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Ard Bia Gallery is delighted to present, Behind the Scenes, a solo exhibition of new work by Galway born, London based artist Suzanne Mooney. Incorporating photographs, video projection and found imagery, the works collectively explore issues of landscape representation, appropriation and image making. This exhibition continues Mooney’s conceptual play with the medium of photography as a way of reconsidering how we look at the world through representation.
The exhibition gets its title from a series of colour photographs made especially for Ard Bia Gallery. Behind the Scenes (2006) shows carefully selected picturesque images of Connemara, Co. Galway, but with a difference. Instead of enabling us to admire the scenes fully, the idyllic views are blocked by the camera as it records each shot, reducing it to a postcard sized image on the screen, which appears to be suspended in mid air. The camera simultaneously offers us access to the view whilst denying us the full appreciation of the scenery.
An on-going project, Found Photographers (2006) presents appropriated diagrammatic drawings sourced in photo manuals and magazines, which Mooney has been collecting over the last five years. The sequence of images, shown at an intimate scale on a digital display screen, focus on the figure of the photographer as a predator, hiding in the bushes, standing behind the curtains or waiting to shoot his/her subject. Taken out of their original instructive context, the diagrams become a disturbing but humorous look at the act of image taking.
Finally, Wish You Were Here (2006) a DVD projection also made specifically for this exhibition, features tourist postcards that Mooney bought while shooting around Connemara last summer. Shown here in their new context, with a voiceover plucked from educational photo manuals, the work asks us to critically reflect upon the continued justification of a mythology of place. As John Hinde pointed out, “People want to buy a postcard which is so beautiful that it justifies the choice of the place that they decided to go for their holiday.”
Suzanne studied at The Burren College of Art, Co. Clare and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin before moving to London where she was awarded a Masters in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in 2005. Her work has been exhibited extensively internationally including ‘Metropolis Rise: New Art from London’, Shanghai and Beijing; (2006) ‘Schema’ at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York (2006) ‘Tonight’ at Studio Voltaire, London (2005) ‘Format 06’, Derby Photography Festival, (2006) and Blind Date, Temporary Contemporary, London (2005).
Suzanne currently works as a lecturer in photography and drawing at Goldsmiths College, London and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. She has a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Gallery of Photography, Dublin in May 2007.
Behind the Scenes will open at 7pm, February 2nd.
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Ardbia Gallery,
4 William Street West, Galway, Ireland.
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t : 00353 87 2368648 / 00353 91 516630
email us
w: www.ardbia.com
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gallery opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
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