Barry W Hughes
Remnants is a group of works that individually explore ideological or situational incidences; while coincidences are explored in the detail the works also operate in much the same way with each other on a broader scale. Where one work touches on empire building another will continue with an empire falling, or where a work takes on the mythology of the Greeks another will explore that of the Bible. A common thread throughout these works is how human beings have learned to deal with their own inventions, be they practical, absurd, sentimental or violent. Photographs and books become subjects for photographing, while an unusable guillotine made from household materials bears the name of the last person to be guillotined in France. Everything is linked somehow, through material, location or intention; Hughes’s world is one of hints and clues, objects that speak as visual riddles.
Ultimately, Remnants is an exhibition about quantifying time through the left-over’s of human endeavour. How we move through the ages is evident in the objects we leave behind. Like an archaeologist working in reverse, Hughes begins with an event, sources an artifact and documents it. What we are left with is another object, a photograph, and a remnant in itself.
from the press release
photograph © Barry W Hughes – Djandoubi, Sept 10, C-print, 21 x 21 cm
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