All paradise is not love

By Meg Hill

An exhibition of third year students from the Photography Studies College (PSC) is running at a pop-up gallery at Southgate until September with a central focus on surrealism.

The exhibition is called All Paradise is Not Love. André Breton, the author of two of the three Surrealist Manifestos, wrote a poem of the same name.

It’s the first time third-year advanced diploma students have exhibited as part of their course. Lecturer Mark Harper said the format of the exhibition allowed students to embrace their differences.

“Their work varies a lot, it’s a really diverse show,” he said.

“The thing I like about the show is that it’s different from what you’d see normally at PSC.”

He said the pop-up gallery allowed an outside-of-the-box approach and a break from the continuity that’s required of work exhibited inside the college.

The exhibition comprises folio work that students have completed during the first half of the year. Part of that is client-oriented folios, and the other is surrealism.

“You don’t really have any boundaries, so you really get to explore your creativity,” said Sally Watson, whose work If these walls could speak… features in the exhibition.

“I did a series of images from my surreal folio. I was inspired by a house and so that was where it all began and I wanted to create a story that may have happened within the walls of that house,” she said.

“I like dark, dreamy, fairy-tale sort of content. I’m inspired by the imagination.”

Gary Tate, another student in the exhibition, used his client folio in the exhibition. His photos were taken to promote a burlesque show at the Butterfly Club.

“Basically, I tried to capture images that showed a little bit of movement so people could see the show was vibrant,” he said.

“I love a lot of the others’ work because we get to see how it develops. We have 23 weeks to develop these themes, our client folio and our surreal folio.”

“They photograph a lot differently to the way I do, so they inspire me, and hopefully I inspire them.”

Other contributions include Selfie Dysmorphia by Guillermo Carvajal, I am by Sheena Mukundan, and Unnaturally Common by Anna Luscombe.

Selfie Dysmorphia is an exploration of technology distorting aesthetic perception, as opposed to celebrating true individuality.

I am is an artistic exploration of the Myer-Briggs theory.

Unnaturally Common is inspired by the way unnatural elements seep into remote natural landscapes.

The exhibition is running at Shop 5, 3 Southgate Avenue.