Exhibition at Kilkenny's Butler Gallery is an evocative exploration of life through a lens
The exhibition runs at the Butler Gallery until July 26
Meantime, an evocative and poignant exploration of life through a lens is currently showing at the Main Gallery at the Butler Gallery.
The central theme of Meantime is transience—the spirit of passing and life’s marginality.
The mixed media exhibition combines photography and film by David Stephenson with a selection of poetry by Mark Granier.
Stephenson’s portraits of people embody a kind of stillness and private reverie. His fascination with the contradictory aspects of existence, its ephemerality and its solidity, is also evidenced in his inclusion of damaged or archive photographs saved from old photo albums.
Stephenson has always been drawn to the idea of a house as a soundbox, a witness to the lives that were shaped by that particular arrangement of walls and surfaces: the faces that peered through those windows, and what they looked out on. Houses generally outlast us. Compared to a house and its furnishings, we are ephemeral, speeded-up films, shadows in mirrors.
Interspersed throughout exhibition are prints of Mark Granier’s poems. These do not interpret or comment on the film or photographs, but compliment them tonally, encounters that are in the same orbit. Like Stephenson, Granier has always been drawn to resonant images that possess the ability to haunt and linger.
Meantime, the film, combines elements of Stephenson’s still photography with the moving image, merging city and country life. It wraps us in images of solitary figures, hands washing, scrolling or gently swaying in rippling water to the constant movement of nature.
Meantime evolves as a series of visual thoughts and memories. Some images will stand alone, while others will appear in groups, with the narrative connections at times linked by the barest of threads.
David Stephenson is a fine art photographer and filmmaker from Dublin living in Bray, Co Wicklow. His work has been exhibited at The Hunt Museum, Limerick; RHA Gallery, twice as invited artist; Municipal Gallery, DLR Lexicon; National Portrait Gallery, London; Angela Flowers Gallery, London; a group exhibition of works from Local Authorities’ collections (30 Years, Artists, Places); and a solo show Slant at Photo Museum Ireland. He was the winner of the National Gallery Zurich Portrait Prize, the Ballinglen Museum’s first biennial open exhibition photography prize as well as the Royal Ulster Academy open exhibition photography prize.
Mark Granier is a Wicklow-based poet and photographer. His film-poem, Docklands, was awarded joint first prize in Doolin Writers Weekend and his work has been exhibited in The RHA.
An artist’s talk will take place at the Butler Gallery on Thursday, June 25 from 6 to 7pm. The exhibition is currently running at the Butler Gallery until July 26.
For more see www.butlergallery.ie