Stephen Chambers RA, Journeys Without Maps
First shown at the Venice Biennale in 2017, Stephen Chambers’ The Court of Redonda depicts a cast of 101 imaginary courtiers. The major solo exhibition by the Royal Academician has toured many locations including our local Heong Gallery in 2018. Touching upon themes of identity, heredity and nationalism the exhibition is currently on show at Hastings Contemporary and is here joined by other series of works by Chambers exploring histories, both real and imagined including Journeys Without Maps, two prints produced with the studio in 2015.
Journeys Without Maps, East & West were conceived in 2015 as a pair of prints which ‘talk’ to one another other across the gaps between the two frames; figures in the lefthand image face east, and vis-a-versa.
The narrative of La Wally, a lesser known opera by Alfredo Catalani, provides a starting point to these works. The opera, set high in the Swiss Alps, features two lovers tragically separated as the winter snows descend. To communicate they resort to singing to one another, into the void, across the chasm. Close, but so far.
These prints are, in that sense, pictorial love letters and perhaps capture something poignant in these strange times of lockdowns and separation.
A mesmeric pattern overlays the imagery, a distinctive touch seen in all the work produced with Chambers and the studio. Their ‘ovalness’ suggests islands. Their blackness, with silver-white imagery implies infinity. They are prints to get lost in.
Available as a pair, or individually.
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Follow Stephen on Instagram: @stephenthepainter