Garry Fabian Miller: Voyage, London

Garry Fabian Miller’s new series, Voyage, marks the close of a 37-year chapter and represents an exciting new direction for the artist. HackelBury Fine Art, London, opens the debut of the collection this September and celebrates this pivotal moment in his career through bringing together a set of 40 newly released images from his very first series: Sections of England: The Sea Horizon, 1976-77. For his recent works Fabian Miller was prompted by the discontinuation of the dye destruction process, and he makes a final return to the subject of the horizon using the last stock of Cibachrome paper.

Several decades ago, in 1976 the artist began Sections of England: The Sea Horizon, a series of photographs taken from the roof of his home at Clevedon, near Bristol, looking west across the waters of the Severn Estuary. Captured with a Hasselblad camera, from this fixed point the lens, film and exposure remained constant, consequently the only changes from image to image are time and the seasonal cycle. All of the final photographs are simple squares, divided precisely in half along the horizon.

Over time, Fabian Miller’s photographic technique developed as he experimented with various camera-less methods of picture-making; passing light through coloured glass, liquids and cut paper forms, directly onto the positive colour paper. The works on display in this new exhibition also demonstrate unique pieces that explore his preoccupation with the horizon line over his entire career, including, Thoughts of a Night Sea, (2000), Golden (2002) and From the Red Pool (2004). In contrast to his more naturalistic images, Voyage is more abstract and the artist conjures the illusion of an alternative place, inviting the viewer to step across the horizon into a new space.

Garry Fabian Miller: Voyage, 13 September – 19 October, HackelBury Fine Art, 4 Launceston Place, London, W8 5RL.

Credits
1. Voyage to the Blue Edge, Winter 2013 (1), courtesy of the artist.