Fragile, Chris Beetles - exhibition review
“The fleeting insignificance of our own existence” also applies to the objects depicted in the works by these three very different photographers. This quote by Paul Kenny also explains the effects of the passage of time on the diverse subjects in this exhibition.
Kenny’s exquisite abstract images resemble paintings and are made with flotsam and jetsom found on beaches — shells, feathers, fishermens’ rope, even crushed lager cans. His medium is sea-water which, left to dry, crystallises into iridescent backdrops which envelop the objects. In the gorgeous Where Land Meets Sea, No 1, tiny shells glint like gold sequins against the aqueous background.
Like Kenny, the Sicilian still-life photographer Paulette Tavormina is a collector. Her work is closely linked to 17th-century Spanish still-life paintings with elaborate constructions similarly including fruit and vegetables. Bread and Dragonfly, after J.V.H. is a symbolic reminder of the short-lives of dragonflies and the speedy decay of bread. As with Kenny’s work, on becoming photographs they can exist almost eternally.
Lottie Davies operates to different scales, working with natural landscapes and focusing on trees, fields and beaches. Their fragility lies in their endangered futures but by introducing small glowing globes of light to illuminate the tree trunks (Ex Caelo Lux:Bulbs), hedges and skies, she controls their permanence by manipulating the electricity.
These varying images cleverly interpret photography’s artificial creation of permanent beauty.
Until July 6 (020 7434 4319, chrisbeetlesfinephotographs.com)
