Presence XXVII 2018

£750.00

  • Edition of 9
  • 18.8 x 24 inch / 47.7 x 61 cm
  • C-type print on Fuji Flex super gloss
  • Signed, numbered & titled on reverse
  • Certificate of authenticity
  • Free shipping worldwide

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Gareth McConnell’s Presence series captures bodies suspended in a moment of ambiguity—arms raised in gestures that suggest surrender, devotion, or something unknowable. Bleached by light and hovering between visibility and erasure, the figures feel weightless and untethered, their forms both vulnerable and radiant. The raised hands echo timeless gestures of worship, judgment, or release, but resist fixed meaning, instead inviting projection. Light acts as both revelation and obliteration, dissolving the body into its surroundings while darkness looms at the edges. Held between presence and absence, rapture and fragility, these images leave us suspended in a quiet, uneasy stillness, questioning what lies beyond.

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‘In all likelihood, The Dream Meadow is a fabrication of bodies photographed on a stage, perhaps even production stills from an unknown Macbeth. They are assembled in such a way that makes one consider their genesis in their abundance and togetherness in front of McConnell’s lens, but after a cursory examination, the “who’s” of the matter dissipate into the “why’s”. There remains an air of ritual in the work, the frames feel tremulous and recall the British folk tradition of Pagan Horror that made their way through the 70s and 80s via Hammer and other “weird folk Britania” outlets. There is nothing horrific per se here, but the indulgence of witchery, herbal psychedelia and pagan tribalism are apparent. It could be a by-product of Gareth’s age and interests, but obliquely I suspect that there is a precise interest in using the body and its movements as a stalwart against the state.’

Brad Feuerhelm | American Suburbs X