|
Within the cannon of performance art, Sheila and Nicholas Pye delve into a constructed reality of photographic and cinematic possibilities. Sheila and Nicholas use the gestures of the body to build metaphors for marriage, dependency and mortality through imagery that is darkly poetic. Their latest exhibition, “A Life of Errors,” at Kasia Kay Art Projects in Chicago, is a continuation of edgy material that one has come to expect from the Pyes. The show consists of nine four-foot by four-foot photographs in the main gallery space and a video installation in the project room. The Pye’s methodology involves analogue technology as their photographic works are still printed from a negative and their video works are often shot on 16mm film. |
 |
The Voracious – Liam Rosewood
Within the cannon of performance art, Sheila and Nicholas Pye delve into a constructed reality of photographic and cinematic possibilities. Sheila and Nicholas use the gestures of the body to build metaphors for marriage, dependency and mortality through imagery that is darkly poetic. Their latest exhibition, “A Life of Errors,” at Kasia Kay Art Projects in Chicago, is a continuation of edgy material that one has come to expect from the Pyes. The show consists of nine four-foot by four-foot photographs in the main gallery space and a video installation in the project room.
The Pye’s methodology involves analogue technology as their photographic works are still printed from a negative and their video works are often shot on 16mm film. When asked about their chosen technologies, Nicholas says: “We fully embrace new technologies and media but for what we are doing, our work needs a specific articulation that digital technologies can’t quite communicate based on our ideas.” Sheila adds: “Using the tools of cinema force you into a different way of thinking. The apparatuses used in the production of film versus video, by their nature, create a more time-consuming and meditative approach to capturing the images. In the gallery context, this opens up the viewer to a new cinematic language which is not common in video art.”
The approach to the creation of the photographs has obvious cinematic influences as well, with a great deal of time being spent on the production design and construction of the sets in which the work is shot. The couple spent up to two months designing, building and decorating the decrepit three-room set for “A Life of Errors.” One room his, one room hers, and a third “public space” as they call it. Everything from the color of the walls to the fabric on the beds is a reflection of their design. Within these walls, the pair performs and documents strangely beautiful rituals for the camera that involve activities such as drowning, setting fires and participating in balancing acts. In the photographic works, one often wonders if these are stills from the cinematic installation. The Pyes use the different forms of photography to question representation.
The work often unfolds in an absurdist tone that one can conclude is an allegory for their relationship and the pitfalls of love. For example, in the video installation, two lovers, played by the artists, fall out of each other’s graces and turn bitter enemies. Without exchanging dialogue, in the theatrical dream world of their sleep, they endeavor to harm each other though a series of childish games that inevitably go too far. Growing increasingly distrustful of one another, these somnambulists become skilled at the unmaking of love.
