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Liz
Nicol received her degree in Creative Photography at
Trent Polytechnic and Derby Lonsdale between 1975-78,
since then she has had a string of one person shows
around the World, from her open show in Barcelona 1977
to her latest offering over in New York opening on the
12th September 2006 and on view through November at
the Washington Square East Galleries, featuring Photographs
and Video artists from the United Kingdom and Northern
Ireland, under the heading “Crossing the Atlantic…
uneasy spaces”.
Forging
along the way an international reputation for thought
provoking and initiative work, in her new book “Figureheads”
published by the University of Plymouth Press, with
a foreword by Chris Rodrigues, Liz Nicol has produced
a series of 17 dramatic and stunning black and white
prints, challenging our deeply held and in many way
cherished perceptions and attitudes to the subject of
figureheads in general, these all too rare survivors
of a once magnificent race and creed of truly enigmatic
beings, that over many centuries traversed the great
oceans of the World, losing their spatial integrity
and consciousness as they move over from a hostile and
treacherous working life at sea, cleansed everyday with
a douse of sea water, and the tang of salt on there
lips, amid all it’s inevitable dangers and hardships,
to finish there lives in a benign and transcendental
environment on land, displayed in a sterile and air-conditioned
museum gallery, with only the touch of a curators white
gloved hand, has they check on past scars, without losing
any of the allure and fascination. Liz Nicol has transposed
these icons of a lost age and tradition back in to a
spatial awareness, they look through the photographic
print to a world of light and fresh air, to an atmosphere
and feeling that was at one time was so very familiar
and natural.
In
the book Liz writes that “we can’t forget
that these were objects carved by men” of all the
figurative images created by the skill and artistry
of man, none have been imbued more with a sense of “Humanity”
than the Ships figurehead, they have transcended the
boundary from a purely decorative function, to something
quite different, Liz is right in that they are indeed
carved by the hand of man, from the basic of natures
materials wood and painted to life, once carved and
place on the bow of a vessel, they begin to develop
a unique aura and ambience, this sense is in many ways
unique to Ships Figureheads, in the way they are seen
and appreciated.
Each
representation has been created using a double exposure
technique, with one image manipulated over a second,
once this photographic fusion is achieved the paper
is exposed, and developer applied over the print with
a sponge, the effect is to move the inanimate object
in the form of the wooden and static ships figurehead
in to a new and quite different environment, stimulating
the mind as one looks through the images.
This
is the first published work to deal with the subject
of ships figureheads, without any historic narrative
concerning the carvings previous history and individual
heritage, several of the images used in this figurehead
series were taken whilst on family holidays, with examples
coming from the collection of celebrated merchant figureheads
onboard the historic Clipper ship “Cutty Sark”
at Greenwich in London, The Tresco collection down on
the Isles of Scilly Cornwall, to the Musee de la Marine
in Paris, and on to the Mystic Seaport Museum in the
USA, likewise the landscapes range in variety from Derbyshire,
Cornwall, The Farne Islands and France, each one chosen
to enhance the dramatic appearance of the other, a remarkable
insight into a fascinating subject, Liz Nicol’s
“Figureheads” makes a welcome addition to
the collection of anyone interested in the subject of
contemporary British Photography and Ships Figureheads.
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