RELICS

‘Relics’, an exhibition by Liz Gorman

Show: 12-15 March 2020
Open Evening with ‘Ritual’ performance: Friday 13th 7-10pm
Artist Talk: Alex Stone in conversation with Liz Gorman Sunday 15th 1pm
Opening hours: Thursday- Saturday 10am-6pm & Sunday 11.30am-5pm

Relics imagines thermoformed plastic packaging as an accidental hieroglyphic language - as it might be interpreted by a future civilisation. Discarded plastic was collected, placed on photographic paper and then exposed to light, revealing the intricacies of the material. Documenting the plastic in this way hints at its fragility - we are shown its fissures and bubbles. However we are also reminded, somewhat paradoxically, of the unsettling permanence of plastic; it will outlive not only the observer but even the photographic print itself.
The textural quality brought out by the process of making a photogram exposes human intervention on the planet, the traces we have left throughout history in order to leave our mark. This exhibition is intended as a sombre memorial to our present times, and a reverential reflection on our unintended monument of plastic.

‘Ritual’

A performance piece in which participants are selected at random to take part in a novel automatic-writing ritual using cameraless photography.
Participants and viewers alike are invited to reflect on the ‘Relics’ exhibited in the space, and make sense of the ubiquitous yet unfamiliar markings. Using a planchette (favoured in Victorian seances), the artist is calling on ‘collective power’ to reveal messages that may be hiding in plain sight within the abstract images on the wall. This ritual compares the simultaneous rise of photography and spiritualism in the 1800s, a time in which the boundaries of fact and fiction were blurred and the future was unclear as emerging technologies rocketed our civilisation into our industrial age. Ritual closes with the lights on and back to our present day asking: ‘what has changed and where are we now?’
Liz's work employs cameraless photographic techniques to explore the ways in which documentary images can be made, with a focus on objects, experimental installation and artistic-political discourse.
Originally from Liverpool, and now based in South East London, she graduated from Camberwell College of Art in 2012. ​She is currently a co-director at The Gate Darkroom, a community run photographic darkroom, pop-up gallery and studio.

‘Artist Talk’ - Alex Stone in conversation with Liz Gorman

Alex Stone is a London based artist who uses analogue photography and casting techniques to question temporality and trace. Using these early processes of mass production, she explores how labour and time involved in hand production relate and sit in opposition to the fast paced nature of contemporary city life. Her work is site specific and she has exhibited in a range of spaces from underground carriages and stairwells to white walled galleries. She is currently working on Potholes a group residency and exhibition in London and Liverpool which will be at SET Space Lewisham in April.
She is a Co-director of The Gate Darkroom in Woolwich and a Lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
For more information please see www.alexmstone.com or instagram @alexmstone_


www.deptforddoesart.com
@deptforddoesart
www.lizgormanphotography.co.uk
@lizmakesphotos