THRESHOLDS
2013-02-25This exhibition explores the relationship between truth, fiction and fantasy within documentary photography. The artists included in Thresholds have, in different ways, made work that explicitly address these aspects of documentary photography practice.
Sophie Ristelhueber’s photographs, Eleven Blow Ups, are at first glance instantly recognisable as scenes from a contemporary conflict; familiar to us from the proliferation of images presented in the media. These photographs are in fact elaborate fictions, digitally manipulated by the artist.
Peter Watkins and Tereza Zelenkova also refer to the fictional potential of the documentary photograph. For An Index of Time the artists collaborated on a project about the Byci Skala cave in the Czech Republic, a rich source of local mythology and folklore. During the process of documenting the cave, the photographers were struck by the heavy influence that these tales had on their work.
Maja Daniels documents twins Monette and Mady as they go about their daily routine in Paris. The women live a performative existence in which they pose as the mirror image to each other, rarely appearing in public separately and never without identical clothes, hair and accessories.
Stephen Gill’s series Hackney Wick, also shows the ability of photography to transform the everyday into a theatre of the surreal. His photographs represent the area of London in which Gill lives.
Luke Stephenson is interested in documenting subcultures within British culture. In his series An Incomplete Dictionary of Showbirds, Stephenson has photographed birds commonly kept as domestic pets in the U.K. that are entered into ‘showbird’ competitions.
Exhibition runs from March 15th to April 26th, 2013
Belfast Exposed
The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
Belfast
BT1 2FF
