Tuesday 12 March 2013

Exhibition Review: The Photographer's Gallery - Perspectives on Collage

We visited the exhibition of the Photographers Gallery which is located at 16 - 18 Ramillies Street in central London. There were many designers work that I enjoyed and found to be inspiring towards my own work. One of the best artsist from the experience was Laura Letinsky who photographed her amazing arrangements which are usually mixes of flat and 3D shaped objects meticulously placed to create captivating arrangements. In Letinsky's work there was a larghe emphasis on purity and enveloping the viewer in the work. They framed in a white on white walls this was obviously done on purpose to keep the focus on the entire on the splashes of colour from the work on the walls. The use of so much white could also be linked to the purity theme which is used in her work, this leads into the hidden element of Letinsky's work which is the discreet splashes of dirt or impurity thrown on the pieces which relates to the title of the series of work which is 'Ill Form and Void Full'.

The effects of the exhibition's design is that it allows you to view the pieces in all perspectives available and not just a single way of looking at things.The way some other artists work was displayed gave a completely different perspective than any others in the entire gallery, being given a birds eye view on a 3D piece as well as any other view you would like. Some of the pieces had no glass on them and this was chosen by the artist to make the viewer feel as if they could reach in to the frame and touch the work taking of the glass removes a screen that is between the viewer and the work. 

Other work in the gallery had more of a pop art theme and was very quirky and felt like it had been done quickly in a notepad scribbling down ideas for a more in depth piece. It is crucial to these pieces that they keep their originality because they are not as thought provoking as other pieces in the gallery and therefore relies more on the initial reaction of the viewer to the piece.