Review of Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman, directed by Susan Steinberg

14/07/15

Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman

Directed by Susan Steinberg
sds productions, 2015
76 minutes

The issues of sexism and gender inequality in art are back centre stage – if they ever went away – with the June 2015 issue of ARTnews, guest-edited by curator and author Maura Reilly, presenting an array of improving, but still far from satisfactory, statistics about the percentage of female artists shown in galleries, at biennials and art fairs, and their success at auction and inclusion in “great artist” lists. The stage is thus set for Emmy award-winning writer Susan Steinberg’s new film, Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman. Made over three years, this candid documentary follows 10 international female artists from three generations, who are now based in London, discovering what makes them tick, where they find their inspiration, what keeps them going and how they are forging their careers in an arena still dominated by men.

Described as “a compelling collective biography” and “a cross-generational coming of age story”, the film brings together a selection of artists ranging in age from 22 to 82. Split into three chapters, according to generation, their stories are threaded together as they prepare for exhibitions and reflect on their life and work.

To read this review, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/mirrors-to-windows-the-artist-as-woman-film-review-susan-steinberg

Essay: Gareth Phillips. Search for 'Hiraeth'

02/12/14

An Essay on the work of Gareth Phillips

Gareth Phillips: Search for 'Hiraeth'

Gareth Phillips (b.1979) may not be a native Welsh speaker, but his identity as a dyn cymraeg (Welshman) could not be stronger, and, having grown up in the seaside town of Penarth, the Welsh coast forms an integral part of his life. A graduate of the University of Wales, Newport, where he studied Documentary Photography, Phillips now works as a freelance photographer, regularly commissioned by a number of newspapers and magazines. Nevertheless, he considers his photographic approach to embrace both the documentary and the artistic and he prefers not to be boxed in by any particular label. ‘Having the freedom to produce without limitations is what excites me as a photographer,’ he says.

From 2012-13, Phillips was working on a project called Y Tir Newydd (The New Land), ‘an artistic translation of the furthest points of the Welsh Landscape’. This flowed seamlessly into his current project, Hiraeth, conceived and produced for Ffotogallery’s 2014 summer showcase, Wish You Were Here, a triennial series of exhibitions and events seeking to nurture and support the work of early career, Wales-based photographic artists.

To read the rest of this essay, please go to: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2014/11/gareth-phillips/ 

Review of Not All Documents Are Records: Photographing Exhibitions As An Art Form at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool

28/08/14

Not All Documents Are Records: Photographing Exhibitions As An Art Form

Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool

5 July – 19 October 2014

In 1959, art student Hans Haacke helped out with the installation of documenta 2 in Kassel. On the side, he took a series of photographs of the event. Looking back, Haacke often refers to these images as his first accomplished body of work, igniting the issue of whether an artist, who is ostensibly using photography to document an event, can simultaneously – or perhaps instead – produce creative, artistic output. Photography as a medium is ambivalent in nature. On the one hand, the most reliable documentary form we have; on the other hand, it offers purely the vision of the artist behind the camera. Certainly Haacke’s series includes some incredible compositions – arguably ones that only an artist’s eye could capture – both reflecting society of the day and juxtaposing the art works on display with the audience before them.

To coincide with the eighth edition of the Liverpool Biennial, for which Open Eye is a partner gallery, director-curator Lorenzo Fusi has taken Haacke’s series and the question it raises as the starting point for an intriguing exhibition looking at the documentation of and artistic response to three key art world events: documenta, the Venice Biennale, and the Liverpool Biennial itself.

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2014/08/not-all-documents-are-records-photographing-exhibitions-as-an-art-form-2/

Document Scotland: an essay

23/07/13

Document Scotland

Scotland has a long tradition of documentary photography, reaching back as far as Thomas Annan (1829-1887), John Thompson (1837-1921), and Hill and Adamson (partners from 1843-1848). Amongst others, these pioneers set out many of the founding principles of the genre which pertain to this day. In addition to these Scottish natives, many a celebrated international photographer has also paid homage to the country and its inhabitants, including Paul Strand (1890-1976), with his timeless images from the northwest fringes in the 1930s, and Martin Parr (born 1952), with his more recent work along the A8 Corridor, west of Glasgow.

It is against this impressive backdrop that, in 2012, four contemporary Scots-born documentary photographers – Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Colin McPherson, Stephen McLaren and Sophie Gerrard – came together to form the collective, Document Scotland. 

To read the rest of this essay, please go to: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2013/07/document-scotland/