THE LETTING GO AT DISPLAY GALLERY

In March I was part of a group show, 'Sunday in the Park with Ed', at Display Gallery in London. The artists were asked to look at what has been transgressive in their work. I chose The Letting Go and these five pieces were selected by the curators.

© Laura Hynd

BEHIND THE TITLE - LADY INTO HUT

The moment I read the title of David Garnett’s 1922 book, Lady into Fox, I was intrigued. It made no sense. Almost a mistake? I first read the book in 2009. A clear and crisp tale of a woman who turns into a fox. The physical transformation takes place within moments of beginning the first chapter. It’s a sudden and catastrophic shock for both the lady, and her husband. The pair, a gentrified couple strolling in the Oxford countryside in 1880, had only just married when the metamorphosis took place. 

The book has stuck with me these past five years. Often sashaying into my thoughts at unlikely moments. Because, what at first seems a simple - if surprising - tale, is actually a thoughtful and inspired observation of the transformations beyond the obvious book title. The wife, now a fox, yet woman in mind, slowly but surely becomes the feral hunter to match her form. Her husband, horrified yet accepting of her form, can not accept her behaviour, from controlled and prim woman, to ravaging and frolicking wild animal. 

Yet, as the pages turn, he finds joy in her freedom and in turn, becomes free himself. This story, to me is about becoming, physically and mentally, something that allows true acceptance of oneself. 

I chose to photograph a place of unhealthy nostalgia to my family. The place we all hold so dear it hurts. The place we no longer lay claim to other than in our memories, cine films and photograph albums. The hut my Grandfather built, originally as a art studio, has been perched on a low hill, in a valley on the river Devon, Scotland for nearly seventy years. 

As a adult, I wanted to live the landscape, breathe the streams and relish the air as a form of transformation of my own. To accept and smother, listen and soak, walk in the footsteps of my family, of myself as a child, to create something new from a landscape filled with hollow. Filled with something lost. To create something tangible and new and present. Something to take home.

From the foreword of Lady into Fox, republished in 2008...

 “Transformation stories are the means by which we make sense of the world, how we see the connections that, ‘the materialisation of our age’ misses, and they belong to the universe that is ordered, not by reason alone, but by imagination, a universe in which change is the only constant”

John Burnside, foreword (2008), Lady into Fox by David Garnett (1922).

© Laura Hynd - Do not reproduce

LADY INTO HUT AT NOORDERLICHT PHOTO FESTIVAL

I am so happy to have been invited to exhibit at Noorderlicht Photo Festival in Holland, which opened 31st August and runs through to 26th October.

The theme is An Ocean of Possibilities and my work is exhibited as part of the show, Call of the Wild.

My installation proposal

Installation photographs to follow

© Laura Hynd

LADY INTO HUT AT MOMA, KOLGA PHOTO FESTIVAL

I recently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Tbilisi, Georgia as part of the Kolga Photo Festival. The exhibition, 'Ladies Only' was curated by Tina Schelhorn of Lichtblick Gallery and School, Cologne.

Photo by Beso Khaindrava

Photo by Wolgang Zurborn

The four meter piece was darkroom printed at Labyrinth Photographic Printing, London. My work is normally exhibited small as this suits its intimate nature. However, as Lady into Hut is a project about immersing oneself in a place, we decided to go as big as we possibly could, thus allowing the viewer to surround themselves in the work. It was first exhibited at Four Corners Gallery/Labyrinth Photographic for their Stare Show.

UNCERTAIN STATES EXHIBITION 2013

As part of the Uncertain States annual group show, I exhibited a piece from Lady into Hut. Other exhibitors included Ania Dabrowska, Tom Hunter and Julie Cockburn.

LADY INTO HUT IN SMBH MAGAZINE

I am pleased to announce that my work was chosen to appear in the online photography magazine, SMBH.

SMBH is a fantastic publication founded and edited by photographer, Barry W Hughes.

Here is a link http://www.smbhmag.com/portfolio/issue-14/

© Laura Hynd 2013

A YEAR IN DEVELOPMENT 2013

A Year in Development, Labyrinth Photographic Printing's annual exhibition opened last night at Four Corners Gallery, 121 Roman Road, London, E2 0QN

Beautifully printed work by an amazing selection of photographic artists displayed for the coming weeks.

I am showing a new piece from Lady into Hut.

Thirst/Burn

© Laura Hynd