"Churches"
Photographs by Sylvia Grace Borda
Where: Belfast Exposed Gallery
When: 20 January to 2 March 2012
Review by Suzi Taylor
The artist, Sylvia Grace Borda is Canadian-born, but has been living and working in Northern Ireland for the past number of years.
She has studied Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia (MFA) and Media and Photography at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (BFA).
Borda has had many solo exhibitions worldwide. From Vancouver to Ottawa, Edinburgh, Glasgow and now Belfast.
Borda has also received a number of public grants and awards for her works from 2005 onwards.
This latest exhibition from Borda has been supported by several departments throughout Northern Ireland, including the Arts Council, Belfast City Council and the National Museums of Northern Ireland.
"Churches" - the latest work from Sylvia Grave Borda was the last exhibition hosted by the Belfast Exposed Gallery.
I visited this gallery during January to see what the work of Borda was all about.
I had read a few tasters on what was to be expected and went to this exhibit open minded as usual and keen to see some photography that was new to me.
Visiting exhibition is a great way to get inspired or find some influence if you are hitting the wall with your own projects.
However, I couldn't help but find this work (with great disappointment,) un-inspiring.
I entered the gallery and it was a different set up to the usual empty white room with images around the walls.
The space had been blocked off by a huge black wall, outside of which, was a display table with items encased in glass.
These items were several artifacts from churches around Ireland.
I had picked up the information sheets on the way in so took a few minutes to read through these before moving onto the next part.
The table of artifacts were in fact a series of ceramic objects, on loan, from Government collections in Northern Ireland. Amongst the items was a traditional 'souvenir plate' which is often used as a token of remembrance.
I saw the connection here of the reason Borda work was printed onto plates, but had not yet seen the main body of work.
I continued around the corner of the black wall and followed a short corridor of blackness until I reached the room the images were displayed in.
The room was square, dimly light (around three lights perhaps) and in the centre, was a long table with each plate set out as if you could sit down and have a meal.
My first reaction was to think this was possibly influenced by the last supper, but a quick count before looking closer showed that Borda had 18 plates at the table (not 12 as I had originally assumed.)
There were a handful of seats around the table for perching on. These were handy as Borda had an extensive collection of images to show in this series of work.
These were being displayed at the wall at the end of the table via a projector. It beamed the images out, circling through them quickly.
I felt more time could have been given on each image, but since there was over 100 to get through, I can appreciate the speed these were being shown.
I lapped the table a couple of times and took a close look at the plates. It was a nice idea to reflect on the 'souvenier plate' with her imagery printed on them. I thought that was a nice touch and a different way of showing work.
Unfortunately, for me, I didn't find the images that enthralling. The buildings weren't visually captivating, and the way they were photographed, wasn't either.
Architecturally, these buildings always seemed bland and bleak to me. Flat, dull, and lifeless.
I felt the photographs were the same.
It took Borda 2 years to put together this project. I can appreciate here time, effort, and commitments to a project such as this, but I personally feel, do dedicate so much time to a subject, I would certainly want to have much more interesting results.
Photography is the most common form of documenting many things. From objects, people, places, and buildings. I feel that Borda has been committed to her work into "Churches." She has used it effectively as a way to capture a photographic survey of Northern Ireland's modernist churches.
Unfortunately, for me, I couldn't take much away from this exhibition. I left feeling a little disappoint and perhaps a little confused.
Then again, maybe I'm missing some sort of deep meaning to this work. With that, I decided to read more about Borda and her past works.
Her project "Every Bus Stop In Surrey, BC" connects me to her style of photography and to her "Churches" exhibition.
For this project, she had made it her purpose to photography (as the title helpfully suggests) every bus stop in Surrey, British Columbia.
This series of images can be seen here: "Every Bus Stop In Surrey, BC"
Patience is a fine thing, and I feel it is something that this artist has a lot of. That, alongside determination.
Although these images, rather uninspiring, have managed to create an extensive collection of many of the churches seen around Northern Ireland.
Maybe to locals, it is too much of a regular occurrence and are seen as fit to be ignored, nothing interesting here, time to move along. But to someone outside of our culture, it could be perhaps, more thought provoking.
That said, I do enjoy some of her other works, such as "Hotel Stirling" and "3176" - I recommend you check these out if you want to see more from this artist, and if "Churches" wasn't quite up your street.
Find out more on the artist Sylvia Grace Borda here on here website:
http://sylviagraceborda.com/index.html
More gallery reviews to come. I've been very busy with projects lately and haven't been writing as much as I would like to be, but do keep posted on the Facebook page or Twitter, all updates will be posted there.
