Reality Check Press release

Galerie Rudolfinum 6. 3. - 8. 6. 2003 Reality Check Recent Developments in British Photography and Video

Roderick Buchanan k r buxey Phil Collins Alan Currall Graham Fagen, Ori Gersht Dryden Goodwin Luke Gottelier Nigel Shafran Lesley Shearer David Shrigley Keith Tyson Michelle Williams Saskia Olde Wolbers Shizuka Yokomizo Bettina von Zwehl

Curated by Kate Bush and Brett Rogers

An exhibition jointly organised by the British Council and The Photographer's Gallery,

Exhibition partners DATART Leica Gallery Prague One World 2003

Media partners MF DNES Fotograf Umělec Swift Holding a.s. euroAWK Reality Check Reality Check brings together Michelle Williams put themselves, sixteen of British art's rising rather than others, in the centre stars, in an exhibition which of the picture. Both perform presents the very latest scenarios to camera, which, developments in UK-based drawing on morbid or aggressive photography and video installation. eroticism, make for uneasy Each participating artist shares a viewing. Michelle Williams' Sunday belief in the camera's capacity to Afternoon II summons a disquieting transform real experience conjunction of death and bestial - whether through re-enactment and eroticism, while k r buxey's visual replay, or through close performed parodies of pornographic observation and obsessive situations are defiantly hardcore documentation - into the realm of and quite literally, in your face. the poetic. Reality Check is an exhibition inspired by real things Painting the everyday in the real world - by events, people, relationships, places, Photography might claim to be the things - while moving between Art of the Everyday, and it's differing levels of truth and unsurprising that British imagination, perception and photographers - from Fox Talbot to pretence. A 'reality check', that Richard Billingham - have rooted self-conscious moment of taking their work in the world stock, of gauging the actuality of immediately around them. Nigel something at an instant it Shafran takes some of the most threatens to dissolve into its quotidian subjects imaginable - opposite - hyper-reality, fantasy, charity shop interiors, impromptu fiction - stands as a metaphor for street markets, and the corner of the exhibition, and ultimately, his kitchen, with the washing-up for photography itself. done and drying after a meal - and crafts a series of exquisitely Dislocated subjects luminous still lifes which graft poetry onto the surfaces of the Traditional portraiture works to everyday. Ori Gersht brings a encourage a sense of intimacy or sense of Modernist painting to his empathy between subject and study of 1950s post-Blitz English viewer. For many of the artists in school buildings. His rigorously Reality Check, an intense composed panoramas chart a point transaction occurs between where ideal aestheticism collides photographer and subject, but one with the rough realities of which stresses instead a feeling British life. David Shrigley, of deliberate detachment or widely celebrated as a draftsman manipulation. In Shizuka and occasional sculptor is less Yokomizo's Strangers series, the known for his superb photographs. photographer never gets to meet These photographs document fugitive her subjects, while the subjects interventions made directly within can barely see the photographer the landscape. Shrigley's - who lurks behind her camera interventions mostly take the form outside their windows in the dark of drawn and written signs which - yet each is strongly aware of helpfully annotate bits of the the other's presence. Yokomizo's world most of us would walk past: portraits are filled with a sense a hole in the fence, a fallen of fear, curiosity, or tree, a forgotten Filofax. Dryden trepidation. She also contributes Goodwin also finds the subject of a stunning new video installation: his work in the world around him. a study of elderly people asleep, Inspired by the spaces of the city which takes us from high in the and people he chances upon within sky to the depths of the ocean. it, Goodwin orchestrates gorgeous Lesley Shearer makes dark, symphonies in video and sound, sinking, romantic portraits. She which examine the flux and captures people at the moment that anonymity of urban life. they slip from everyday awareness into a catatonic, dream state. Fabulous Realism Made monumental in scale, and bathed in a Caravaggiesque light, Luke Gottelier and Saskia Olde her portraits have a disturbing Wolbers create architectures of intensity. Conversely, Bettina the imagination, using real things von Zwehl's portraits are cool and to build spaces of fabulous classical. She subjects her invention. Luke Gottelier's lo-fi sitters to different types of photographs tread a daring line physiological manipulation - such between inchoate nothingness and as forcing them to vigorously eccentric imagination, as they exercise in a hot room - before conjure large vistas from recording their physiognomies in materials as unpromising as a minute detail. The compositions dollop of custard, a manky carpet are as