Kelly Richardson

With her videos and photographs, emerging artist Kelly Richardson exhibits an adept ability to surprise and humorously derail the viewer by blurring the distinction between factual visual references and fantastical occurrences. In Exiles of the Shattered Star (2006), flaming meteorites drop peacefully and poetically from the sky into a lake. Through magic realism Richardson plays a gentle trick on our narrative expectations and compels us to interrupt our

Kelly Richardson
Born in Burlington, Canada, in 1972
Lives and works in Gateshead, United Kingdom
www.kellyrichardson.net

With her videos, Kelly Richardson exhibits an adept ability to surprise and humorously derail the viewer by blurring the distinction between factual visual references and fantastical occurrences. As In Wagons Roll (2002), clouds blow past and birds fly by,while a car is frozen in time just as it drives off a cliff in a crashing roar. There is an eerie suspense bound up with the feeling that the car might just continue its momentum through to its violent impact. Instead, the day passes in a contradictory state of anxious serenity. Visual references such as these allude to film conventions and encourage presumptive conclusions that are never actually reached. In Ferman Drive (2005), the view is from inside a moving car as it drives slowly down a street in a seemingly common suburban neighbourhood. Unexpectedly, we see a house do a complete rotation. Given the lack of narrative framework or contextuality, the absurdity somehow borders on plausible. As in Exiles of the Shattered Star (2006), flaming meteorites drop lightly and poetically from the sky into a lake, sparking an imaginative journey into the fire’s mysterious origin. Through magic realism, Richardson plays a gentle trick on our narrative expectations and compels us to suspend our ingrained sense of rationality. In her photographs of landscapes from horror movies, (Supernatural, 2001 to the present), Richardson captures the serene luminosity of the moment before the bloodbath begins. The preternatural disposition of the photos, similar to what we find in her video work, is loaded with an uncanny dynamic of kinetic tension and tranquility.

ARTICULE
262, FAIRMOUNT W.
T: 514.842.9686
[SEPT. 08, 2007 – OCT. 06, 2007]
OPENING SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 08, 2007 AT 4 PM | WEDNESDAY TO FRIDAY FROM 12 PM TO 6 PM, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY FROM 12 PM TO 5 PM | ARTIST’S TALK THURSDAY 13 SEPTEMBER, 2007 AT 5:30 PM