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An on-going concern with perception, memory, time and its representation forms the basis of Philomene Pirecki’s new exhibition at Supplement, London.

The themes, which were apparent in work produced during the artist’s residency at Wysing Arts Centre in 2012 and the Relatively Absolute group exhibition earlier this year, are continued in Image Persistence.

Philomene Pirecki: Image Persistence

Central to the exhibition are two large wall-based mixed-media installations based on exaggerated interpretations of the colour white, generated from photographs taken both in the gallery space before its recent refurbishment and in the artist's studio. These are discrete works, whilst also acting as a background to a series of photographs and paintings installed on top.

The installation also contains photographs from The Reflecting series. These works begin with an initial photograph, in this instance a monochrome photogram, which on the occasion of an exhibition is rephotographed in the artist's studio. It is this reproduction of the photograph that is used as the exhibition version, both a copy and a new original. The glossy surface of the photograph includes partial reflections of the artist taking the photograph, the surrounding space and the light.

During the exhibition the photograph is re-photographed in situ to become the new generation of the work. With each subsequent showing of the work the process is repeated, between gallery and studio, the image unpredictably capturing and accumulating images as each new generation of the work is formed.

 

A new series of works, from which the exhibition takes its name, uses photographs of images of works that Pirecki no longer owns. Re-photographed directly from digital files on her computer screen, along with the attendant image distortion, they are layered with other photos on transparent photographic material which are images of substances that shift between material states; ice, water and iridescent bubbles. Pirecki plans to document these during the exhibition to use as material for future work.

Moving between originals and copies, often re-photographing her own work to generate new and different iterations within the studio and the exhibition space, Pirecki's practice addresses notions of proximity; how images act as an analogue for memory, unpredictably accumulating, persisting, mutating or disappearing.

More information on Philomene's Pirecki's residency at Wysing, alongside Ed Atkins, Nicolas Deshayes and Elizabeth Price, here.