Archisle #1 Open Photography Exhibition 2011 Launched

Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme, hosted by the Société Jersiaise, aims to promote contemporary photography through an ongoing programme of exhibitions, educational initiatives and commissions.

This is an experimental project whose method is to test the result of forming a lens based compound from two main constituents: photographic archives and contemporary expressions of island experiences. Archisle #1, the first exhibition created by the project, presents preliminary results in a visual discourse between Jersey and international artists and audiences.

The Archisle #1 exhibition is open to the public at the Societe Jersiaise Members’ Room, 7 Pier Road, St Helier from 17th – 23rd December 2011 and 3rd – 31st January 2012 Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm and 10am - 5pm on Saturdays (closed Sundays). Admission is free. To view the exhibition online visit: www.archisle.org.je

The brief for the 2011 open call invited responses to islandness, ‘…a complex expression of identity that attaches to places smaller than continents and surrounded entirely by water’. The Archisle #1 exhibition presents photographs by twenty-one of the Jersey and international photographers who rose to this challenge.

Photographic Archivist Gareth Syvret said: ‘Through Archisle we seek to create a space for creative discussion between Jersey and international artists whose work shares a connection with islands. In the summer of 2011, as one part of this, we ran a series of workshops. These events were less about how we photograph, practically, and more about why we photograph, critically. We were asking: how do photographs operate on their public and what meanings do they make? It’s fantastic to see a number of workshop participants included in the exhibition, showing their work alongside a host of accomplished international artists from as far afield as Britain, Romania, USA, Germany and Singapore’.

The Archisle project seeks to connect the archive and the contemporary by giving a voice to artists in the community. We have a surprisingly radical, experimental photographic history in Jersey: figures like Hugo, Sutton, Arbuthnot and Cahun, linked to artistic concepts and movements such as the picturesque, romanticism, pictorialism and surrealism. There is no doubt that the most successful art understands a history to anticipate a future. By engaging photographers in a critique of these and other themes and spheres, we aim to develop creative and original uses of photography. The Archisle #1 exhibition reveals the tremendous potential of beginning this discussion.

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