Scott
Nichols Gallery is proud to present the first show in this
country of English photographer Simon Larbalestier. The
exhibit includes 20 toned black and white photographs as
well as a computer demonstration of his web site collaboration
with artist Michael Eldridge. Along with his show at the
gallery, Larbalestier will be giving a lecture at the SFAI
(Art Institute) on his photography and innovative web site.
Larbalestier's work is probably most widely known by music
fans of such groups as the Pixies and the The Red House
Painters. Working with designer Vaughan Oliver for the 4AD
record label, Larbalestier created the surrealist, edgy
photographs that came to be associated so strongly with
those 4AD groups. But his work for 4AD was only a part of
Larbalestier's career as a photographer. Although there
will be a selection of these photographs in the gallery,
the current show will focus mostly on his challenging most
recent body of work.
Larbalestier places his newest work under the working
title "Attracting to Emptiness." This group
of images explores the relationship of the spiritual and
the technological in our post modern world. His photographs
are metaphors for imaginary places, anonymous places,
that can exist theoretically by means of the human mind.
This idea of a conceptual space is based on both his readings
of Zen and Eastern thinking as well as his creative approach
to the new realm of possibilities that have been opened
by the creation of, and the mass participation in, the
world wide web.
The images in Larbalestier's photographs
are minimal, conceptual landscapes intended to express
the inner landscape of the mind. His evocatively mysterious
scenes of empty rooms, decaying walls, and un-peopled
forests serve as templates onto which the viewer may project
significance or perhaps find a moment to meditate upon
the "emptiness" of these simple visual scenes.
There is also a sense of motion, a horizontal flow, running
through Larbalestier's photographs. This motion alludes
to the traveling of ideas, the constant movement underlying
the present moment, and the accelerating pace of communication
in our contemporary world.
Larbalestier's work attempts to make sense of a world of
symbols and coded information, where our means of communication
has itself become theoretical. The power lines running above
the forest in one of his photographs form a parallel, in
both form and meaning, to another photograph of a string
of Tibetan prayer flags. Each image speaks of the information
passing through the atmosphere above and around us, literally
and symbolically communicating the human spirit.
The themes of theoretical space and rapid communication
lead naturally to the interface of Larbalestier's photographic
work with the creative possibilities of the internet.
In collaboration with artist Michael Eldridge, Larbalestier
has created an interactive, evolving web site titled "The
Physik Garden." The web site includes numerous rooms
organized around various themes including poetry, history,
and archeology, an online art gallery, and an interactive
labyrinth through which the viewer can access the many
elements of the site in a self-directed fashion. Larbalestier's
web site will be accessible in the gallery as part of
the exhibition along with his original photographs.
Although Larbalestier has widened
his artistic vision from the photographic print to the
transmission of images through the internet, he remains
a strong craftsman in the traditional sense. He has spent
many years perfecting his style and uses a unique combination
of developing and printing techniques. He sees the unlimited
possibilities for artistic exploration through the computer
yet remains a strong believer in the importance of the
art object itself, as a craft of the human hand and artistic
skill.
Simon Larbalestier received his
MA from the Royal College of Art, London and has been
a lecturer at the Camberwell College of Art (The London
Institute) since 1992. He has had numerous shows in England
and internationally and is the author of "The Art
and Craft of Collage" (published in USA by Chronicle
Books).
Images from the series Attracting
to Emptiness by Simon Larbalestier are currently available
from the Scott Nichols Gallery. E-mail the Gallery for
details: sngphoto@pacbell.net.
This article is © Copyright
Scott Nichols Gallery 2000 and may not be reproduced in
part or in full, in print or electronically without permission. |
