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Nerys Mathias

Date of birth 14.Sep.76
Place of birth wales
Country of residence United Kingdom

My practice concentrates upon desire. The on-going absence/ desire project uses photography as a tool to gather evidence. The work explores the clichés of love and longing: sunsets, moonlit skies, phallic symbolism, and images of a woman's body. These clichés are undercut by making the beauty of the pictorial landscape slightly sinister. The work manifests itself as square images; a building block system used to put images together and give an equal value to each. The square format is used to give the work neither portrait nor landscape status. Each image is made to be seen on its own but also to allow for further investigation as narrative images. So far, this has meant that the works may be seen isolated, as diptychs and triptychs. As the project manifests, so does the grouping. This work started out using 1m square lambda prints but as the project has grown this has become impractical so a three-screen projection is envisaged and is under current development. Triptychs from this project can currently be seen in the University of Glamorgan Purchase Prize.
Absence/desire draws upon a large scope of literary influence: Roland Barthes "A Lovers Discourse", the love poetry of Jacques Prévert, the plays of Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce's "Dubliners". These writers are concerned with revealing moments, and by concentrating upon discreet moments it is hoped that a larger question is revealed.

The current project Self-portraits as Dead Iconic Patriarchal Painters deals with the contradictory emotions involved with looking within the cannon of art history as an artist working today. As a female artist using photography my desire to join the exclusive group of male painters, whose work I love and identify with, shall never be fulfilled. Frustration, admiration and a professional recognition inform this series, as well as a delight in recreating the old masters self-portraits using natural light.
Under production at the moment is a project called: National Gallery Voyeur. The piece is a triptych of my favourite men at the National Gallery – Ruben’s Samson, Botticelli’s Mars and a male nude from the French School. The work is made up of three photographs using male models, shown at larger-than-life size.

This work is being made in response to being an active female viewer in a major public collection of art where many attractive nude females may be viewed but the number of nude or half naked men to look at are few indeed. The work highlight’s this lack and celebrates the images found, and of course provides more images of attractive men to be admired.

Exhibitions Start Your Collection 2008!, 01.Aug - 20.Sep.08, Contemporary Art Projects, '00 Nature Part 1, 10.Apr - 15.May.08, Contemporary Art Projects


www.nerysmathias.com

 

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