Art Sensus presents SIZE: matters - Large Scale European photography

16th Jun 2011

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Tom Hunter, Father and Son run £2m Vice Racket from Sauna, 2005 (image courtesy of the artist and Tosca Photography Fund)

Art Sensus presents SIZE: matters - Large Scale European photography, an exhibition of contemporary photographic works, opening on the 17th of June. Drawn from the collections of Tosca Photography Fund, the photographs are produced using techniques varying from the simplest pinhole camera to cutting-edge digital image manipulation, demonstrating the breadth and possibilities of the medium. Artists included are: David Bailey (British, b. 1938), Christina Benz (Swiss, b.1972), David Birkin (British, b. 1977), Guido Castagnoli (Italian, b. 1976), Andreas Gefeller (German, b.1970), Tom Hunter (British, b. 1965) and Simon Norfolk (British, b. 1963).

Filtered through a contemporary sensibility, traditional genres underpin the various works. David Bailey’s Orchid I references the Still Life genre, with strong sexual elegance. The Old Master-inspired series Living in Hell by Tom Hunter becomes a palimpsest of meaning, pairing iconic compositions with titles from the Hackney Gazette. Simon Norfolk’s Iraq and Afghanistan conversely document war zones using the visual language of Arcadia and the idyllic pastoral. Andreas Gefeller’s Supervision series, which has never been shown in the United Kingdom before, and Guido Castagnoli’s shot from Japan also look to landscapes, producing highly detailed images that are hyper-real and uncanny.

Photographs in Tom Hunter’s Dublin Bay series, captured using a pinhole camera, examine themes of birth and the meditative cycle of life. These are subtly echoed in the video installation Lake-split by Christina Benz.

In the final room The Confessions series by David Birkin transgresses media boundaries by merging performance and photography. The sitters – members of the artist’s family - were asked to confess to a secret, whilst being captured on camera alone in an empty room. The camera’s open shutter becomes the only witness as the artist leaves the room. The sitters become the authors of their own image as they use the camera to seek redemption. More than a documentary record of a performance, the photographs become portraits, moving between the personal and the universal.

This exhibition is co-curated by Becky Haghpanah-Shirwan (Art Sensus) and Riikka Kuittinen (T osca).

All the artworks in this exhibition are for sale. About Tosca Photography Fund

Tosca Photography Fund is run by portfolio manager Zelda Cheatle, who is also a World Photography Academy member. Having acquired the photographs in this show in the past three years, the Fund is now selling its collection which ranges from early 20th century rare vintage, Soviet Russian, European and American photography to contemporary photographic art. Art Sensus previously displayed works from the Toscafund in the hugely successful exhibition Rodchenko and His Circle in early 2011.