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Façonner la Lumière

Roseanne Lynch

November 7 – December 15 , 2024

in presence of the artist

6pm – 10pm

FAÇONNER LA LUMIÈRE

The word photography literally means “drawing with light”. It was coined in 1839 by one of the pioneers of the field, the scientist Sir John Herschel.The term is of course best understood in the context of black and white photography, where the image is formed and perceived through the interplay of light and shadow, along with the infinitely many intermediate shades of grey.

Roseanne Lynch pursues this literal interpretation of photography by studying the play of light on objects, either existing ones (a Bauhaus staircase, the Kandinskys’ bathtub) or, more frequently, abstract ones created from paper, sheet metal, or photographic film, by folding, bending, curling or deforming in some other way. She invites the viewer to contemplate light in its purest form, how it impinges on, is reflected by, and brings to life these essentially abstract forms, some of which seem to hover in space like mysterious unidentified flying objects. Her fascination with light brings to mind the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and his movie theatres or seascapes. They have in common a certain surrealistic element induced by the magical effect of light.

The approaches she favours, photograms, luminograms and solarisation, are classical techniques. Photograms date from the early days of photography, but were later employed in more abstract, experimental ways by surrealist artists such as László and Lucia Moholy-Nagy. Another artist known for his photograms was Man Ray who, together with Lee Miller, developed the technique of solarisation. Most of the works in the current exhibition are unique silver prints. Occasionally, her prints of geometric forms are enhanced using graphite.

ROSEANNE LYNCH

Born in Dublin, Roseanne Lynch lives and works in Cork, Ireland. She studied Photography at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland, and obtained a Masters in Fine Art at Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork. Before her current post there as Lecturer in Fine Art, she was Lecturer at the Cork Centre for Architectural Education. Her passion for architecture informs her photographic work, for instance in her research on the geometric forms Frank Lloyd Wright used in his design for a Pavilion in Banff, Canada.

She has held a number of residencies, including at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, Canada, the Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau, Germany, the Camargo Foundation International Fellowship Programme, Cassis, France, the Cork Centre for Architectural Education, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. In 2023, following her residency at The Bauhaus Foundation, and in response to the teachings of the Vorkus (preliminary course) at the Bauhaus school, she produced a book of her work, entitled Grammar, with a text by Bauhaus curator Torsten Blume.

Recent solo exhibitions include No Want of Evidence, Photo Museum Ireland, curated by Pádraig Spillane (2023), Semblance, Lavit Gallery, Cork (2022), GRAMMAR, Techne Sphere, Leipzig (2021), Forgetting’s Trace, Irish Embassy, Berlin (2020), and La trace de l’oubli, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2019).

Her work is held in several institutions, among them the National Collection of Ireland, the Arts Council of Ireland Collection, the Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau, the UCC Art Collection, the Glucksman Gallery, Cork, and the Office of Public Works State Art Collection, as well as in significant national and international private collections.

Toutes les photographies © Roseanne Lynch