The artist, Sylvia Grace Borda is Canadian-born, but has been living and working in Northern Ireland for the past number of years.
She has studied Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia (MFA) and Media and Photography at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (BFA).
Borda has had many solo exhibitions worldwide. From Vancouver to Ottawa, Edinburgh, Glasgow and now Belfast.
Borda has also received a number of public grants and awards for her works from 2005 onwards.
This latest exhibition from Borda has been supported by several departments throughout Northern Ireland, including the Arts Council, Belfast City Council and the National Museums of Northern Ireland.
"Churches" - the latest work from Sylvia Grave Borda was the last exhibition hosted by the Belfast Exposed Gallery.
I visited this gallery during January to see what the work of Borda was all about.
I had read a few tasters on what was to be expected and went to this exhibit open minded as usual and keen to see some photography that was new to me.
Visiting exhibition is a great way to get inspired or find some influence if you are hitting the wall with your own projects.
However, I couldn't help but find this work (with great disappointment,) un-inspiring.
I entered the gallery and it was a different set up to the usual empty white room with images around the walls.
The space had been blocked off by a huge black wall, outside of which, was a display table with items encased in glass.
These items were several artifacts from churches around Ireland.
I had picked up the information sheets on the way in so took a few minutes to read through these before moving onto the next part.
The table of artifacts were in fact a series of ceramic objects, on loan, from Government collections in Northern Ireland. Amongst the items was a traditional 'souvenir plate' which is often used as a token of remembrance.
I saw the connection here of the reason Borda work was printed onto plates, but had not yet seen the main body of work.
I continued around the corner of the black wall and followed a short corridor of blackness until I reached the room the images were displayed in.
The room was square, dimly light (around three lights perhaps) and in the centre, was a long table with each plate set out as if you could sit down and have a meal.
My first reaction was to think this was possibly influenced by the last supper, but a quick count before looking closer showed that Borda had 18 plates at the table (not 12 as I had originally assumed.)
 |
| "Coming to the Table" |
There were a handful of seats around the table for perching on. These were handy as Borda had an extensive collection of images to show in this series of work.
These were being displayed at the wall at the end of the table via a projector. It beamed the images out, circling through them quickly.
I felt more time could have been given on each image, but since there was over 100 to get through, I can appreciate the speed these were being shown.
I lapped the table a couple of times and took a close look at the plates. It was a nice idea to reflect on the 'souvenier plate' with her imagery printed on them. I thought that was a nice touch and a different way of showing work.
 |
| Souvenir Plate with image |
Unfortunately, for me, I didn't find the images that enthralling. The buildings weren't visually captivating, and the way they were photographed, wasn't either.
Architecturally, these buildings always seemed bland and bleak to me. Flat, dull, and lifeless.
I felt the photographs were the same.
It took Borda 2 years to put together this project. I can appreciate here time, effort, and commitments to a project such as this, but I personally feel, do dedicate so much time to a subject, I would certainly want to have much more interesting results.
Photography is the most common form of documenting many things. From objects, people, places, and buildings. I feel that Borda has been committed to her work into "Churches." She has used it effectively as a way to capture a photographic survey of Northern Ireland's modernist churches.
Unfortunately, for me, I couldn't take much away from this exhibition. I left feeling a little disappoint and perhaps a little confused.
Then again, maybe I'm missing some sort of deep meaning to this work. With that, I decided to read more about Borda and her past works.
Her project "Every Bus Stop In Surrey, BC" connects me to her style of photography and to her "Churches" exhibition.
For this project, she had made it her purpose to photography (as the title helpfully suggests) every bus stop in Surrey, British Columbia.
This series of images can be seen here: "Every Bus Stop In Surrey, BC"
Patience is a fine thing, and I feel it is something that this artist has a lot of. That, alongside determination.
Although these images, rather uninspiring, have managed to create an extensive collection of many of the churches seen around Northern Ireland.
Maybe to locals, it is too much of a regular occurrence and are seen as fit to be ignored, nothing interesting here, time to move along. But to someone outside of our culture, it could be perhaps, more thought provoking.
That said, I do enjoy some of her other works, such as "Hotel Stirling" and "3176" - I recommend you check these out if you want to see more from this artist, and if "Churches" wasn't quite up your street.
Find out more on the artist Sylvia Grace Borda here on here website:
http://sylviagraceborda.com/index.html
More gallery reviews to come. I've been very busy with projects lately and haven't been writing as much as I would like to be, but do keep posted on the Facebook page or Twitter, all updates will be posted there.
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