Thursday 18 November 2011
On the principle of an ABC.... : In the form of an open dialogue with the public, this programme of gatherings launched in 2006 explored the museum's collections and the vocabulary of contemporary art.
On a hot flame, the black crater of the wok heats up quickly and cooks food intensely. That's the kind of enveloping energy that Luca Gilli manages in capturing in his photographs. Drawing on an unlikely recipe of lava and lichen, the Italian photographer gives us a glimpse into his bitter-sweet questioning of our origins. Next, we're gently thrust into an Icelandic landscape. Like the great American landscape photographers, Luca Gilli takes us beyond the mundane appearance of his images, making the inexpressible power and vibrancy of nature, its profound respiration seem wholly obvious. His ultra-realist rendering of substance - mingled with the misty, almost other-worldly evanescence that cloaks the upper part of the images - is disquieting. But it is energy, the power of the earth that dominates our perception. A moment of contemplation which invites us to think again about landscape photography as a space for meditation.
