Dreaming the life and fictions of Edgar Allan Poe and using him as a master and spirit guide, Katherine Tulloh considers death, beauty, imagination and inspiration as a way through darkness. Gary McDonald's paintings are the ghosts of still lives, mediums for the secret life of things.
In the lead up to next year’s bicentenary of his birth there is a
renewed focus on the life and work of Edgar Allen Poe. This re-
evaluation has resulted in Harland Miller’s homage, You Dig the
Tunnel…, at White Cube, a high profile show with lots of art
celebrity participants. Transition’s take on the subject is by
necessity more intimate and the resulting show, Mare Tenebrarum,
befits the thoughtful, forward thinking reputation that the gallery
has established…
Dreaming the life and fictions of Edgar Allan Poe and using him as a
master and spirit guide, Katherine Tulloh considers death, beauty,
imagination and inspiration as a way through darkness. Coralling
fragmented cityscapes, characters and props, she projects drawn and
painted images via mirrors and transparencies into precarious, ever-
evolving sets, then photographs, animates and re-projects the staged
illusions that result.
Gary McDonald's paintings are the ghosts of still lives, mediums for
the secret life of things. They revisit echoes and shadows of
objects, movements and memories - the manifestation of a place where,
as in dreams, the familiar becomes strange. Gaston Bachelard writes
'each one of us, then, should speak of his roads, his crossroads, his
roadside benches; each one of us should make a surveyor's map of his
lost fields and meadows.’ Gary's paintings take up this challenge
The opening of Mare Tenebraum is accompanied by the launch of the new
Supernatural edition of Garageland magazine which includes Katherine
Tulloh’s account of her Poe fascination; contributions from Marina
Warner and Stewart Home; an exclusive interview with Ken Russell and
a look at sprits, mediums and contemporary art.
Private view: Thursday 1 May
Transition Gallery
Unit 25a Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London
Opening Times: Friday - Sunday 12-6pm or by appointment
Free admission