Events
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Start: 18:00
End: 16:00
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 24 May to 10 June 2012 Samuel Townsend’s America is not the power hungry, politically divided, economically turbulent nation we hear and read about in the media. The America he experienced in 2010 was most of all inspiring, motivating him to make a body of still and moving images and journals that led to 'Postcards From Texas'. Referring to the people he met, his ‘superstars of the night’, and his response to them Townsend says: 'I was deeply moved by this contagious bravery sprawled across the American landscape/dreamscape and tried desperately to capture it somehow, holding on to it tightly through words and pictures, an action designed to bear witness to my memories'. 'Postcards From Texas' is geographically and stylistically half a world away from the quite formal family portraits of 'Bleeding Lines', Townsend’s first solo exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY in 2006. Those carefully made images were about the ties and differences of young people living a fractured family life. But the idea of interrogating and celebrating shared experience is a strong thread through Townsend’s earlier and this recent work, a motive that appears to define his creative life to date. While there is some gentle humour in 'Postcards From Texas', the overriding seriousness of tone tells us we need to properly explore the story Townsend is sharing with us on the walls, in his moving images and in his writing. From the ironic 'B. Obama on the Mantle' to the understated homage to America’s home of theatre and performance, 'Broadway', and the outstanding self portrait, 'The Picasso Room', there is an intimate, personal narrative here that will reward the time and imagination invested in reading. Samuel Townsend was one of our two ANU School of Art Emerging Artists Support Scheme residents in 2006, leading to the 'Bleeding Lines exhibition. We are delighted to welcome him back to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY with this strong and impressive work. David Chalker [inline:Townsend catalogue.pdf=Catalogue] Start: 18:00
End: 16:00
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 24 May to 10 June 2012 Christine Rufflet has been a PhotoAccess member for some years and first showed in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY in 'Access all areas 2008: the PhotoAccess members show'. She has contributed beautiful, thoughtful work to a number of group exhibitions since then, amongst them the image 'Sensualité' included in this exhibition and shown to a perplexed but admiring audience in 'Access all areas 2010'. 'Noble Conquest' is Christine Rufflet’s first solo exhibition. Unlike many of our artists, Rufflet has given us a comprehensive account of the real and imagined stories that lie behind the images in her exhibition and the motivation that has given rise to them. As she tells us, the horse has an ancient history in France and its revered status gave rise to the French popular saying ‘Horses are man’s most noble conquests’. Clearly Christine Rufflet agrees with this sentiment. She asks us to ‘see the gods and goddesses’ in her photographs and we are touched by the sincerity of her images and the story of her long personal relationship with the horse. A documentary style exhibition based on this subject matter would probably not have found a place in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibition program. The fact that Rufflet has worked hard and successfully to conjure up images that transcend the reality of each of her animals, investing them with qualities that require an effort of the imagination to read and understand, is a singular achievement. As she says in her Artist Statement many of the portraits have ‘… a soft, intimate and feminine atmosphere and a texture that is sometimes very close to the appearance of a woman’s body...’ Such was the quandary experienced by many who viewed the seductive 'Sensualité' for the first time in 2010. I’m sure it will receive a similar response this year. PhotoAccess is pleased to present Christine Rufflet’s first solo exhibition and to share 'Noble Conquest' with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY. David Chalker [inline:Rufflet catalogue.pdf=Catalogue] |
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