Hawthorn Hall of Mirrors (454308E - 205690N) 2009
The Radcliffe/Churchill Trust in Oxford. Sited in the new cancer wing, the imagery on the 2 x 7 metre acid etched and sandblasted mirror produced by Nero Signs (Glass/Designs) Ltd.
At the Churchill, the mirrors simultaneously reflect the outside environment together with the people who use the building. The sandblasted static imagery retains its scale, whilst the ‘audience’ participates by adding their moving reflections, changing scale as they approach and depart in relation to the mirror surface.
Rideal used branches and berries taken from an old hawthorn tree located close to the new cancer centre (at: 454308E - 205690N, etched into the mirror at the base of panel four) and made life size photograms from them. Research suggests that phyto-chemicals found in hawthorn, may reduce the risk of cancer.These images were then scanned making a vinyl mask to create a design that is itself reflective while also echoing the pattern produced by the repeated photograms.
At the base of the mirror is a dedication to Eric Rideal who attended St.Edward’s School, Oxford (1934) and as an RAF Flight Lieutenant was stationed at Little Rissington, his son was born at the Radcliffe (1950).
Links:
www.ouh.nhs.uk
www.oxfordradcliffe.nhs.uk
www.youtube.com
The Radcliffe/Churchill Trust in Oxford. Sited in the new cancer wing, the imagery on the 2 x 7 metre acid etched and sandblasted mirror produced by Nero Signs (Glass/Designs) Ltd.
At the Churchill, the mirrors simultaneously reflect the outside environment together with the people who use the building. The sandblasted static imagery retains its scale, whilst the ‘audience’ participates by adding their moving reflections, changing scale as they approach and depart in relation to the mirror surface.
Rideal used branches and berries taken from an old hawthorn tree located close to the new cancer centre (at: 454308E - 205690N, etched into the mirror at the base of panel four) and made life size photograms from them. Research suggests that phyto-chemicals found in hawthorn, may reduce the risk of cancer.These images were then scanned making a vinyl mask to create a design that is itself reflective while also echoing the pattern produced by the repeated photograms.
At the base of the mirror is a dedication to Eric Rideal who attended St.Edward’s School, Oxford (1934) and as an RAF Flight Lieutenant was stationed at Little Rissington, his son was born at the Radcliffe (1950).
Links:
www.ouh.nhs.uk
www.oxfordradcliffe.nhs.uk
www.youtube.com
Green, Green Glass of Home V& A 2009.
V&A Friday Night ‘Flash’; a portrait photo studio using the artist’s collection of green glass as the perfect backdrop for multiple portrait sittings.
Fantin-Latour's painting of nasturtiums (capucines in French) inspired Rideal’s interpretation. The reiterated flowers dance up and down in both works, and the tiered layers of individual green glass vessels can be seen to symbolise the idiosyncrasies of the individual portraits whilst simultaneously alluding to their similarities… like leaves; each is unique.
Rideal's glass collection is an assortment of twentieth century domestic pieces accrued gradually from chance finds. Imported into the context of the V & A, it could be viewed alongside other collections there, for a single night with a garden view of the Brompton Oratory.
Molly Nesbit discusses Eugène Atget’s Nasturtiums (MOMA, NY) In ‘A new history of photography’ edited by Michel Frizot,1994, Könemann.
Links:
collections.vam.ac.uk
Bespoke WAWA sofa
Flickr
V&A Friday Night ‘Flash’; a portrait photo studio using the artist’s collection of green glass as the perfect backdrop for multiple portrait sittings.
Fantin-Latour's painting of nasturtiums (capucines in French) inspired Rideal’s interpretation. The reiterated flowers dance up and down in both works, and the tiered layers of individual green glass vessels can be seen to symbolise the idiosyncrasies of the individual portraits whilst simultaneously alluding to their similarities… like leaves; each is unique.
Rideal's glass collection is an assortment of twentieth century domestic pieces accrued gradually from chance finds. Imported into the context of the V & A, it could be viewed alongside other collections there, for a single night with a garden view of the Brompton Oratory.
