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Lisa Oppenheim: Analytic Engine

  • Art, Contemporary art
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

Lisa Oppenheim’s ‘Landscape Portraits’ are photograms – created when an object is placed directly against photographic paper. Specifically, the American artist uses wafer-thin sections of different types of wood, illuminating them from behind so that their ring patterns are permanently cast as an abstract, black and white image. ‘Cherry’, for instance, is a diptych of fine-lined, pooling, marbled shapes, while ‘Sassafras’, divided into four quadrants, is, suitably, more exotic-looking, with its intense stripe-effect, and ‘Apple’ is a soft, shimmering blur.

In each case, the works’ frames are constructed out of the same wood as in the image – so you sense of a kind of conceptual game being played, the final pieces becoming like an index of their own raw materials. Plus, there’s a nice parallel between the way the photograms were made and the light-dependent process of photosynthesis. Ultimately, though, the main pleasure is simply that of becoming lost in the swirling, mesmerising patterns. 

Written by
Gabriel Coxhead

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Price:
free
Opening hours:
From Apr 14, Wed-Sun 12noon-6pm, ends May 15
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