Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art Sunderland
Collections Space 30 October 2019 – 12 January 2020
Light Matter captures natural forms illuminated by artificial light. The artist was inspired by the life and work of the Victorian scientist Joseph Swan. Sunderland-born Swan was the notable inventor of the incandescent electric light bulb, changing our experience and vision of the world forever.
Liza Dracup’s work draws on his enduring spirit of enquiry, marked by observation, curiosity and experimentation. Her photographic response captures visual nuances, descriptions hidden to the eye, and details of natural forms revealed by photography and artificial light.
Her subject matter is selected from a wide variety of flora from the English landscape and her own garden. In the photographs lie visual ambiguities which go beyond traditional ideas around photography as a mirror to human vision. The images are infused with visual excitement and wonder, offering us an unconventional view of our natural world.
Light Matter was commissioned by NEPN.
Works from Light Matter can also be seen at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens as part of the exhibition Observe Experiment Archive which runs 15 November 2019 – 5 January 2020.