Molly Nesbit discusses Eugène Atget’s Nasturtiums (MOMA, NY) In ‘A new history of photography’ edited by Michel Frizot,1994, Könemann.
Links:
collections.vam.ac.uk
Bespoke WAWA sofa
Flickr
Fall, River, Snow 10 minutes 40 seconds. Super8 transferred to DVD © Liz Rideal
Shown at Compton Verney, 29 October – 10 December 2006
Compton Verney premiered Liz Rideal’s film, shot at Niagara, Burleigh Falls and Big Cedar in Canada. Projected onto the Capability Brown landscape at Compton Verney it focused attention on the mesmeric power of scenery and provoked a visual debate between real and filmed nature. Shot on Super 8, this silent film is a conscious meditation on the beauty of the natural world. It tracks the movement of water, snow packed firm on land, a frozen lake, wheeling gulls, camouflaged deer, rainbows, and the snow laden branches of trees. The result is an enigmatic portrayal of a particularly distinctive terrain, which was projected onto the dramatic backdrop of a lake and trees at Compton Verney, illuminating the immediate landscape as it descended into dusk. Fall, River, Snow enabled the gallery to extend its programme beyond the confines of the building. The landscape at Compton Verney acted as a film screen for the projections, but rather than merely providing the physical backdrop for the project, it offered another context for the unfolding drama in Rideal’s films. Rideal’s work revolves around issues of repetition, scale, motion and colour.
Rideal’s photographic contextual work was shown concurrently in the galleries at Compton Verney.
Links:
Compton Verney
Fall, River, Snow - projected on Vimeo
Shown at Compton Verney, 29 October – 10 December 2006
Compton Verney premiered Liz Rideal’s film, shot at Niagara, Burleigh Falls and Big Cedar in Canada. Projected onto the Capability Brown landscape at Compton Verney it focused attention on the mesmeric power of scenery and provoked a visual debate between real and filmed nature. Shot on Super 8, this silent film is a conscious meditation on the beauty of the natural world. It tracks the movement of water, snow packed firm on land, a frozen lake, wheeling gulls, camouflaged deer, rainbows, and the snow laden branches of trees. The result is an enigmatic portrayal of a particularly distinctive terrain, which was projected onto the dramatic backdrop of a lake and trees at Compton Verney, illuminating the immediate landscape as it descended into dusk. Fall, River, Snow enabled the gallery to extend its programme beyond the confines of the building. The landscape at Compton Verney acted as a film screen for the projections, but rather than merely providing the physical backdrop for the project, it offered another context for the unfolding drama in Rideal’s films. Rideal’s work revolves around issues of repetition, scale, motion and colour.
Rideal’s photographic contextual work was shown concurrently in the galleries at Compton Verney.
Links:
Compton Verney
Fall, River, Snow - projected on Vimeo
Drappeggio in Ercolano and Dancing with Borromini. Stills from location projections in Rome (2008-09).
In her film, Drappeggio in Ercolano, Rideal collates footage of washing hung out to dry from balconies seen from the road of the Mercato di Pugliano, Ercolano, where vendors deal exclusively in recycled clothing and furs. Her focus is on the material of fabric; the everyday draperies of sheets, curtains and table cloths, drying in the typical Neapolitan fashion of seried ranks. The relentless and time immemorial task of washing and drying is emphasized when the film was projected onto the surface of Rome's ancient aqueduct walls.
The film was shown in Rome organised by curator Fabio Campagna:
The Aurelian wall in Via D.Fontana, Rome. 21 December 2008
ESC ATELIER OCCUPATO, via dei Reti 15, Rome. 23 December 2008
Rialto, Santambrogio, Rome. 31st of January 2009
Further projections at:
The British School at Rome, Cortile. 12 December 2008 and Façade. 17 January 2009
Palazzo Falconieri. Via dei Farnesi. 22 January 2009
Links:
Youtube
In her film, Drappeggio in Ercolano, Rideal collates footage of washing hung out to dry from balconies seen from the road of the Mercato di Pugliano, Ercolano, where vendors deal exclusively in recycled clothing and furs. Her focus is on the material of fabric; the everyday draperies of sheets, curtains and table cloths, drying in the typical Neapolitan fashion of seried ranks. The relentless and time immemorial task of washing and drying is emphasized when the film was projected onto the surface of Rome's ancient aqueduct walls.
