SARAH
ZACHAREK
Asylum Art Gallery - 2016
Solo exhibition - Re:Discovery @ Asylum Art Gallery, Wolverhampton. April 2016.
For the first time I exhibited the full collection of work from this project, including projection, sound, posters and prints of my father's original images. The exhibition ran from 23rd-27th April 2016 and consisted of 6 key elements:
Chromogenic prints of mine and my father’s images were positioned around the room, with a slight hierarchy noticeable in certain images. I played on lines and shapes within the images to determine the positioning. One image leads the eye to the other. The prints act as 'evidence' that I was stood in the same place as my father, achieved my reproducing his images as accurately as possible.
On the floor in front of the prints were banner vinyl prints of 35mm film scans of the floors that both myself and my father stood on in order to take the shots The audience were invited to stand on the spot where I had stood and where my father stood, and were presented with the scene we both saw from this vantage point.
Underneath one pair of images was a small shelf featuring a hand bound book, which brings together elements of mine and my father's journey into one tangible document.
The accompanying video was projected onto a wall in the gallery and the audio accompaniment filled the room, thrusting visitors into my experience.
Enlargements of the ‘czy to ty’ posters I made and hung around Torun. The posters are made up of text and scans of photos my father took of family in the city (for whom I have no contact details). The posters ask ‘is this you?’, and provide brief details of my story and ways to get in touch. More about this here
Finally, the exhibition included prints of my father’s negatives. Some depict poignant moments of his journey, others offer a glimpse into family life in 1980s Poland. One of these images (and many more that weren’t on display) coincidentally features the father of one of the guests who happened to hear about my exhibition. Not knowing the theme or content of the exhibition she went along, shocked to find that my father and her father were somehow linked.