beautiful as paintings; the and a piece of string. Saskia Olde approach as forensic as a Wolbers' narrative videos are scientist's. k r buxey and prompted by tales of real-life human drama, onto which she Artists' Biographies: Albert Museum and Victoria Miro embroiders fantastic, rambling Gallery stories, set against spectacular Roderick Buchanan revolving landscapes. Her stories (b. Glasgow, 1965) Reality Check is accompanied by an of individual calamity are won the Beck's Futures Prize, 2000 illustrated catalogue, featuring an parables about life in an k r buxey introductory essay on the increasingly technology-driven (b. Reading, 1967) has shown at exhibition by Kate Bush and world. Alan Currall is another Ibid Projects, London individual texts on the artists by teller of tall stories. His works Phil Collins Brett Rogers and Alex Farquharson are the video diaries of someone (b. Warrington, 1970) attempting to answer life's more was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn awkward existential questions. Foundation Art Award in 2001 and Exhibition curators Currall's self-effacing, faltering is currently on a PS1 scholarship delivery masks a wild imagination, in New York Kate Bush and quite possibly, a superhuman Alan Currall existence. (b. Stoke-on-Trent, 1964) Kate Bush has been Senior has had solo exhibitions at Stills Programmer at The Photographers' Politics personified Gallery, Edinburgh and the Gallery, London since 1998 where Australian Centre for Contemporary she produces a programme which Political and social complexities Art, Melbourne brings into dialogue diverse are addressed in Reality Check, Graham Fagen aspects of photographic practice. but not in the form of simple (b. Glasgow, 1966) Exhibitions by international realism. Phil Collins, for has had solo exhibitions at the artists such as Richard Wentworth, example, works against the grain Imperial War Museum, the Henry Jean-Luc Mylayne, Catherine Opie of social documentary photography Moore Institute and Matt's Gallery and Annelies Strba, are in order to question the truth of Ori Gersht complimented by historical its images. Collins has made work (b. Tel-Aviv, 1967) shows,and new projects by emerging in a Macedonian refugee camp, on is the subject of a forthcoming artists such as Piotr Uklanski, the streets of Belfast, and, most solo show at Art Now, Britain Hellen van Meene, Shirana recently, in the city of Baghdad. Dryden Goodwin Shahbazi, Amy Adler and Malerie Here, he shows Becoming More Like (b. Bournemouth, 1971) Marder. In 2001 she curated The Us, a study of the lives of young recently exhibited at Art Now, Fantastic Recurrence of Certain Serbs in post-war Belgrade. Former Situations for Madrid's Canal official war artist to Kosovo, Luke Gottelier Isabel II, a group exhibition Graham Fagen's work also addresses (b. London, 1968) which introduced new artists such contemporary issues such as class has shown at the Window Gallery, as Shizuka Yokomizo, Sophy and conflict: he refracts these Prague, Entwistle Gallery and Rickett, Dryden Goodwin and Julie subjects through the prism of Bethnal Green Police Station Henry. She writes catalogue older forms, drawing on classical Saskia Olde Wolbers essays, most recently on the work theatre, the novel, and (b. Breda, 1971) of Liza May Post for the Dutch allegorical painting. Fagen has had solo exhibitions at Pavilion, 49th , on presents his Weapons, and a new Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Erwin Zwakman (Stedelijk van series of photographs entitled and forthcoming at Gallery Abbaye Museum, Eindhoven) and on Owners. Tydehall, Helsinki Keith Tyson (Kunsthalle Zurich). Nigel Shafran She is a regular contributor to Reality Checked (b. London, 1964) Artforum magazine. has had solo exhibitions at Taka The most purely documentary work Ishii Gallery, Tokyo and Fig-I, Brett Rogers in the exhibition - in the sense London that it exists simply to record an Lesley Shearer Brett Rogers is currently Deputy event in the real world - is (b. Glasgow, 1968) Director and Head of Exhibitions, supplied by the conceptual artist recently graduated from the Royal in the Visual Arts Department of Keith Tyson. And yet Tyson's College of Art The Briitsh Council London. She series of Expanded Repeaters could David Shrigley trained in art history (MA not look more dissimilar to (b. Macclesfield, 1968) Twentieth Century Art, Courtauld traditional photography. Each is has made solo shows at Camden Arts Institute, University of London) realised as a three-dimensional Centre, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los and arts management (Arts assemblage, in order to Angeles, and Bard College, New Administration, Harvard University) scrupulously record an invisible York. and has a long and distinguished subject: 60 seconds of time, one Keith Tyson record of achievement in curating degree celsius of temperature, one (b. Ulverston, 1969) and managing exhibitions. Beginning metre of movement. Where Tyson's has had solo exhibitions at South her career in Australia in the expanded photography is based on London