A little plug for my friend’s exhibition that opens tonight in Adelaide at A. Avingon Gallery, 59 North Terrace, Hackney.
[i]Graceful Exits, the third solo exhibition by Andrew Long, features new photographic works and a new zine ‘Ignorance Is Piss’.
For those unable to attend, the zine will be available online through OWN Books (www.nownow.com.au)[/i]
Andrew Long
Graceful Exits
August 28 – September 13
A good night out can make you forget all your problems and make you question how real your pain was in the first place.
You finally try and explain it to someone you think will understand and they don’t even hear what you’re saying, which makes it even worse. But that’s only because they’re so lost in themselves that they couldn’t possibly listen to your problems.
The title of Andrew Long’s new exhibition Graceful Exits is puzzling at first. A big part of his work is an intimacy with his subjects, an almost uncomfortable immersion in his world. But there is something of the outsider’s eye about these images. There’s a distance there, like he knows this is a stage he is going through.
The elegant framing, dramatic lighting and attention to human form in his work has a feel closer to renaissance paintings than modern photographs. The difference is, they’re of dudes climbing poles, or pissing, or waxing curbs. You get the feeling all the flowers and shrub photos were taken on the way home from the bar, or in the middle of something else going on.
Andrew obviously loves his subjects, and is not afraid to say as much. It’s gentle but harsh, celebratory while mourning the inevitable conclusion of this special time.
Graceful Exits makes me think of the intensity of those years. The way everything matters so much, and how your friends become your family, and how your self-perception is so determinate on outside factors.
When you realise that you haven’t listened to anything that anyone’s been saying, either.
- Max Olijnyk, 2009.