Friday 13 — Sunday 15 June 2014

Think/Classify

MA Photography students present a new exhibition inspired by experimental 1960's writer Georges Perc.

The exhibition takes inspiration from the essay with the same name, where Perec observes the way society attempts to organise everything - including our own thoughts and ideas when creating work - into categories and has limited success. When writing the article, the author decided to abandon a "logical" structure using a beginning, a middle, and an end; instead choosing to put together a collection of his ideas for the essay under random, un-alphabetised headings.

The exhibition at the Castlefield Gallery's New Art Spaces Federation House in Manchester shows an interest in the collected idea in the same way.

Perec's comedic decision not to present his ideas in a logical fashion reminded them of their own constant struggle, as artists, to make their ideas for artwork a reality. They are exhibiting fresh ideas that reflect the decisions they currently face about what they want to explore as practitioners while approaching the end of their course. Each photographer is different to the last; with works in landscape, documentary, still life, experimental, portraiture and self-portraiture, and even works that are difficult to categorise in the first place. Some prefer digital and some prefer film, some using a traditional darkroom and some using Photoshop - and some using both.

Georges Perec (1936 - 1982) was a member of the OULIPO group for writers. His approach to writing was influenced by his work as a hospital archivist at a Neurophysiological Research Laboratory.

Open Evening - 12 June 5-9pm