Continuing the EDITION series of group exhibitions at The Wapping Project Bankside, the gallery has selected photographic artists whose practice either includes elements of film and moving image or who employ the tropes associated with the cinematic – such as narrative, fiction or the construction of mise en scène in their work. The exhibition aims to foreground the overlaps and tensions which are present in the mediums of film and photography, and it includes film, moving image and photography by Lillian Bassman, Elina Brotherus, Deborah Turbeville and Thomas Zanon-Larcher.

Turbeville’s Krakow series, shot on location at the Cantor Theatre in Poland, clearly demonstrates these kinds of cinematic qualities. Taking on the position of storyteller, Turbeville abandons the conventions of fashion photography in order to present fantastical tales filled with unorthodox characters inhabiting an alternative world. Also from the word of fashion photography, Bassman employs similarly cinematic strategies. In It’s a Cinch, we are haunted by a ghostlike image; a blurring effect that was created during the production stage and leaves the viewer to construct their own narrative.

Narrative, and the influence of the cinematic narrative in all its diverse possible forms, provides a key theme of the exhibition. When contrasting the moving image work of Elina Brotherus and Thomas Zanon-Larcher, the range of possibilities is revealed – Brotherus’s near-rejection of narrative is replaced by the documenting of personal subjectivities, while Zanon-Larcher uses narrative to reimagine the work of Henrik Ibsen. In Nora’s Story, Zanon-Larcher continues the tale of Ibsen’s A Dolls’ House in present-day Oslo and presents us with a moving image work as well as a selection of photographic works. In Passage, he merges film and photography into a unified work which calls into question our perceptions of what film can be.

The EDITION series of group exhibitions, as conceived by Jules Wright, allows the gallery to draw out interesting tropes and common themes which connect the various artists’ work. The format allows for seemingly disparate artworks to be brought together, and for contrasts and overlapping areas of concern in the individual practices to be made visible.

EDITION VI: Film(ic), until 21 August, The Wapping Project Bankside, Top Floor, Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NJ. For more information visit www.thewappingprojectbankside.com 

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Credits
1 Thomas Zanon-Larcher, Nora, Train Station II, Oslo  (2006). Courtesy of the artist and The Wapping Project Bankside.