Aliki Braine | Into The Woods: Curated by Rodrigo Orrantia, part of Photo Oxford Festival
“Uccello’s trees seem just as regimented and equally theatrical, and despite the hunts and battles in progress among them, they provide a smoothly organised and calm backdrop, whereas by contrast the jagged edges of Aliki Braine’s renditions have a more dangerous and unsettling feel."
John Hilliard (b. 1945), Artist. Excerpt from exhibition text, Disenchanted Forests, January 2023
We are delighted to present Into the Woods, a solo exhibition of photography by contemporary artist Aliki Braine, curated by Rodrigo Orrantia, from 14 April – 6 May. Part of Photo Oxford Festival 2023, the exhibition celebrates the festival’s theme ‘The Hidden Power of The Archive’, considering the portrayal of woods throughout art history, from the depiction of forests in historical painting as a space for battle or confrontation, to a space for memory, and its connection to representation of landscape in contemporary photography today.
Into The Woods draws upon Braine’s studies of both fine art, and western history of art, especially of 17th Century landscape painting, and her explorations of mechanical processes in photography that act as conversation between the past and present. The exhibition takes people on a journey from the gallery to the museum, looking specifically at the connection with Paolo Uccello’s The Hunt, a painting in the permanent collection at the Ashmolean, Oxford, that has inspired the artist’s oeuvre.
“ I am interested in exploring the photograph as a physical object. I want to engage the viewers of my images in the fact that these images are not just pictures, they are also physical, three-dimensional objects with a front and a back and sides. I'm also interested in landscape as a subject for my work. And lastly, my work wants to highlight the debt that photography owes to the history of Western European images, and I'm very keen that my work should conduct an informal conversation between itself and the past. One of the ways to think about my work is to say that I make photographs rather than just take photographs.”
(Aliki Braine, 2023)
"Into the Woods presents a selection of Aliki Braine's work, spanning over ten years of experimentation with analogue photography, fuelled by her passion for the History of Western Art. Working with Meakin + Parsons x Hannah Payne, I am very excited to be able to bring Aliki's work back to Oxford, just a short walk from the Ashmolean Museum, where the story of her Hunt began. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see works from different moments in time, alongside a special 'studio' area featuring preparatory works, original negatives and some of the tools she uses to transform them. I am also excited to present Aliki's latest series, Into The Woods (Shredded) developed specifically for this exhibition." Rodrigo Orrantia, Curator.
Talks and Events
Talks & Events:
A series of artist led Exhibition Tours, and In Conversation events, will take place on Thursdays at the gallery during Photo Oxford Festival.
- Thursday 13th April - Private View of Into The Woods: 6 – 8 pm, drinks reception.
- Thursdays 20th, 27th April and 4th May.: Artist-led Exhibition Tours: 3 pm – 4. 30 pm
Join artist Aliki Braine for a tour of her solo exhibition ‘Into The Woods’ at Meakin + Parsons x Hannah Payne gallery, including a visit to The Ashmolean museum to see the old master paintings from the permanent collection that have inspired the artists photography practice.
- Photo Oxford Evening Talks, 6 – 7.30pm Thursdays during the festival:
- Thursday 20th April: Photo Oxford Talk: Aliki Braine, artist, in conversation with exhibition curator, Rodrigo Orrantia
- Thursday 27th April – Photo Oxford Talk: Aliki Braine, artist, in conversation with Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A).
- Thursday 4th May – Photo Oxford Talk: Aliki Braine, artist, in conversation with Professor Jane Garnett, Tutor in Modern History, Wadham College, University of Oxford.