Dazzle

Imaginary Post-Vorticist Landscapes in 2Dby Mirta Imperatori & Matt Black Exhibition Mon 7th – 26th October, Mon - Sat 12 – 6

‘ If there was another world how would it be?’

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Dazzling with execution and style; congruent in process and content, Mirta Imperatori & Matt Black create preternaturalist visions of imaginary landscapes from the alternative present - worlds unknown, yet strangely familiar; lands which demand to be seen; terrain which aches. Mirta Imperatori realises a universe of other worlds and other times combined with a strong sense of perspective; hazy mirages of vast deserts and mountains; alien forms distant and looming; sci-fi vistas of swirling virus galaxies - Whistler in space. Imperatori’s superlative lack of fear of colour brings forth subtle harmonies of dream-like compositions. With compact and energetic expression, her vision is first borne through vigorous brushwork reminiscent of Turner’s ‘ Deluge ’ vortex compositions; the final works a machine rendition of Odilon Redon. Matt Black creates austere digital architecture; projection scenes of non-existent military bases; spaces under the collapse of their own weight; ordinance survey positions for impossible turf; imaginary landscapes for escape from the possibility of war. Using colour only to map the Golden Section of co-ordinates - the terrain being stark - Black reacts to events in realtime upon a virtual surface; visions of image implosion with inspiration taken from Henri–Gaudier Brzeska, Percy Wyndham Lewis and Rothko. Matt Black discovered the potential in digitisation when the control wheel of a primitive hand held scanner skidded on his chosen sketch medium, Formica, resulting in a sequential fragmentation of the rendered image. Working mostly in black and white, Black’s translation of sketches to digital creates an equality within the opposites of black and white previously impossible within paint; a rebalanced relationship. Dazzle forms a deconstruction and commentary for a society in war and replication… their products the flaws within the process, both artists unveil the medium as vortex; the trace - the indelibility of being; the final media - art history; the territory - a place before and beyond it taking form. 88 years after the The London Group's original 1914 exhibition, also including Wyndham Lewis' Rebel Art Centre ( originally sited just a few hundred yards away from The Horse Hospital ), The Chamber Of Pop Culture compares the authority of the Vorticists with an exhibition of artists working within fields which can be seen to be inspired by the movement’s original vision. ‘ Long live the great art vortex sprung up in the centre of this town! ’