Liz Rideal at UCL Art Museum

Wilkins Building, South Cloisters, Gower St, WC1E 6BT, 20 April - June 2017

‘Inspired by Roman travels funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship, this work investigates Roman sculpture, architecture and the Roman Campagna, exploring the idea of disrupting the monumental severity of Classical Antiquity with lightweight, mutable, coloured abstract cloth. The resulting images suggest fleeting human presence through my leitmotif of freeform flying fabric; soft-edged folds of silk held in momentary tension against the formality of crafted stone. I am aiming to create traces and call forth auras, conjuring aspects of nineteenth century spirit photography while hinting at archaeology and poetry.’ (Liz Rideal)

Through its implied narrative, the triptych Encounter: Terme di Diocleziano (The Baths of Diocletian) exposes the different properties of real and sculpted cloth. The juxtaposition of three individual images creates a visual syncopation that is complicit with the iteration of the recorded cloth trajectory. While the stone speaks through the permanently carved folds so the transparent fabric reveals an instantaneous ballet. The silk panels lie on top of the fabric blinds, combining to create optical effects of translucent moiré pattern dictated by vacillating sunlight. The unpredictable conditions offer new and continuously mutating perspectives on the installation.

In the landscape triptych, Monterano Capriccio, ghosts materialise in the abandoned castle grounds; the fabric masquerading among the ruins. Set within ovals, these prints conjure the eighteenth century fashion for recording Claudian inspired views of the Roman Campagna. Like Richard Cooper Jnr's oeuvre, these ‘vedute’ blend the real with the imagined evoking lyrical, bucolic scenarios.

For further information see:
Rideal's Blog http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2017/03/02/splicing-time-at-ucl-art- museum/#more-49993
Artist in Residence https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/projects/splicing-time-liz-rideal Legacy: Richard Cooper Jnr and the Artist'sAlbum https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/events/legacy-richard-cooper-jnr-and-artists-album

Notes:

Encounter: Terme di Diocleziano (The Baths of Diocletian) 3x(240x134 cm), 1/3, inkjet on silk georgette, 2017
The installation acknowledges Flaxman’s sculpture and presents the figure that is such a diminutive but necessary adjunct to Cooper Jnr’s landscapes. Although headless, the sculptures (like the Apollo Belvedere) have personality and their Roman home is in the museum of the most imposing thermal complex ever built there. Erected between 298 and 306 CE, the baths spanned more than 13 hectares and could accommodate up to 3000 people simultaneously. The Baths of Diocletian were converted into a church by Michelangelo, the photographs of sculpture were taken in the Cloister of its Charterhouse, today filled with an array of artworks.

Monterano Capriccio 3x(42x59cm), 1/3, inkjet on William Turner rag. Monterano https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Antica+Monterano/@42.1330841,12.0798694,16z/ data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xe155eaefff81df2d!8m2!3d42.1336777!4d12.0782554

This project was funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust.