Some Things are Clearer in the Dark - Private View

Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery 533 Old York Road Wandsworth
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Event has ended
This event ended on Thursday 12th of October 2017
Admission
Free
Venue Information
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (Wandsworth)
Old York Road, SW18 1TG
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Wandsworth Town 0.08 miles

“Some Things are Clearer in the Dark”

WITH

JAMES ALEC HARDY

PRIVATE VIEW
12th of October 2017
6:30 - 9:00PM

What is darkness if not an absence of light? Darkness, when considered the primary condition of cinema, starts as a void, which can be impregnated with the tiniest amounts of light. Darkness, when analogous to a vacant mind, can be bathed with subtle phantom images flickering like echoes of moments that have passed, which form and reshape our memories.

Meanwhile, linear history presents us with a sequence of events, a timeline of cause and effect, decisions and revisions. It shapes our collective understanding of where we are today, and leaves clues as to where we are from.

The practice of British artist James Alec Hardy focuses on the liminal space between knowing and not knowing, fact and fiction, and has long centred on what he refers to as “perception management” and a scepticism of systems of control and governance. In his first solo show at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Some Things are Clearer in the Dark (13 October–11 November 2017), he explores the concept of what he refers to as “doors in doors in doors”, which ultimately remind us that there is always more than one way to go. This sceptical relationship to the media’s control of information (and the deluge with which we are presented daily) is explored through meditations upon false doorways and portals.

Portals bring with them a historical and mythological reference to transition, of an opening up of boundaries and a letting in, as well as a potential to lead us into infinite places unknown. Here, however, portals are alluded to through materials that are purposely flimsy and lightweight, their fragility an allusion to the brittleness of what we think to be real. Rather like an audience at a theatrical production, we see the artifice in front of us, yet we know it not to be real, hovering between illusion and reality.

False doorways, on the other hand, represent the opposite: solid, hard and sealed-shut, with no obvious point of entry unless they are opened for us via some higher power or hidden key hole. Around the exhibition space we see hints of machinery and cables, rather like peering behind the great screen of the Wizard of Oz, revealing an honesty as to how the effect is created.

As such, Hardy’s media of choice are obsolete technologies cast aside in the conversion from analogue to digital; his palette and brush are redundant processors and video mixers, misused and pushed to points of destruction. He has developed a complex language and visual iconography of highly saturated abstract symbols, produced by creating errors, stimulating glitches and mixing noise using the raw feedback from the video signal.

Tags: Art

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