Study Visit: Intermissions

Join OCA tutor Keith Roberts at the Central Library, Liverpool on the 16 January 2016. We will view his own work Intermissions.

The exhibition deals with the contemporary use, display and presentation of a selection of commercial portraiture created by Edward Chambré Hardman between 1923-63, through research I have conducted within the parameters of a practice based doctorate.

Through the use of a recently created database, patterns have been revealed within this forty-year period of commercial portraiture practice. It has therefore now been possible to identify and extract individual sitters, who have had their portraits taken by Hardman at several different points in time and re-present these portraits as pairings, seen for the first time together.

Through viewing these portraits together, an emphasis is placed upon the gap that exists in time between the two points at which both portraits were created. This gap can be described as an intermission of time, therefore the portrait pairings are referred to as Intermission Portraits or Intermissions.

The portrait pairings will be seen through various exhibitions that have been planned in and around the Liverpool area over the forthcoming year, including this one in The Hornby Room (Liverpool Central Library) from 11 December 2015 to 29 January 2016. In addition to this, a projection piece has been planned for the 2016 Liverpool Biennial, using the Bold Street facing street windows in Matta’s International Foods shop, which is the actual physical space where the portraits were originally taken.

Lastly, an exhibition of forty pairings has been planned for the middle of 2016 at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead. More recently, a self-published artist’s book has been created to show the pairings together in book format, which is displayed in the first cabinet in the Hornby Room.

To reserve your place please email enquiries@oca.ac.uk