‘Porous Light’ Exhibition Poster, Artwork © Wendy I Hardie.
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P O R O U S L I G H T : ALTERNATIVE PROCESS ANALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY.
Curated by Wendy I Hardie, London, 2023.
Experimental Photography Exhibition with 20 artists exploring environmental & societal themes.
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Street view through gallery window to right, Eileen White’s first work, & left of poster to White’s second work.
Upper Floor Install View. From Entrance, right to left: Sayako Sugawara, Wendy Hardie, Liz Harrington, Rikard Osterlund, Liz Harrington.
Upper floor install view, left to right, Wendy Hardie, Sayako Sugawara, Rikard Osterlund, Eileen White.
Upper floor install view, left, Rikard Osterlund, right, Eileen White.
Upper Floor Install View, left to right, Liz Harrington, Rachel Thompson.
Upper Floor Install View, right to left, Rikard Osterlund (landing), Liz Harrington, Liz Loveless.
Upper Floor Install View, Laurie Evans.
Upper floor, install view left to right, Tina Rowe, Laurie Evans.
Upper floor, install view, left to right, Tina Rowe, Laurie Evans.
Upper floor, install view, right, Tina Rowe, left (partial) Wendy Hardie.
Upper floor install view, right to left Liz Loveless, Wendy Hardie.
Upper floor install view, right to left, Wendy Hardie, Eileen White, Ky Lewis.
Upper floor install view, right to left, Eileen White, Ky Lewis.
Upper floor install view, left to right, Eileen White, Wendy Hardie.
Upper floor install view, Ky Lewis.
Midway landing install view, left, Nicole Burnay, right, Rikard Osterlund.
Lower floor install view from stair, left to right, Guy Paterson, Eric Fong, Magda Kuca, Zara Carpenter, DP Collective, Nicole Burnay.
Lower floor install view, left to right, Nicole Burnay, Guy Paterson, Eric Fong, Magda Kuca.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Sayako Sugawara, Nicole Burnay (partial), Guy Paterson, Eric Fong (partial).
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Guy Paterson, Eric Fong, Marcelo Boldrini.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Eric Fong, Magda Kuca, Zara Carpenter.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Zara Carpenter, DP Collective, Zara Carpenter, Martha Gray.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Magda Kuca, Zara Carpenter.
Lower gallery install view, left and centre, DP Collective, right Riitta Hakkarainen.
Lower gallery install view, left, DP Collective, right Riitta Hakkarainen.
Lower gallery install view, right to left, Guy Paterson, Sayako Sugawara, Martha Gray, Zara Carpenter.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Zara Carpenter, Martha Gray, Marcelo Boldrini.
Lower gallery install view, left Marcelo Boldrini, right, Sayako Sugawara.
Lower gallery install view, left to right, Marcelo Boldrini, Sayako Sugawara, Nicole Burnay.
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‘Porous Light’ was a contemporary fine art photography exhibition which brought together 20 artists from Greater London, including the curator Wendy Hardie, who work experimentally with alternative & historic analogue processes. The show was held at The Espacio, a large 2 floor gallery close to Brick Lane in East London. Hardie specifically looked for & selected artists’ works that explored the theme of environmental & societal issues through the alternative lens. Many of these works were chosen because they pushed where photography’s boundaries are perceived to be, to demonstrate how this expansive & abstracted field of photography can reach & resonate deeply within the individual & collective, to aesthetically beguile, but also empower, enlighten & educate.
Hardie chose the title to reflect alt process photography’s aesthetic & technical ability to seep into & merge with different & diverse disciplines, penetrating deeply into subject matters in visceral, abstract, complexly layered ways. In this exhibition it harnessed not only aspects of historic & vintage photography, but also contemporary art, the sciences, history, craft, ecology, psychology, spirituality, anthropology, sociology & importantly, so often underrepresented along with environmental issues, living with & society’s treatment of those with mental & physical illness.
There are strongly performative, durational & what are often described as alchemical aspects embedded in many of the art works that were exhibited. Artists choosing to work in these processes must often negotiate & accept the tension between control & chance &, to varying degrees, the co-creation of the work by the process, the site & or the environmental context such as the weather or humidity. Within this exhibition, which included cyanotype, wet plate collodion, pinhole, chemigram, liquid emulsion & polaroid, there were examples by artists carrying out important investigations into the exploration & dissemination of greener ways in which to create analogue photographic art. A large number of the works shown were available to purchase as original pieces or limited edition prints.
Taking part were 12 invited artists alongside a core group of artists from E5 darkroom & studios in Homerton, East London. E5 was set up by print artist & teacher Guy Paterson & was a long established alt process champion & educator where Hardie had her studio & learned many of the alt processes she works with. Guy Paterson has practiced & taught alt process photography for many years at CSM now UAL alongside E5’s workshops.
The invited artists exhibited were:
Eileen White, Eric Fong, Ky Lewis, Liz Harrington, Magda Kuca, Martha Gray, Nicole Burnay, Rachel Thomson, Rikard Osterlund, Sayako Sugawara, Zara Carpenter.
E5 Collective Artists Exhibited were:
Guy Paterson, Douglas Nicholson & Paulene Morphett (DP), Laurie Evans, Liz Loveless, Marcelo Boldrini, Riitta Hakkarainen, Tina Rowe, Wendy Hardie.
The exhibition, which ran for 5 days, was extremely well attended & received, with opening & closing events, artists’ talks with a large number of the artists contributing, a pinhole workshop with Ky Lewis & an electrophotography demonstration by Magda Kuca.
On the back of the very positive responses to the show from such a large number of visitors Hardie is aiming to curate further biannual or triannual ‘Porous Light’ exhibitions inviting alternative process analogue photographic artists working with environmental and societal themes to take part both in London and Scotland.
Wendy Hardie Artist - Selected Works 