Gallery and Kunsthalle, late 1970s, she moved to the UK in empirical observation, Roderick Zurich, 2002 1980 and undertook various Buchanan's video installation Catch Michelle Williams freelance exhibition projects 60' 60" charts a gap between (b. London, 1979) before joining The British perception and illusion - between participated in Bloomberg New Council, initially to formulate a what you think is there, and what Contemporaries, 2001 programme and policy for actually is - to take its own very Shizuka Yokomizo photography. Before moving into particular reality check. (b. Tokyo, 1966) the post of Head of Exhibitions is the subject of a solo and Deputy Director, she worked on exhibition at Museo Arte a wide range of exhibitions, from Contemporanea, Rome in 2002 Anish Kapoor (Venice Biennale Bettina von Zwehl 1990), Shirazeh Houshiary (1994) (b. Munich, 1971) to Something the Matter (Cornelia has exhibited at the Hasselblad Parker, Helen Chadwick, Cathy De Center, Göteborg, Victoria and Monchaux) 1994, Boyd Webb (1995) and the 3rd 1992 (Damien Current Hirst, Hannah Collins). She has lectured and written widely in her The Photographers' Gallery has specialist field of photography, been instrumental in establishing Documentary Dilemmas, A Brief and promoting the names of History of British Documentary contemporary British photographers Photography 1993; Be Original or including Martin Parr and Fay Die; Madame Yevonde 1998; On the Goodwin. More recently, the Bright Side of Life NGBK Berlin Gallery has introduced significant 1998; Shifting Focus; Photography international artists working with in Britain 1850-1900 (with The photography, such as Rineke British Library)1995; Regeneration, Dijkstra, Annelies Strba, Catherine A Reappraisal of photography in Opie and Boris Mikhailov, to Ceylon 1850-1900 (with The British audiences in Britain. We also Library)2000; Photos and place strong emphasis on Phantasms;Harry Johnstons facilitating the production of new photographs of the Caribbean 1998 work by emerging artists, both (with Petrine Archer-Straw)and most from Britain and abroad, in the recently, Reality Check; Recent form of commissions. The Gallery Developments in British stages exhibitions which throw new Photography, Film and Video 2002 light on the history of (with Kate Bush). Over the course photography through exhibitions of the past decade, she has been such as Francesca Woodman, Robert actively engaged in various arts Capa, Gordon Parks and Garry organisations, representing the Winogrand. Every year, the Gallery Council on the Arts Council of hosts and produces Citibank Visual Arts Committee, Photography Prize, now recognised Scottish Arts Council Visual Arts as one of the most important Committee, The Crafts Council. international art awards. From 1994-2000, she was a Trustee The Gallery is a registered of the Photographers Gallery and educational charity (No. 262548) in 2002 a judge for the John Kobal committed to increasing visual Portrait Prize (National Portrait literacy and access to Gallery, London). photography. The Photographers' Gallery receives some funding from London Arts, and raises additional The Photographers' Gallery income from the Bookshop and Print Sales Gallery. However this is History insufficient to cover running costs and the development of our The Photographers' Gallery, the programme, so we rely on the first independent gallery in generosity of individuals, Britain devoted to photography, companies, trusts and foundations was founded in 1971 at 8 Great to enable us to continue to Newport Street. This building now develop our innovative programme houses the Gallery's primary of exhibitions and education exhibition space and a bookshop. projects. In 1980 the Gallery also moved into 5 Great Newport Street, The Photographers' Gallery initially rented, the freehold was 5 & 8 Great Newport Street purchased in 1986 thanks to a London WC2H 7HY successful funding campaign. www.photonet.org.uk The Gallery has developed a reputation as this country's Tour of the exhibition primary venue for contemporary photography. One of its major SLOVENIA, Moderna Galerija, achievements has been to establish Ljubljana 29 August – 6 October photography within a wide viewing 2002 public, making it more popular and LONDON 14 Wharf Road, London N1 accessible. The gallery was the 24 Oct – 24 Nov 2002 first in the country to show key CZECH REPUBLIC, Galerie Rudolfinum, names in world photography such as Prague 6 March – 8 June 2003 André Kertesz, Jaques-Henri POLAND, Bunkier Gallery, Krakow Lartigue and Irving Penn, and has 4 July – 3 August 2003 been instrumental in encouraging LATVIA, Arsenals, Riga the inclusion of photography in 20 October – 16 November 2003 the programme of leading galleries CROATIA, of Artists Zagreb and museums. An integrated Dec 2003 – Jan 2004 programme of exhibitions and educational events continues to present the most innovative developments in photography as well as nuturing new talent. In 1993, both buildings in Great Newport Street underwent extensive refurbishment, designed by architect Nick England