TAMSIN MORSE, ANDREW SETO, CAROLINE THOMSON, JACQUELINE UTLEY, 'Staged''

About

Act I, scene I. What prompts the painter's arrangement of figures, determines the setting? What excuses do we have for re-ordering the world to fit a story that unravels in the telling, changes with each brushstroke? The rehearsals, the run-throughs - the performance on canvas, in paint. These major or minor narratives evolve before us. Seto's indiscreet figures in sombre woods, Thomson's dreaming poets (or lost killers), we pick our way towards them stumbling through the trees. Morse's quasi-Biblical scenarios suggest parables unwritten while Utley's interiors with characters surrounded by props are waiting for a prompter. All dream or rehearse scenes, pacing in the wings. These works show what photography can't do - the indecisive moment. They show something not happening, something that hasn't happened, and may yet never happen...  The curtain hasn't yet risen. The audience is muttering finding their seats...