Dark Adaptation / Ciarán Og Arnold / Ryan L. Moule

About

Dark Adaptation is an exhibition in two parts that will be staged across two venues as part of Peckham 24.  Taking its title from the process by which our eyes adjust from sunlight to darkness, the exhibition will explore darkness in both subject and experience.  

Ciarán Og Arnold is an Irish photographer who makes work at night.  In images taken over the course of several years in recession-hit Ireland, he depicts a shadowy cinematic world of dark alleyways, bars and nightclubs. In 2015 Arnold won the Mack First Book Award with, I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed, but all I could do was to get drunk again.  For this exhibition the artist will present a selection of works from the book, alongside recent work made in 2016.  Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, a bespoke nocturnal narrative has been created for Dark Adaptation where the viewer is invited to take centre-stage as the protagonist.  

Ryan L. Moule’s series Divisible Remainder considers the collapse of the photographic medium.  In an age dominated by digital systems that are seemingly able to guarantee permanence, Moule challenges this facility by reinstating the importance of disappearance and forgetting.  His is a collection of light damaged and unfixed analogue photographs that slowly erode as the images are reclaimed by silver halide.  As a consequence of his intentional omission of the final stage of the printing process, Moule forces the viewer into a losing battle against light and time.  The original exposure progressively decays, eventually existing only as memory devoid of any visible trace.

Two parts of Dark Adaptation will open in successive weeks in Peckham. Part 1 will open in the Seen Fifteen and South Kiosk gallery space in the Bussey Building on Wednesday 11th May.  Part 2, which will be an immersive installation as part of Peckham 24,  previews in Copeland Gallery on Tuesday 17th May.