The Glasgow School of Art

Light Becomes Silence
Christina McBride
Part of Glasgow International 2016

7th April - 30 April 2016, 10:00-16:30pm daily, until 8pm on Thursdays during GI

Preview: Thurs 7 April, 5-8pm

Book launch 5pm

Light Becomes Silence brings together two groups of photographic works. A series of black and white analogue images drawn from a larger body of work undertaken in recent years but never shown in Scotland, and a new body of images and accompanying bookwork entitled Bound.

Photography is the medium of time and has been described by photographer and theorist Allan Sekula (1951-2013) as occupying a floating, rather indeterminate zone between painting, literature and cinema. It developed as a way of seeing and recording the world around us – but it was limited by its inability to hear it. However this silence, rather than being a limitation of the medium, is potentially, one of its greatest strengths. For it can be both in and through the silence that we access a particular space - a space in which to reflect on the transient nature of time and notions of place and history.

Landscape is not the ideologically neutral subject many people imagine it to be. Through her practice McBride questions the cultural meaning of landscape in order to understand and confront interests and ambitions which lie beyond the formally aesthetic or personally expressive.  She is interested in responding to and reflecting on the arbitrary tracks left by nature.  It is often in and through the irregularities, imperfections and the random flaws, that discoveries can be made - things can become clear. She has a particular interest in the mnemonic role of trees and their metaphysical potential to link the underworld, with the earth’s surfaces and skies and the past with the present and future. She is also interested in the circumambient element of air. This invisible, intangible but absolutely essential element holds great challenges for the photographic medium.

‘Bound’ is based on a journey McBride made through Patagonia with the Mexican writer Roberto Bravo. Working with a range of analogue cameras she has produced a series of images from the various lands they pass through. The text of Bravo chronicles their journey reflecting on the mythical, socio-political and historical specifics of particular places. Woven through the text are references to a number of writers who have been informed by this place, most notably Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra. Their journey is interrupted by a car crash which impacts both the images and the text.

After completing her degree in F.A. Photography at the GSA, Christina McBride undertook a Masters at the Slade School of Art, London. Her practice has included outdoor public art works, installations and is now rooted in lens based enquiry through photography and film. She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and undertaken residencies in Japan, Canada and USA. She has had solo exhibitions in New York and Mexico City. McBride also teaches part-time on the Fine Art Photography and MFA programmes.

The bookwork Bound has been made possible through the financial support of Creative Scotland and a research award from Glasgow School of Art.

This exhibition is part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art's 'Across the City' programme.