – much like this exhibition.

Yassine Senghor
Photos: Zak Macro

An Evanescent Fix is on at the Vitrine Gallery until 7^th March 2015, for further information visit here.