exhibition

Abandoned

Tina Carr & Annemarie Schoene

03.Oct.07 - 25.Nov.07
Wed-Sun 12-6 or by appt; first Thursday 12-9

Private View, 03.Oct.07, 6:30-8:30 pm
Artist Talk, 04.Oct.07, 7-8 pm

Contemporary Art Projects
20 Rivington St
London EC2A 3DU
020 7739 1743
info@caprojects.com
Tube Old Street, Liverpool Street, Shoreditch / Hoxton

In conjunction with London Photomonth 2007, Contemporary Art Projects is staging two exhibitions by contemporary artists working in the photographic medium using contrasting methods.

Abandoned is an ongoing series of intimate studies of abandoned homes, places and objects. Made in several locations in rural Wales, where the artists have lived for the past 25 years.

Medieval artists drew upon nature to create rich visual symbolism within their illuminated manuscripts; similarly, Tina Carr and Annemarie Schöne explore the physical world around them to create minutely detailed devotions to their local surroundings. The artists take an almost forensic interest in their subjects and the resultant evidence has become both abstracted painterly memories and detached commentary on social history and the impact of globalisation on a local way of life, traditions and values associated with it.

The scenes are never staged or manipulated; all are locations deserted by their previous habitants for some reason; lack of economic viability, illness, death. Once cherished possessions remain eerily frozen in some by-gone era, futilely anticipating their users’ return while years of neglect take their toll on building structure and fabric. The artists capture images of places that otherwise would lie unseen and undiscovered. Through their empathetic eyes, settings of abandonment and decay become serenely contemplative images that commemorate times past.

Tina Carr & Annemarie Schöne have worked collaboratively since 1977. They have exhibited widely both nationally and internationally at Ffotogallery Cardiff, Oriel Mostyn, the National Portrait Gallery, the Photographer’s Gallery, the Westphalisches ndustrie Museum Zeche Zollern Dortmund, Deutsches Bergbau Museum, Bochum, and Association Lavalette, France etc. Their work is held in many public and private collections.

In 2003 they were awarded the prestigious ‘Creative Wales Award’ by the Arts Council of Wales and in 2005 were runners up for the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod.

Their second book, Coal Faces - Life After Coal in the Afan Valley, Port Talbot will be published by Parthian books in April 2008.

News / reviews A review of 'Abandoned', John Randolph Davies, commentart.com, 30.Mar.08