A Private Paradise:

Donna Conlon  Uta Kögelsberger  Tinna Ludviksdottir  Sarah Woodfine
 
Uta Kögelsberger    
Uta Kögelsberger   A Private Paradise  2007    
 

29 June to 29 July 2007

Four artists in search of a private paradise.

In her video, Donna Conlon presents a sequence of lights blinking to the sound of Christmas tunes translated into Morse code in an attempt to search for messages, greater truths, evidence of another world. Through her series of photographs of gardens in California and the South of France, Uta Kögelsberger tries to reveal people's notions of an ideal place while Sarah Woodfine, in her three-dimensional drawing construction, retraces the discovery of another realm by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. With four photographic triptychs scrutinizing the world around her, Tinna Ludviksdottir concludes that maybe a private paradise can only exist within oneself.

Donna Conlon was born in the USA and now lives and works in Panama City. Her videos have been exhibited widely around the world, including at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, and in 2004 her video Espectros Urbanos was awarded First Prize at the IV Biennial of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus, held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Panama.

Uta Kögelsberger has been held a number of respected Fellowships such as the Stanly Picker Fellowship and the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship. She has had solo shows at a range of respected venues including the Glassell Project Space, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, the Cafe Gallery Projects, London and at Art Lab, London. She has contributed to many group projects in spaces that include Laurence Miller Gallery, New York; Vegas Gallery, London and ArtFutures 2005/Bloomberg Space. Her work has been published by photo north in an artist monograph 'Uta Kögelsberger'.

Tinna Ludviksdottir was born in Iceland and studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway (1997-2001). She has shown in Iceland and Norway and this exhibition will be her first in London.

Sarah Woodfine studied at Liverpool School of Fine Art (1988-1991) and Royal Academy Schools (1991-1995). In 2004 she won the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Recent group shows include: Snowdomes, National Glass Centre, Sunderland; When Night Draws In, Artangel Interaction project at Digby Stuart Chaplaincy, Roehampton University and Drawing Inspiration, Abbot Hall Gallery. Recent solo shows include Ha Gamle Prestegard, Norway in 2007 and Danielle Arnaud contemporary art in 2006.

 

 
   
Donna Conlon Hometown SETI  
Donna Conlon  Hometown SETI  2007
video and sound
 

'We are constantly engaged in personal searches for meaning in life. We look to religion, science, art, support groups, and palm readers for answers. We long for communication from beyond. Various SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) projects have existed since the 1960’s, in attempts to intercept possible communications from outer space. Most efforts have scanned the skies for radio wave transmissions, but some have also scanned microwave or visible wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This is my personal attempt to find meaning in the Universe by intercepting messages from afar channelled through my father-in-law’s Christmas tree lights.'

 
   
Sarah Woodfine  
   
Sarah Woodfine   Sarah Woodfine
 
Sarah Woodfine  Somewhere  2007
pencil on paper in perspex box, 20 x 60 x 20cm
 
   
 
 
 
 
Uta Kögelsberger  A Private Paradise  2007
slide projection

The piece A Private Paradise consists of a series of photographic images presented in the form of a slide show about places where people have sought to create paradise for themselves, these bubbles of existence that exist away from the reality of the everyday. I am interested in trying to establish if there is some common denominator to constitute such an ideal place. What do we consider to be essential ‘ingredients’ for ‘paradise’; for instance do most personal paradises have a garden? Water? Trees? If so, what kind of trees etc. How do these conceptions relate to received ideas handed down through pictorial traditions and media images? And how to these conceptions become carriers of our dreams and aspirations. And finally, are our attempts at perfection always doomed to failure?

 
Tinna Ludviksdottir   Tinna Ludviksdottir   Tinna Ludviksdottir
         
Tinna Ludviksdottir   Tinna Ludviksdottir   Tinna Ludviksdottir
Tinna Ludviksdottir
C-print
       

'When examining the concept of a private paradise I have observed that a common denominator for many is material matter; often containing a cultivated, perhaps artificial garden, a luxurious house lying close to the sea... I have realized that my understanding is that man strives to build his very own private paradise outside himself whereas I believe that the true paradise will always be within, a private one.'

 
 
 
 
 
 
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