NEWS
PAUL HAS RECENTLY BEEN APPOINTED AS LECTURER IN CONTEMPORARY FINE ART THEORY AT OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY
RECENT EXHIBITION AT HOOPER'S GALLERY
A feature based on an interview with Paul Kilsby was included in the October
2009 issue of the magazine BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY
Please use the CONTACT page to leave comments on the photographs or to get in touch
Paul Kilsby is represented by HOOPERS GALLERY, Clerkenwell, London
Paul Kilsby is working on three ongoing series, Trompe L'Oeil, Lux and Gazing Globes. See the relevant pages to explore the ideas and inspiration for each series.
A selection from the Trompe l'Oeil and Lux series was exhibited at Lensky Gallery in October 2009 LENSKY GALLERY
This is a series of photographs inspired by the genre of trompe l'oeil, once again combining reproductions of paintings with his own interventions. These images make references to the iconography of seventeenth century still life, including the themes of the memento mori and vanitas. A further inspiration comes from the cabinets of curiosity assembled by aristocrats such as Rudolf II of Prague in the sixteenth century. Kilsby creates trompe l'oeil images in which real three dimensional objects seamlessly mix with reproductions of paintings and fabricated niches.
Another new series is called Lux. The inspiration for this work again finds its source in French and Spanish seventeenth century still life painting and the objects are drawn from this genre. Each object is painted with luminous pigments and then exposed to ultra-violet light. Then, in total darkness, the objects are photographed using a long exposure, the image in the camera gradually forming from the dim glow of the fading luminous light emitted from the objects. This process in turn relates to the vanitas theme: Dutch painters often included images of hourglasses and candles as representations of mortality and the passage of time.
Gazing globes are thought to date back to Venice in the thirteenth century where they were made of glass by master craftsmen. Later they became fashionable in the gardens of aristocrats throughout Europe, a taste promoted by Ludwig II of Bavaria who decorated his Herrenchiemsee gardens with them. The spheres, made not only of glass and stone but also of different materials including polished copper, were primarily objects of decoration and contemplation but were also thought by the superstitious to have special powers, warding off evil forces.
In this new series of four photographs, another key reference is to the Japanese passion for moongazing (tsukimi), celebrated, for example, in the famous woodblock prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. The celebration of tsukimi reaches its annual climax in the Japanese calendar with the waxing of the harvest full moon in September. At Daikaku-ji temple in Kyoto the moon is viewed by aficionados reflected in the lake from ceremonial boats, doubling its beauty.
Three of these four globes are painted using faux techniques.
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PAUL KILSBY trained originally in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the University of Wales. About twenty years ago he shifted from making sculptures to begin specialising in the medium of photography. At the same time, he began to research overlooked European artists involved in making photographs but whose work had been marginalised within Modernist histories of photography. This research, undertaken in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Russia and France, was brought together in a Ph D at the Royal College of Art in London. It also had a growing impact on his own imagery which turned more and more upon exploring the relationship between photography and the history of painting. He began to work with reproductions of paintings, manipulating them in many ways - sometimes by tearing, sometimes by burning, often by adding extra objects and imagery to create small scale tableaux which he then photographed. This body of work was gathered together as both an exhibition at the Royal College of Art and a book, The Seer & The Seen.
Since that time Kilsby has continued to focus on the relationship between painting and photography. In 2006 he exhibited a new body of work, After Vermeer, at Hoopers Gallery, London, which explores the ways in which the Dutch painter's imagery reveals a 'photographic' look due to his use of a camera obscura. Kilsby used a variety of techniques to revisit Vermeer's paintings. In some he reworks Vermeer's compositions, bringing characters from different paintings into fresh combinations. In others, he throws areas out of focus, emphasising the restricted depth of field Vermeer must have experienced as he peered into the ground glass screen of his camera obscura. Another technique involves folding, scoring and reworking reproductions to create 'optical' obsctructions. These photographs, printed using the platinum palladium process, are conceived as explorations, meditations, homages.
His more recent work continues the investigation of the iconography of seventeenth century painting, concentrating on the iconography of the nature morte genre.
Paul Kilsby has exhibited widely in the UK, including London, Birmingham, Bath, Newcastle, Plymouth, Oxford, Stroud, Stow and abroad, including Paris, Prague, New York, Istanbul, Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Perm (Russia).
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Other sources of information on Paul Kilsby's photography:
Paul was a guest speaker at PhotoStroud Festival of Photography in October 2007 and included in the group exhibition 31 Studio at the Subscription Rooms.
Paul's photographs were included as part of an exhibition called Oil & Silver at Hoopers Gallery in London from Friday 2nd February until March 2nd 2007. This was a group exhibition exploring dialogues between painting and photography in contemporary fine art practice. The exhibition also included work by Mark Bolland, Nicky Coutts, Nicholas Middleton and Jorma Puranen. Go to www.hoopersgallery.co.uk, archived exhibitions section for details. You can see prints by Paul by appointment at: Hoopers Gallery, 15 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AA, telephone 020 7490 3908 Go to: HOOPER'S GALLERY Paul Kilsby's photographs are held in public and private collections in France, USA, Czech Republic, Russia and the UK
Please visit 31 STUDIO for details of high quality studio platinum printing
Also visit NICKY AKEHURST CREATIVE MANAGEMENT for further details about exhibiting the After Vermeer series