Orbits | Revolv Collective Fifth Anniversary

About

The exhibition has its roots in the collective’s conversations on expanded photography as teaching method, artistic practice and way of thinking around contemporary culture. Incorporating sound, moving image, sculpture, assemblage and photography, Orbits references the collective’s interest in negotiating the boundaries of the image, as well as in exploring language and knowledge by means of the photograph.

Bringing together their individual works, the members have considered their own movement around and encounter with the medium of photography, as well as how their ideas and personal practices revolve around, permeate and bounce off each other.

Both Krasimira Butseva and Laura Bivolaru are concerned with the history of their countries of origin, Bulgaria and Romania, respectively, but through the process of making work, they also begin to reflect on the active role of the artist in untangling recent events and on history as a concept and pedagogical subject. An interest for intergenerational shared knowledge is also present in Lina Ivanova’s ‘No Objects to be Found’, who, as an artist-teacher, considers the collaborative process of teaching and learning and how authorship is negotiated on the common ground of the class. 

The same social aspect of creating is reflected in Victoria Louise Doyle’s ‘Radiant Energy: A study into the movement of photographs in which chewing gum is put in place of the Photograph’, which acts as a prompt for further reflection on the nature of the photograph as a moving object. Through a performative piece rooted in family narrative, Lucas Gabellini-Fava also contemplates the relationship between subject matter and photography, between material and artwork; within the confinement of a black square, chalk sourced from Broadstairs beach is shown both in its original setting, and in its final shape when used-up by the artist. A similar doubling takes place in Alexander Mourant’s work, ‘Part of a Whole’, where photograms are framed together with the moss that they represent. Departing from this indexical relationship, Ibrahim Azab’s modular works bring together web-based image textures and industrial materials, inviting the viewers to physically move the images and create their own remixes of the original work, FL1GHT.

The image is an ambiguous object that can serve many functions; however, no matter the goal intended for it by its creator, the image can always betray it and create its own affiliations and purpose. Through Orbits, Revolv Collective is embracing the instability of photography and its power to shape ideas and proposes that the artwork may start from a solitary space, but is ultimately moulded by collective thinking.