On Heterotopian Boundaries

Photospace Gallery Presents…
On Heterotopian Boundaries
A Solo Photography Exhibition by Gil Eva Craig

14 May – 11 June
PHOTOSPACE GALLERY, 1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington
Gallery hours: 10am-4pm Monday-Friday, 11am-4pm Saturday
FREE ENTRY / Limited Edition Prints Available for Purchase
http://www.photospacegallery.com/exhibitions.html

Artist Gil Eva Craig loves to capture the un-definable areas on the edges of spaces and has created a photography exhibition celebrating the often-overlooked human defined ‘boundaries’ all around us.

Craig describes Heterotopian Boundaries as human defined geography that is both the physical areas of transition where a space ends, sometimes abruptly, or transitions to either an ‘other’ space or to a ‘non’ space.

“So basically, I spend quite a bit of time lurking behind buildings, down banks in drains, in gardens and parks, in wastelands, churches, cemeteries and temples, where I’m trying to make some temporal order and sense out of what I see and feel in these places, which are at times, distinctly preternatural.” – Gil Eva Craig

Heterotopia is a spatial construct that was outlined in a tantalizingly sparse manner by Michel Foucault, most famously in a talk to a group of Architects in France in 1966.

In this talk, he describes certain spaces as ‘Heterotopian’, in that they conformed to a set of loosely defined relational principles. Heterotopias include, and are not limited to human made spaces such as libraries, hotels, performance spaces, gardens, cemeteries, religious sites and gated communities.

The Heterotopian construct has also been interpreted beyond physical spaces to include cyberspaces, phone calls, mirrors, and other abstract concepts of reality … and unreality.

“I’m attracted to the random, the abnormal, the mundane and coincidence… the things I find that span time and space – repeating themes I find from one country and year to the next.” – Gil Eva Craig

This is the first solo exhibition for Craig, who has been working on this material for the past four years. The images were taken in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, Nepal, England and Scotland, on holiday and work trips. The most recent trip was to the United States with the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra as their sound engineer.

The works are limited edition prints available for sale – all printed by the artist.

BIO – Gil Eva Craig
I have been involved in the creative arts since the early 90's primarily as a sound designer for alternative and mainstream theatre, as a sound engineer/producer, and as a performer. I’m currently working as a live sound engineer and developing a creative practice in photographic and sonic arts.

I was an avid artist as a child, and discovered photography in my late teens. My first exhibition was a series of images called Loam at Photospace Gallery, Wellington, in January 2013 as part of a group show called 17 Projects. In March 2014 I had two series of images called Leavings I and II in a group show called Prevailing Light. Also in 2014 I had work shown in three group shows at The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington, The Longest Night, F+F+F and GASP, an exhibition of work by emerging artists from Wellington and Christchurch. In 2015, I had work selected for a group show at Black Asterisk Gallery in Auckland and Photospace Wellington in a group show called 4 Photographers.

An important part of the process of photographic art for me is printing my own images. I have spent a considerable amount of time learning how to produce my own inkjet images - I also print exhibition work for other photographers.

The taking of an image is only the start of the process for me. When I’m taking the pictures I’m primarily concerned with connection and feeling in the moment, and secondly minding the more prosaic details such as exposure, F stops and framing. I aim for these details to become second nature so that they don’t get in the way of the moment. When I’m working on an image for printing I want to make a print that takes me back to the feeling of the moment I took the photograph, and hope I can impart a sense of this to the viewer.

PHOTOSPACE GALLERY
Photospace Gallery opened at 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington CBD, in December 1998 and it remains the only gallery in the Wellington region dedicated to exhibiting contemporary New Zealand and international photography.
http://www.photospacegallery.com/

Heterotopia is a concept in human geography elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions. These are spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror. – WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterotopia_%28space%29

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