ry e l l a g a m fro t p r e c x e n A y r a i d s ’ r o t co-ordina
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 It’s 7.50am and I’m the first to arrive at work and walk into the quiet, clean, calm, cool and peaceful gallery. The walls are white, the floor polished wood – the perfect “blank canvas” back drop for a moment of solitude. The gallery is closed to the public for the four-day installation of the next exhibition. I am aware, just outside the door, people are hurrying to work, rushing to begin their hectic days and I, in contrast, allow myself a few moments to stand still to take in what is before me. Perched on foam blocks awaiting installation, 37 large scale, beautifully framed photographs, line the walls, each one ready to take a place in the
gallery as part of touring exhibition TRANSCENDENCE: Photography by David Stephenson. The exhibition arrived on the back of a truck yesterday at Arts Space Wodonga, from Monash Gallery of Art. It was carefully unpacked and condition reported by Tom and Simone. The gallery was buzzing with excitement as all of us had been looking forward to hosting this work for some time. The photographs are exquisite and far outweighed my expectations from the small digital reproductions I had seen. There is nothing quite like standing in front of an original to inspire and delight.
A photo buff myself, I am in awe of Stephenson’s imagery. Simone had shared her intimate experience of Stephenson’s photographs on exhibition at the NGV a number of years ago and now, she still speaks passionately about this experience of amazement and wonder at the magnificent images – memory and feeling that has stayed with her all these years. The images take me places I have been as well as places I have never seen. Transcendence is an exhibition of majestic images of subject matter including: landscapes, cityscapes, cathedral ceilings, starlit nights, dawns and dusks. “Stephenson uses photography to
transcend visible reality and explore abstract, intangible themes such as time, mortality and spirituality. To explore these themes, he strategically employs the medium of photography in a number of ways, using long exposures, different view-points as well as light, colour and form” * My calm quiet bubble is burst by a ringing phone – like an alarm bringing me back to reality. It’s 8.15am, there is work to be done, a day full of emails, reporting and media ahead. *Monash Gallery of Art, Transcendence exhibition brochure
Transcendence opens Friday, September 5 and runs until September 27.
Curator’s talk Saturday, September 6 at 10.30am at Arts Space Wodonga