The history of light
Grace Weir
Curated by Belinda Quirke
Sat 30 Sept – Fri 17 Nov
Opening reception: Sat 30 Sept, 2:30pm | All are welcome, no booking required
'The history of light’ unfolds the fixing of a moment that occurs when taking a photograph, to write a text with light about time. Consisting of a new series of painted works and a filmic installation, the works investigate the key tenets of photography, the nature of light and time to move away from linear, progressive conceptions of time and unsettle hierarchies of rational experience and theoretical abstractions. Exploring the correlation between our understanding of time and light to our perceptions of memory and history, the works consider the photographic as a continual mutable site of encounter in the creation of imaginaries.
The material oscillates with the temporal in a new body of painted works that consist of photograms made from light refracted in the darkroom, and later overpainted with non-lightfast photographic inks.
‘Time Tries All Things’ a video installation commissioned by The Institute of Physics in the UK and Ireland, pivots on the unfolding of a moment, when a snapshot is taken of a 19th century stone plaque carved with the words ‘Time trieth troth’. Developed from a collaboration with two theoretical physicists, who differ in their radical consideration of whether the future exists or not, the installation expands into a consideration of the elasticity of the present instant within the flux of history.
Resource supporting Post-Primary Visual Art Students
Supporting students exploring Content Area 3: Today’s World of the Visual Art curriculum, this resource focuses on the work by Grace Weir who uses science and art, physics and cinema to explore the theme of time. Artworks discussed include video, sculptural installation and photography, experiments in ‘painting with light’ that question our perceptions of time and space.