On a recent gallery trip with school, we had the opportunity to see some of Emily Alchurch’s work at the CCASM Modern and Contemporary gallery. Emily was born in Jersey in 1974 and was educated at Jersey Collage for Girls and later studied Fine Art at the Kent institute of art and design and the royal collage of art in London too. She has since established an international reputation for her complex and intricate photographic compositions.
Using inspiration from old paintings, Emily Alchurch works with photography and digital collage to re-imagine the paintings landscape from a contemporary perspective. The old paintings work as the framework for her to build her image and explore around architecture, place and culture to emerge, combing present day with a sense of history. On our visit, a representative of Emily’s work spoke to us about how she goes about creating these masterpieces. He told us that her starting point is an intensive encounter with a city or a place, to observe and absorb an impression, and gather an extensive image library. From this resource, hundreds of photographs are selected and meticulously spliced together to create a seamless new fictional space. Each piece of work represents this journey into a single scene in order to focus on a social narrative.
As we saw at the gallery, Emily presents her work as light-boxes which enhances the photographic work immensely and almost creates a window into another world. Quoted from the Artist herself, “Using the original image as my map and guide, I source and photograph buildings and landscapes, which I use to recreate the scene from a contemporary perspective”.
Analysis
When we visited the gallery, this image instantly drew my attention and captivated me. I think it it visually pleasing and very well constructed with a large depth of field and so much to look at. The use of paths act as a leading line to direct the viewer around the image and I believe the archway is inviting for the audience to look deeper into the photo. Overall the light tones, dreamy colors and overall fantasy constructed landscape, creates a unique piece of work which is captivating for the viewer to look at. I think that the incorporation of contemporary signifies such as the flying drone, are effective in showing Emily’s present perspective. There are many indications throughout all of her works on her standpoint in society and how she views the community.Celebrating the legacy of the architect Sir John Soane, Grand Tour II presents Joseph Gandy’s vision of Soanes unbuilt projects, as if they had been built. By photographing examples of existing neoclassical architecture around the UK, Allchurch collated a comprehensive ‘kit of parts’ from which to construct Soane’s designs. These composite buildings are placed in a hybrid Arcadian landscape comprised from numerous English gardens, the mountains of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and Scarfell Pike in the Lake District. The inspiration for this piece can be seen below. 