exhibition: Willie Doherty

Willie Doherty : new photographs and video
May 1 - June 12, 1999
132 Tenth Avenue • Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm



  (click on images to enlarge)

EXHIBITION: Willie Doherty: new photographs and video

DATES: May 1 - June 12, 1999

LOCATION: 132 Tenth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets

HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm

Willie Doherty will exhibit new photographs and a video installation at Alexander and Bonin from May 1 - June 12, 1999. Doherty lives and works in Derry, Northern Ireland and much of his work is drawn from observations of his homeland.

For this exhibition, Doherty has focused on a single subject - a forest on the outskirts of Derry. This forest is a space skirted by roads and straddles the border between north and south and the margin between urban and natural. In these new works, Doherty explores the area that resides between the possibility of an undisclosed narrative and the limitations of photography as a means ofinvestigation.

Doherty uses this subject matter to explore ideas about the viewerís relationship to the imagery presented. Our desire to see more and know more is often thwarted by our inability to move beyond the surface, to see what is beyond our field of vision, or to 'not see the forest for the trees'. Here, pristine nature is contaminated by a shred of evidence, an intrusion that is a metaphor for the viewer's need to decode the content of the photograph.

Doherty's work has been extensively exhibited throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. Recently he exhibited Somewhere Else, a four screen projection at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. In 1996, a survey of his video work was organized by the Kunsthalle, Bern and traveled to the Kunstverein, Munich. Through April 18th, he is exhibiting a new projection at the Renaissance Society, Chicago and later this year will show works at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh.

For further information or photographs, please contact Juliette Moir at 212/367-7474orgallery@alexanderandbonin.com.

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