Klompching Gallery presents the opening reception of Odette England: Excavations Saturday October 8th, 6pm – 8pm. The artist will be in attendance.
The 18 color photographs presented in the exhibition, are one-of-a-kind and unique, having undergone a meticulous and labor-intensive process of being partially erased and obscured. This process of manual manipulation, is evidenced by the trace of the artist’s hand—gestures in the form of lines, sweeping arches and circular movements, through to dense areas of almost total obliteration of the original image. Across the artworks, this stripping away of visual information is carefully balanced with glimpses of substantive visual clues—a sitting figure, a landscape vista, a tree or lamp-post.
“Preserving family history via photography is like an archeological excavation: it involves the exposure, processing and recording of remains. But to uncover the truth—or at least an interpretation of the ‘apparent truth’ of an image—a ‘hunt’ or ‘dig’ is required. My project Excavations explores the invisible social space of family storytelling.”–Odette England.
Excavations is a thought-provoking body of work that is meticulously made, both in terms of physical execution and conceptual vision. These are quiet, meditative artworks, incorporating elements of abstraction, preservation of history and nostalgia, together with an active and critical comment on the malleability of the photograph, which runs counter to its continued link to truth and reality.
Klompching Gallery
89 Water St
