Solo exhibition of Benjamin Jay Shand
FORM FOLLOWS, debuted in NYC last year and now opens at 6pm Thursday the 24th April at M2 Gallery, Surry Hills.
Presenting backlit photographs on custom surfaces, the work intends to allow line and colour to obscure time and place, offering the viewer arrangements that illuminate the graphic over the photographic.
On view 24 April – 4 May, 2014
Sponsored by Tilse's Apple Truck Cider, McLaren Vale Beer Company + Some Young Punks
Lighting by Insitu : Colab
At first blush, the artfully captured geometries in Shand’s overtly graphic compositions appear to rely almost exclusively on the vocabulary of modern architecture and industrial design, echoing the modernist credo that form that follows function will inherently produce a harmonious aesthetic. And while he readily acknowledges the influence of visionaries like Le Corbusier, Dieter Rams, and Piet Mondrian upon his practice, Shand experiments with contemporary devices that push each image beyond the limits of mere derivation.
His punctilious method to the production of each photograph is rooted in an obsessive dedication to processes of the analogue era, it is above all, a means to fulfill his singular vision of the drama and harmony found in urban locales. Shand’s clarity in perspective, exemplar eye for composition, and attention to detail in printing and presentation combine with carefully selected locations to evoke an uncanny sense of geographic ambiguity in the series. It is this sense of displacement, which creates a compelling tension against each theatrical composition, providing the viewer a renewed view of our urban expanse. (Holly Shen Chaves, BAMart)