Journey Into Light @ Modern Art Oxford
In a gently blurred film Helen Ganly fills a Polish river with paper origami boats carrying glowing candlelight. Timed exquisitely to synchronise with the fading natural light the sight of the flames floating down the river San in South East Poland is soft subtle and moving. The flickering lights viewed from a distance are like fish darting along. Ganly’s ‘Journey Into Light’ exhibition opens up into a room full of her notebooks and a curious Radcliffe Camera shaped white cake. This one is in a display case and definitely not for eating. A group of Oxfordshire artists enjoyed the last layer-cake Ganly made like this.
The film, ‘Sampans on the San’ (2004), shows a procession of light following its journey downstream against the moving canvas of dusk merging into night. It is a temporary thing. ‘Magical Towers’ (2006) in the adjoining room is a fragile sculpture constructed from tracing paper lit from within. The illuminated tracing paper should be transparent, letting the tower reveal its secrets but it is not quite. This is the magic of Ganly’s work. It seems fragile, ephemeral and temporary but really there is such heart behind each work that its essence is strong, valuable and permanent. The looped film shows the procession of lights bobbing along the river until February 17th and is well worth taking a punt.
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Thursday, 31 January 2008
