Beyond The Photographic

About

Beyond the Photographic Exhibition:

Emerging Artists Reinvent the Photograph

This November, R. K. Burt Gallery hosts an exciting exhibition of new works from nine recent graduates of the MA Contemporary Photography course at Central Saint Martins, UAL, which challenge established concepts of what a photograph can be.

In each work printed images are a starting point but the addition of sculptural, digital, immersive and performative elements takes each piece into new territory.

The artists presenting Beyond the Photographic are Lynda Beckett, Susanna Brunetti, Michael Cheung, Asa Desouza-Jones, Matthew Greenburgh, Yajing Hu, Nathalie Mei, Max Stanley, and Niloofar Taatizadeh.  Members of the group have been shortlisted for or won in 2018: Hix Prize, Daniel Ford International Prize for Innovation and Technology, Mullenlowe Nova Award.

Lynda Beckett, speaking on behalf of the group, said:

“We aim to surprise viewers into reassessing their understanding of a photograph.  Whilst paper or screen based images might still be found lurking in our art, we hope to transform, or free the photographic in a way that corresponds to its ubiquity in our lives.”

Beyond the Photographic Collective - Exhibiting Artists

Lynda Beckett is interested in the depiction of rhythm, while exploring repetition within an in-between space, in order to find a new language. Her work moves beyond controlled methods of mark-making into a space/place where there is no control. Winner of the Daniel Ford International Prize for Innovation and Technology 2018. www.lyndabeckett.org

Susanna Brunetti often initiates her works with an interrogation of what it means to be an artist, and individual in today’s society. Fundamental, and recurrent to her practice, are also references to the female body, self-oppression, rhythm, and fear. Hix Prize shortlist 2018. www.susannabrunetti.com

Michael Cheung works around the in-betweenness of our physical and non-physical existence; how the idea of self transforms with it, using mixed media, with a performative and repetitive approach. www.michael-cheung.com

Asa Desouza-Jones explores the possibilities of the accidental and contingent by using materials and technology beyond their functional context and original purpose. His practice is concerned with subverting the predetermined qualities of mass-produced equipment, in order to affirm ideals of freedom and difference. www.asadesouzajones.co.uk

Matthew Greenburgh is currently using Virtual Reality to create immersive digital installations, that explore ways in which different kinds of illusion permeate certain aspects of life. www.matthewgreenburgh.art

Yajing Hu is interested in transitional states; the in-between. She makes work which exists in the middle, or at the boundaries of things. Using a variety of media, she is attempting to reveal the aesthetic sensibility of the in-between spaces, where ambiguity and elusiveness reside. Winner of the Mullenlowe Nova Award for Fresh Creative Talent 2018. www.yajinghu.com

Nathalie Mei explores tracing the sensual aspects of the human condition. She investigates how identity, in relation to duration, perpetually fractures, layers, multiplies, rebuilds, and is portrayed within the self, via memories and technology. www.nathaliemei.com

Max Stanley Bordering the line between the physical and the digital, his practice looks to explore the ever-changing landscape that connects our material existence with our virtual one; primarily, at the point where material surfaces meet digital ones, and how the relationship to one, has been redefined by the other. www.max-stanley.com

Niloofar Taatizadeh is interested in breaking strangeness open; exploring where change can emerge, and how the limitless processes of making, and creating anew, can reflect the multiple ‘becomings’ beneath the surface of a single, concrete reality. Nominated for the Mullenlowe Nova Award for Fresh Creative Talent 2018.www.nilootaatizadh.com