Waiting List

The Roath Park Pub (that’s number 31 on your map) is hosting a plethora of events during Made in Roath 2014, so you would do well to call in at some point during the week. If you do find yourself there, take a left as you enter to have a gander at the fine art photography collection, “waiting list.”

Curated by Zosia Krasnowolska of the *kickplate* project, “waiting list” presents three young photographers, Denis Kravets (Ukraine), Sophie Berdzenishvili (Georgia) and Melih Dönmezer, from countries being considered as potential EU members. This comes a decade after seven former Eastern Bloc members (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia) joined the union.

The exhibition poses questions about what it means to be European, examining whether a generic European identity can span the continent and how cultural and personal identity link in to this. This sparks a chain of further, deeper inquiry, delving into the intentions and purpose of art and asking what shapes an artist’s work, personal experience or universal/cultural forces.

Sophie Berdzenishvili examines the female experience through strange, abstract images that subvert the traditional styles and poses used in art focussing on the female form. There is a real sense of isolation in this work, the characters trapped by themselves or others and watched from the outside. Sophie’s bio simply reads: "everything I do is a self-portrait."

Denis Kravets explores body image and gender representations, linking these ideas into the wider relationship between humans and nature, with his work placing people into natural scenes so that they are almost hidden.

Melih Dönmezer’s work is dark and indistinct, the lack of fine detail unnerving in the way of a poorly lit room, with corners hidden and faces obscured. Even the relatively focussed close-up of the eye is ominous as there is a degree of panic or terror in the expression and rest of the face is unseen (not to mention that it brings to mind the weird eye slice scene in that Luis Buñuel film).

As you can see my photography skills are not the best (I blame the lighting), so get yourself to the Roath Park Pub to have a look yourself. The exhibition is open 1-11pm every day until Wednesday the 22nd October.

Find out more about the *kickplate* project.

Find out more about the artists: Melih Dönmezer, Sophie Berdzenishvili and Denis Kravets.  

- Jon