In Grahame Lynch’s recent body of photographic work, “Being. Neither here nor there,” the artist presents images shot on trains, subways, buses and airports that gesture toward themes of immediacy, delay and agitation. Collectively, this body of work represents gaps in time that are chaotic, fragmented and isolating, coalescing in frenetic compositions of shifting locations and people. His photographic processes exploit technological glitches that manifest under conditions of speed and motion; conditions only heightened in the way the work is further subject to digital, mechanical and chemical interventions in the artist’s studio. The resulting images depart from photographic traditions with a single frame of reference, appearing instead to be spatially compressed and optically imprecise.
July 2 - August 27, 2022
Artist Reception: July 29, 7:00 pm (during ARTcrawl)
by Anna Pollice
One of the enduring realities of the Covid pandemic, seen through Grahame Lynch’s images, poses as a “glitch” in a seemingly functional social world; one which has transformed relationships to time and space. Covid disrupts the linearity of time, and subjects it to a different frequency, an altered velocity. In pandemic time, space becomes timeless and limited, and we are obliged to question and consider how we move within a space, and in the world.
Movement is more than displacement in space, it generates new and unknown connections; it is the result of relations between bodies and space (Manning). Grahame Lynch’s Being. Neither here nor there. explores the forming and unforming of connections created through movement. The photographic images in this exhibit depict the movement of bodies within transitory spaces, digitally captured while in motion. The compositions reveal the connection between bodies within space, and the connection between bodies and space itself, but also express a dis-connection and a disorienting perception of time. Occupying transitory spaces is meant to be brief and purposeful, focused on going from one place to another. In these images there is a sense that time has come to a standstill and figures remain fixed in the present, unable to move toward the future. In pre-pandemic time, bodies within transitory spaces – airports, train stations and subway platforms, moved with relative freedom. Today, however, they seem to be suspended in liminal space, in-between a time where Covid did not exist and one where Covid defines our reality, forcing a new way to see and experience the world.
This exhibition marks one of the few occasions that the artist’s work is not in direct response to his visual disability. Lynch’s vision is affected by multiple congenital conditions that collectively cause involuntary and uncoordinated eye movements, impact depth perception, and affect both night and peripheral vision. Though not entirely self-reflexive, this body of work does ask the viewer to see differently. In these images, we see what Lynch calls “gaps in time that are chaotic, fragmented and isolating" (Lynch). We see time-lapse and confusion set in. We see moments of disarray compressed and juxtaposed with undefined periods of isolation. There is loneliness, sadness, and a sense of disquiet worry. Figures look as if to know they are going somewhere but are unsure in some way of how or where. They are alone in the midst of chaos. Though these photos were captured before the restricted use of public spaces and before the notion of social distancing became commonplace, they reflect the impact of this global pandemic on society and make palpable a state of uncertainty. Crowds in airports and train stations take on new meaning, they more readily provoke anxiety. Here, a deserted subway platform is not necessarily a cause for insecurity and fear; that type of isolation, a place of restraint, offers a sense of relative safety. The shift in our perception of the spaces we occupy acts like a glitch – a temporary interference.
A glitch is a brief fault or mishap in an otherwise functioning system (Betancourt). Theorists argue that glitch reveals both the materiality and processes of digital media, exposing the methods and codes used to create the illusion of seamless digital images (Betancourt). Both audible and visible glitches operate in a similar way, generating disturbances in time and space. Through digital disturbances, the glitch inserts fragmented images, disrupting the illusion of the seamless image and revealing undisclosed digital codes. The fragments appear to be out of place and out of time yet still part of the same story. Glitch art describes both the creation and use of these temporary disturbances that are part of digital technology (Betancourt). A glitch can occur spontaneously or be intentionally created, yet the difference between how one arrives at the glitch is not apparent to the viewer. In this work, the artist employs various types of glitch, resulting in a display of confounding visual depth, a compression of space, and a displacement of time.
Read alongside the realities of Covid, glitch acquires a new relevance. The visual fractures in space, the breaks in time, and the agitated figures we observe in Lynch’s images reveal not only visual technological glitches in media, but the very tangible changes in the spaces we occupy and the altered human relations we engage in. Similar to glitch, the pandemic has exposed many undisclosed codes, and this, coupled with restrictions and key policy measures imposed on us as a result of the pandemic have fundamentally altered the way we see. Pre-pandemic, these images had one reading, but now, with new social understandings in place, we can read these images with very different eyes. Our collective experience of confinement and isolation, of less space within which to move, and of the abrupt halt to the frenetic pace of our world processes the images before us in relatable terms. Once considered a temporary glitch in our system, Covid and this new way of moving in the world is anything but temporary.
Being. Neither here nor there. is a telling story of the times. It is a collection of images that weave a universal tale of transition – of moving toward the unknown and embracing uncertainty. The interruption of social interaction and the specified limits of confinement are so present in the imagery, inciting moments of isolation, despondency, and anxiety, but also present in the imagery is a sensation of optimism. Part of the iterative process of Lynch’s image making is experimentation, and exposing the work to multiple interventions, resulting in unanticipated outcomes. These moments of serendipity materialized to form a subtly colourful exhibit. It is those flashes of colour and light, that appear at different intervals and at different intensities throughout the exhibition space, that ignite a sense of hope.
Works cited
- Manning, Erin. Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy, 2012
- Lynch, Grahame. Being. Neither here nor there. 2022.
- Betancourt, Michael. “Critical Glitches and Glitch Art”, 2014
Anna Pollice is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and maker from Toronto. Her creative explorations engage with the body, difference, and relational movement, and her artistic practice investigates an interlacing of fashion, image, and textile. She has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design from OCAD University and an MA in Fashion Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University. Current art projects focus on the concept of difference-becoming-movement expressed on a modified frame loom, weaving difference without hierarchy. The work materializes the importance of difference beyond idealized dichotomies through woven forms.
Grahame Lynch is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is entrenched in conditions of visual disability. Through images and installations, he explores and shares different ways of seeing. He has an MFA from the University of Guelph and is an Associate Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
July 2 – Aug 27, 2022 • Wednesday – Saturday • 11 am – 4pm
Credits:
Grahame Lynch