03Gallery, Sat January 12th 2008 - Sun February 10th 2008

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Lita Doolan February 1, 2008

Fluid substances are photographed to look like solid crystalline structures in some of Wilbur Heynes’ digital prints on aluminium. The cosmic body of water, the lapping ocean, is snapped at coasts ranging from Wales to Ontario. Although the prime location is the quartz sea-green frothy shot of Niagara, the tranquil Jumeira beach see-through section is presented as the uber holiday postcard. ‘Supergranulation’, taken at Niagara Falls, has the appearance of sugar crystals frosting each peak. Heynes makes the macro proportions of marine geography appear like micro details for example in ‘Plasma I’ the water at Whitesands beach, Pembrokeshire seems like folds of tissue and ‘Faculae’ has the loose geometry of cell structure. Two different textures naturally occur in the shore shot of ‘Heliosphere’ giving a well-structured typically contemporary composition to the photograph.

Ten gleaming electroplated silvery-toned sculptures are included. Sleek horses and elegantly-toned minimalist men are featured. There is a fluid feel to the sculptures, as slippery as liquid mercury and offering a velocity to the subjects. In ‘Isohel’ the reflection of moving water is captured on the sand bed beneath. The perfect shot of aqua is portrayed in ‘Filaments I’. Taken in Niagara-on-the-lake, Ontario, the cornflower and petrol blue tones are electric, interspersed with sparkles of gold and threads of white. Heynes uses water as the perfect prism and captures colours that this viewer last saw as a child.

Wilbur Heynes’ exhibition of photography and sculpture at the O3 Gallery offers, at first glance, an easy to understand sweep of beach and body (beach in the photographs, body in the sculpture). However, to see only simple photos of sea and sand, or steel sculptures of slightly robotic men and horses, is to miss Heynes’ deeper meanings. The relationship between ‘seeing’ and ‘understanding’ and ‘reflection’ and ‘thought’ are intentionally explored here, even if the viewer is called upon to work a little to understand fully the complexity of what the artist has produced. The reflection of light in both photographs and sculpture generates a series of almost abstract shapes that make the artworks more interesting and less representational than is first evident. A pebbly beach becomes a dark, tarry study in grey and black; grey and silver waves appear spooky and treelike. Whilst the sculptures are, clearly, more figurative, the empty spaces cut into them plays with the viewer's perceptions of solidity, giving the sculptures the same fluid quality as the photographs. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the two media work together, and this is perhaps a weakness of the exhibition. Trying to find connections and meanings between the two distracts from the appreciation of either/both. Still, it’s worth a visit.

31 Jan 2008

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