Press

Pavilion Launches Online Gallery

9 June – 6 July 2006, Round Foundry Media Centre

An innovative and thought-provoking online photography gallery, showcasing the very best in regional talent, is launched on 8 June with an exhibition at Round Foundry Media Centre, Leeds, and online through the Pavilion website. Pavilion is the Leeds-based regional visual arts organisation that engages with photography and lens-based media.

The work of five regional photographers from Yorkshire and the North East will headline through Pavilion’s website – the organisation which celebrates contemporary photography through the commissioning of new work, exhibitions, artist-led education projects, and the promotion of regional photographers. Pavilion’s philosophy is that photography is a medium uniquely placed to inform people’s lives and to explore and understand the world in which we live.

Said Director Debra Klomp: “We’ve selected the very best of the region’s talent and are proud to launch the Online Gallery with an exhibition at Round Foundry Media Centre. Each of the photographers brings a diverse range of concepts and image making.”

The featured works include:
“Green Fingers” by Tessa Bunney of York
Bunney took inspiration from her green-fingered family, inspired by childhood memories of activities in the garden and allotment. During visits to national collections, she used the growing environments as a metaphor for the investigation of people’s relationship with the natural world and their desired control and ownership of it. Tessa Bunney has exhibited widely throughout the UK and is a regularly commissioned photographer for the Guardian Weekend magazine.

“And Then, Gone” by Rebecca Dearden of Hebden Bridge
With this work, we see an image in which melancholy combines a kind of meditative state with a sadness of spirit that starts and then grows – from a feeling of disconnection. Taken inside a sealed car we see the blurred flashes of the distant world outside, lit up for a moment by the headlights and then lost. They no longer seem to be of real places. Instead they are a reflection of that hazy, half consciousness of someone caught in their own inner world. Rebecca Dearden won the Rhubarb-Rhubarb Bursary Award in 2005 and has been selected to show work at Arles Recontres, France July 2006.

“Sport for Sports Sake” by Paul Floyd Blake of Hebden Bridge
The photographic series questions who plays sport and why – exploring the social importance of sporting communities in defining the identities of its members. The work is an exploration of how our identity is shaped and shifts according to context, reflecting upon the social need to belong within a structure with clear rules, regulations and modes of dress. Paul Floyd Blake was recently short listed and selected for the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize 2005 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

“Cyclists” by Anton Want of Silkstone
This photographic portrait series aims to document and celebrate the cyclist. At its heart is the desire to show the relationship between the cyclist, the bicycle and their landscape. The series is a comment on the nation’s health, environmental welfare, and congestion, whereby cycling is being promoted as a solution. Anton Want was recently shortlisted and selected for the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize 2005 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

“Peak Days 2004” by Miranda Whall of Gateshead
This series was developed whilst on a research and development project at Grizedale Arts. The photographs humorously explore the uncompromising and undignified journey both into the internal workings of the body and beyond. The search takes Whall into deeply romantic, industrial and agricultural landscapes in the hope that she might find her fertility, the right conditions to induce fertility or just to observe her primary fertile signs. Miranda Whall recently had a solo show in Glasgow as part of Glasgow International 2006 and was also selected for a group show at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead 2006.

Opening Times
Online GalleryExhibition : Friday 9 June to Thursday 6 July 2006
Opening hours | Public access Mon-Fri 9.00am-5pm Admission free

For further information contact: Anne Crowther 07850 725793 or 0113 2188301 or Ruth Haycock at Pavilion: ruth@pavilion.org.uk / 0113 200 7061

Editors Notes
The Online Gallery is a Pavilion service dedicated to the creative and professional development of contemporary photographers working across Yorkshire and the North East of England.
Established in 1983, Pavilion is the Leeds-based arts organisation which exists to celebrate, develop and promote the practice of photography, both as a powerful tool of creative expression and social empowerment through commissions, exhibitions, publications and related events, education and training. www.pavilion.org.uk

Round Foundry Media Centre provides serviced office accommodation and infrastructure for the digital, media and creative industries. The objective of the Centre is to establish and manage facilities that will support the growth and development of digital enterprises in Leeds.

The showcase of images continues on Pavilion’s Online Gallery at: www.pavilion.org.uk/gallery_featured.html