The film was shown in Rome organised by curator Fabio Campagna:
The Aurelian wall in Via D.Fontana, Rome. 21 December 2008
ESC ATELIER OCCUPATO, via dei Reti 15, Rome. 23 December 2008
Rialto, Santambrogio, Rome. 31st of January 2009
Further projections at:
The British School at Rome, Cortile. 12 December 2008 and Façade. 17 January 2009
Palazzo Falconieri. Via dei Farnesi. 22 January 2009
Links:
Youtube
Cloth Fair, on 19th March 2007, was a temporary light installation onto the C15th bell tower of St Bartholomew the Less, and the gatehouse to Bart’s hospital, London EC1
From the 12th century Cloth Fair in Smithfield (also known as Bartholomew Fair) was an important market place for merchants selling fabrics, Cloth Fair is still the name of the road adjacent to St.Bartholomew’s hospital.
St.Bartholomew the Less is the only hospital parish church in the country; situated just beyond the Henry VIII Gateway. The tower and west wall date from the 15th century. This was the site for Rideal's photographic projection from the Great Hall. Both Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and William Hogarth (1697-1764) are connected with this site. Jones, the son of a clothworker, was baptised in the church and Hogarth, who was born in Bartholomew Close, was responsible for the mural paintings on the staircase leading up to the Great Hall.
Managed by Modus Operandi in collaboration with Vital Arts, Bart’s and the London NHS Trust. With thanks to The Vicar and Church Wardens of St.Bartholomew the Less, The Haberdashers’ Company, The City of London, Sugarfree Design and Adi Audiovisual.
Links:
Flickr
<a href="http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/?s=rideal&submit=Search
">Vital Arts
From the 12th century Cloth Fair in Smithfield (also known as Bartholomew Fair) was an important market place for merchants selling fabrics, Cloth Fair is still the name of the road adjacent to St.Bartholomew’s hospital.
St.Bartholomew the Less is the only hospital parish church in the country; situated just beyond the Henry VIII Gateway. The tower and west wall date from the 15th century. This was the site for Rideal's photographic projection from the Great Hall. Both Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and William Hogarth (1697-1764) are connected with this site. Jones, the son of a clothworker, was baptised in the church and Hogarth, who was born in Bartholomew Close, was responsible for the mural paintings on the staircase leading up to the Great Hall.
Managed by Modus Operandi in collaboration with Vital Arts, Bart’s and the London NHS Trust. With thanks to The Vicar and Church Wardens of St.Bartholomew the Less, The Haberdashers’ Company, The City of London, Sugarfree Design and Adi Audiovisual.
Links:
Flickr
<a href="http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/?s=rideal&submit=Search
">Vital Arts
Solo show Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York, (2006)
Suc des Vosges, January 26 – March 4, 2006
For her third solo exhibition at Lucas Schoormans Gallery, British artist Liz Rideal presents a suite of photo-collages and collage-based works, all created in 2005. Rideal continues her signature practice of organizing each composition according to a grid comprised of the modular four-frame strips issued by commercial photo-booths. The artist also will debut Suc des Vosges (2005), her latest film and the first to be shown in the U.S. The near-abstract footage was shot near the mountain village of Le Valtin in France.
The roughly one dozen works on view include collages of photo-strips in black-and-white and in color, among which are several multi-panel works. New to Rideal’s formal syntax are all-white vertical framing elements, photo-strips that essentially represent pure light. Also new to her practice is the location at which the black-and-white component strips were shot: a photo-booth provided at the manufacturer’s facility in Zurich. For the exhibition, a group of the black-and-white works have been enlarged as silver prints on Ilford paper.
