New photographic works on aluminum by Mary Jo Bedford.

Exhibition dates 10 Feb - 5 March 2010. Quiqcorp Gallery, 155 High Street, Christchurch

Wallace Art Award Finalist 2009 and Anthony Harper Award Finalist 2009,  Mary Jo Bedford is exhibiting her latest works, ‘Arbour Ardour’.

Doc Ross says of her work, “In this body of work, as with much of her oeuvre, Mary Jo has utilized a pictorialist style to convey her emotional responses to nature. That response is in part drawn from her well of past experiences of life, death and renewal.”

These new works printed on aluminum are made using a Fresnel Zone Plate lens that lends a glowing ghostly effect on the image. She has chosen to print onto gold or silver brushed aluminum in order to further enhance the glow that is within the images. This glow she says, “is evidence of the beating heart of the woodland; the ancient knowledge shared by trees”.

Since childhood she has felt a kinship with the trees and forest, and significant events in her life have been associated with trees, including the deaths of her father and her mother. In this exhibition she has continued her practice of “editing directly from life” eschewing the artificiality of digital manipulation. She believes the Fresnel lens, “while distorting reality, does not distract from the moment. Instead, it amplifies the aura that evidences the heartbeat of the woodland”.

Mary Jo has previously exhibited solo in Sydney, Australia, Christchurch, Marlborough Sounds and Lyttelton.