Sarah Thelwall

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Forthcoming show - Sarah Thelwall, 12 Oct - 27 Nov 1998, International House Danan Gallery, 1-4 Yarmouth Place (just off Picadilly)



Sarah has been a member of LIP for the last four years and whilst she has exhibited in the LIP exhibition for three out of four of these this will be the first time Sarah has had a solo exhibition of her work in London.

Sarah's "....lovely, resonant work. An intimate and contemporary look at the innate lyricism of the garden& Keith Carterexhibition is the result of two years work which started with a garden in Derbyshire. Joseph Campbell's comment that 'Accidents can frequently become main plots' could have been made about this project. It started out just playing with some spare colour film early one morning and has become an ongoing exploration of the garden and the way in which it's depiction can become a portrait of the gardener.

The first level on which you see these images is that of images of gardens and tracing the line that divides the organised and nurtured from the chaotic and overgrown. You then see that the interest lies not in the pristine, manicured areas which are the garden and gardener on show but in the character behind the mask. As this project has grown a number of other gardens have become involved and you can see Sarah asking questions with her photographs which seek to understand the gardener and define what is important to them not by photographing the important features but by depicting the unimportant and the left behind.

As this work has developed the images have become more obscured and abstract. From the direct images with detail and a long focal plane to images where the focal plane is shorter and occupies a smaller part of the image. These images explore how little needs to be said directly to the viewer and how much can be implied or left purely for the viewer to superimpose their own meaning on. This particular lack of direct message is also, in part, a reflection of the influence of abstract artists such as Bridget Riley, Mondrian and Anish Kapoor.

Sarah's exhibition has been sponsored by Quicksilver (digital and photographic imaging services, sponsors of the photographic printing) and ADE (marketing communications agency, sponsors of the design and printing of the invitations). If you would like more information on the exhibition, Sarah's other work or the sponsors she can be contacted on 0181-255-1309.

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