Using the commercial photo-booth as her camera for two decades, Rideal has recast the popular apparatus as a private site of disciplined performance. In the resulting pictures, certain configurations (the saw-toothed silhouettes of nettle leaves, the stark graphic patterns of cast-bronze roots) may seem wholly rehearsed, while others (the buoyant, flaring poses assumed by tossed panels of sheer fabric) may seem blithely improvised. Yet in all cases, once a sequence has been initiated, each frame’s composition must be engineered in the brief pause between the pre-timed activations of the machine’s shutter and flash. Editing begins in the booth and concludes in the collage.
Rideal’s featured “performers” further personalize the mechanical enterprise: the plant elements have been gathered in the artist’s London garden, the fabrics acquired on her travels. And theatricality is not a casual reference point for Rideal. The curtained cubicle of the photo-booth is suggestive of a marionette stage—the ballets des pantins referenced in some of her titles—where the artist, like the puppet master, crafts an illusion while remaining just out of sight.
Links:
Vimeo
Suc des Vosges, January 26 – March 4, 2006
For her third solo exhibition at Lucas Schoormans Gallery, British artist Liz Rideal presents a suite of photo-collages and collage-based works, all created in 2005. Rideal continues her signature practice of organizing each composition according to a grid comprised of the modular four-frame strips issued by commercial photo-booths. The artist also will debut Suc des Vosges (2005), her latest film and the first to be shown in the U.S. The near-abstract footage was shot near the mountain village of Le Valtin in France.
The roughly one dozen works on view include collages of photo-strips in black-and-white and in color, among which are several multi-panel works. New to Rideal’s formal syntax are all-white vertical framing elements, photo-strips that essentially represent pure light. Also new to her practice is the location at which the black-and-white component strips were shot: a photo-booth provided at the manufacturer’s facility in Zurich. For the exhibition, a group of the black-and-white works have been enlarged as silver prints on Ilford paper.
Using the commercial photo-booth as her camera for two decades, Rideal has recast the popular apparatus as a private site of disciplined performance. In the resulting pictures, certain configurations (the saw-toothed silhouettes of nettle leaves, the stark graphic patterns of cast-bronze roots) may seem wholly rehearsed, while others (the buoyant, flaring poses assumed by tossed panels of sheer fabric) may seem blithely improvised. Yet in all cases, once a sequence has been initiated, each frame’s composition must be engineered in the brief pause between the pre-timed activations of the machine’s shutter and flash. Editing begins in the booth and concludes in the collage.
Rideal’s featured “performers” further personalize the mechanical enterprise: the plant elements have been gathered in the artist’s London garden, the fabrics acquired on her travels. And theatricality is not a casual reference point for Rideal. The curtained cubicle of the photo-booth is suggestive of a marionette stage—the ballets des pantins referenced in some of her titles—where the artist, like the puppet master, crafts an illusion while remaining just out of sight.
Links:
Vimeo
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 February 2006, by Edith Newhall
The photo booth is a strange place. It’s secretive, claustrophobic, and must be a kind of heaven for the narcissist, like a guest bathroom with an immense mirror.
And let’s not forget the thrill of instant gratification. No wonder Andy Warhol, that most voyeuristic of artists, was among the first to explore its potential. It is also a relic of our futuristic coin-operated past, like the juke box, the phone booth, the automat (which originated in Philadelphia) – C20th century inventions that were intended to make life more convenient for all. This is the nostalgic photo-booth, the one that Liz Rideal has been using as her studio of sorts for the last 20 years.
Instead of photographing herself or her friends Warhol-style, Rideal, who was trained as a painter, creates portraits of fabric and flowers in front of the automatically operated camera’s lens. The resulting images bring to mind colour versions of Muybridge’s studies of motion or 19th century botanical cyanotypes. Her gridlike collage arrangements of her photo-booth strips are thoroughly contemporary, however, as are her C-print enlargements of individual images.
Rideal’s one-of-a-kind photo-strip compositions, which dominate her first one-person exhibition at Gallery 339, are the more original and visually arresting of these two kinds of work. Her two editioned portraits of plants and flowers, while intriguing because they were made in a photo-booth but don’t look it (they’re vastly enlarged versions of single images from photo-booth strips), seem big for the sake of big.
