The Shed Photography. Private View. The Malthouse. 30th December 2011

I don’t attend many Private Views, but The Shed caught my imagination during ArtsFest, mostly due to the enthusiasm of its founder, Chelsea Davine, so when Sally Holman said she wanted to do a little film of the show, I dragged myself out of my post-Christmas torpor, and hauled my camera to the Malthouse. See the video on our Lyme Regis TV page on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfmXRj2DJE&feature=youtu.be
I often find at Private Views that it takes a glass of wine or two to catch the feeling, but not in this case, I was hit by the presentation immediately on entry, the lighting, as you see from the video, affected my camera in strange ways, so the sense of illusion was present right from the start. One or two people mentioned the effect of the light on the vision, in the video it’s a slight rippling that affects the beginning, and the sparkly white dots that persist throughout, and before you suggest the cam heads need cleaning, I did that before I went out, so I guess I’ll put it down to the persistent sense of magical illusion!
That sense of illusion persisted in the hanging displays, not the exhibits, magnificent in themselves, I’m referring to the trays holding photographs for purchase, which seemed to sway, and when you I didn’t look directly at them, gave me the feeling that I was on a boat, somewhat disorienting, but perfectly in keeping with the theme of the exhibition, the coast, and the sea itself.
Maybe I’m still under the influence of Christmas Spirit, but I wasn’t alone. I counted more than 100 people, which is pretty damn good for a wet December evening, haven’t seen the Malthouse so full since our Music at the Malthouse session during ArtsFest. You could say that the exuberance and enthusiasm of the participants and organisers was picked up by the very complimentary audience, which also showed in the intense visuality of the exhibition. This is cutting edge art, powered by digital technology, devised for the internet, and at the same time, a social co-op of artists, both amateur and professional, who all, as you can hear in the interviews, share the same sense of enthusiasm, and the feeling of progress.
I’ve included a few stills from the video here, but to see more, see our Lyme Regis TV Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=100000496698281&tid=179650088849&frecId=false&skipClustering=true&qn=1325358466&success=22&failure=0&set=oa.10150497327338850#!/media/set/?set=oa.10150497289193850&type=1
The whole concept of The Shed Photography exudes clarity and innovation, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next, in fact, in order to keep a photographic eye on them, I’m going to join myself....