Dark Matters: Shadow_Technology_Art
To 15 January 2012

I managed to sneak in to see the final day of the exhibition at the Whitworth and I am so glad I did.

The over-arching theme of the exhibition was of the ephemeral sense of shadows and darkness - http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/darkmatters/

"Exploring the impact of scientific, digital and mechanical invention upon visual culture, Dark Matters brings together the work of ten internationally acclaimed artists from across the globe who engage with ideas of darkness and shadow through a range of technologies. In an exhibition populated by half-seen spectres, visual riddles and distorted reflections, these artists explore themes of time, illusion and memory through a variety of media and machinery."

There were some thought-provoking pieces, a few visually stunning pieces (but then unidirectional light in a dark room always looks good) and some piece that I just couldn't engage with.

One of those latter pieces was by Brass Art in the Mezzanine gallery. It looked beautiful - it filled the whole space, very few pieces have done that in there. But I couldn’t grasp the narrative of the piece and couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I actually look at it - resin, cellophane and plastic. It's shadows were the piece. What it created was the work for me and I just enjoyed it.

Some of the work I felt worked was the Butterfly piece by Barnaby Hosking. Again, very simple and elegant way of creating a whole image on the wall surface. I'm not sure whether the butterfly as a symbol of inner thoughts were too obvious or a strong link to idea. Or, whether it felt as though a butterfly is also a funky design to platy with when dealing with symmetrical shapes...?
Visually stunning was the film piece by R. Luke Dubois - romantic connections in found footage from famous movie scenes. The connecting points from each lover appealed to my love of charts and diagrams.
As can be probably gathered, my analytical head did kick in and started observing and questioning. But, I did manage to enjoy it as well - get swept away with the sparkly lights. Overall though, it was a fabulous exhibition with a lot of work going into it.

darkmattersart.com