Nature is a Maybe

In Nature is a Maybe, on now at the Gow Langs­ford Gal­lery emer­ging pho­to­grapher Simon Devitt brings together a col­lec­tion of pho­to­graphs that detail the spaces we inhabit.

While work­ing largely within the realm of tra­di­tional archi­tec­tural pho­to­graphy (as seen on the pages of Urbis, Archi­tec­ture NZ and ProDesign), Devitt's images exploit the phys­ical fea­tures of his sub­jects in often unpre­dict­able ways. By high­light­ing their formal ele­ments he cre­ates eleg­ant com­pos­i­tions that can seem at odds with the true func­tion of the space portrayed.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcom­ing exhib­i­tion, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

In Drop, for example, dra­matic light­ing accen­tu­ates the shad­ows of fol­ded fab­ric res­ult­ing in an effect not unlike a min­im­al­ist paint­ing. Sim­il­arly, in I'm Not at the Bot­tom, the reduced col­our palette and subtle tonal vari­ations imbue the depic­ted stair­well with a warm, almost romantic qual­ity, draw­ing our atten­tion away from the ordin­ar­i­ness of the stairs them­selves towards the angles and rhythms that they create.

Other works move bey­ond an explor­a­tion of form, line and light to offer more dir­ect inter­pret­a­tions of liv­ing spaces and envir­on­ments. In some, Devitt places pro­saic loc­a­tions and objects along­side the glam­or­ous interi­ors of high end liv­ing envir­on­ments, a jux­ta­pos­i­tion that both con­nects and dis­con­nects the sub­jects. In oth­ers, Devitt delights in the imper­fec­tions of daily life. With items such as rub­bish bins and scuffed walls, dated bathtubs and empty rooms, he rein­forces our aware­ness that the objects we are see­ing are of the utmost ordin­ar­i­ness. Yet it is just this banal­ity that allows us to move bey­ond recog­ni­tion of the facts of the com­pos­i­tion to an almost illo­gical emotive response, where the most famil­iar of objects and sur­round­ings seem some­how mys­ter­i­ous, intriguing or forbidding.

The effic­acy of Devitt's series 'I See You There', from which 'Nature is a Maybe' is drawn, is the way in which even the most recog­nis­able can cause us to look twice, and the smal­lest of details are cap­able of con­vey­ing the largest of ideas.

Nature is a Maybe
Gow Langs­ford Gal­lery
1– 5 June 2010
Pre­view: Tues­day 1 June, 5 — 7 pm

Image from Simon Devitt's upcom­ing exhib­i­tion, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcom­ing exhib­i­tion, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcom­ing exhib­i­tion, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Image from Simon Devitt's upcom­ing exhib­i­tion, 'Nature is a Maybe'.

Share/Save