In her unique pieces, Rideal’s juxtapositions of serial images can simultaneously suggest the movement of film through a projector, high-rise apartment building, Bridget Riley’s dizzying paintings, and even Donald Judd’s glowing aluminium-and-Plexiglas boxes.
Warhol’s serial photo-booth portraits were one thing. Rideal has transformed the photo-booth strip into an idiosyncratic art of her own.
Links:
Solo show Gallery 339, Philadelphia
The photo booth is a strange place. It’s secretive, claustrophobic, and must be a kind of heaven for the narcissist, like a guest bathroom with an immense mirror.
And let’s not forget the thrill of instant gratification. No wonder Andy Warhol, that most voyeuristic of artists, was among the first to explore its potential. It is also a relic of our futuristic coin-operated past, like the juke box, the phone booth, the automat (which originated in Philadelphia) – C20th century inventions that were intended to make life more convenient for all. This is the nostalgic photo-booth, the one that Liz Rideal has been using as her studio of sorts for the last 20 years.
Instead of photographing herself or her friends Warhol-style, Rideal, who was trained as a painter, creates portraits of fabric and flowers in front of the automatically operated camera’s lens. The resulting images bring to mind colour versions of Muybridge’s studies of motion or 19th century botanical cyanotypes. Her gridlike collage arrangements of her photo-booth strips are thoroughly contemporary, however, as are her C-print enlargements of individual images.
Rideal’s one-of-a-kind photo-strip compositions, which dominate her first one-person exhibition at Gallery 339, are the more original and visually arresting of these two kinds of work. Her two editioned portraits of plants and flowers, while intriguing because they were made in a photo-booth but don’t look it (they’re vastly enlarged versions of single images from photo-booth strips), seem big for the sake of big.
In her unique pieces, Rideal’s juxtapositions of serial images can simultaneously suggest the movement of film through a projector, high-rise apartment building, Bridget Riley’s dizzying paintings, and even Donald Judd’s glowing aluminium-and-Plexiglas boxes.
Warhol’s serial photo-booth portraits were one thing. Rideal has transformed the photo-booth strip into an idiosyncratic art of her own.
Links:
Solo show Gallery 339, Philadelphia
2006, permanent hanging sculpture at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre.
Recalling Brancusi’s Endless Column, Light Column (11 metres), functions as a visual glass conduit between the architectural levels of the theatre building. The outer wall Glass Drapes (14x8 metres) reflects and echoes the column, an independent yet connected work in translucent repetitious form.
In Light Column, the original rectangular format of the photo-booth image was used for the interconnecting glass boxes; sixteen of these were created in response to this rhythm of 4 x 4. These boxes in turn have four sides, one side is made up of sixteen parts, and eight of these are mirrors.
The strict sequencing and fixed ‘cast’ of components evokes the precision of repeated performances over time, with mirrors as ‘actors’ adding sparkle and individuality.
As patrons ascend and descend the staircase, so they revolve around the spiralling glass structure. As day changes to night, and the theatre expands and contracts with visitors, so the reflected patterns and shadows will also change, continuously activating the space.
Links:
Modus Operandi
Recalling Brancusi’s Endless Column, Light Column (11 metres), functions as a visual glass conduit between the architectural levels of the theatre building. The outer wall Glass Drapes (14x8 metres) reflects and echoes the column, an independent yet connected work in translucent repetitious form.
In Light Column, the original rectangular format of the photo-booth image was used for the interconnecting glass boxes; sixteen of these were created in response to this rhythm of 4 x 4. These boxes in turn have four sides, one side is made up of sixteen parts, and eight of these are mirrors.
The strict sequencing and fixed ‘cast’ of components evokes the precision of repeated performances over time, with mirrors as ‘actors’ adding sparkle and individuality.
As patrons ascend and descend the staircase, so they revolve around the spiralling glass structure. As day changes to night, and the theatre expands and contracts with visitors, so the reflected patterns and shadows will also change, continuously activating the space.
Links:
Modus Operandi