Thursday 5th April 2012

I saw the Zoe Leonard show at the Camden Arts Centre today and I'm very pleased I did. (It was worth spending twenty minutes paying by phone for my parking space in Frognal.)

I had never come across this artist before but knew part of the show included a camera obscura and was intrigued. One of the galleries is blacked out completely except for a 7cm circle cut into the exterior wall; from this circle a lens transforms the light into a giant, upside down image of a section of Finchley Road, complete with traffic lights, walking figures, and an endless stream of cars and trucks. The room is so dark that at first I thought there was somebody asleep on the floor (in fact it was one of a number of bean bags supplied for comfortable viewing). Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I was certain I was on my own and not about to sit on anybody, I became absorbed by the colours and shadows and delighted by the clarity of the moving images. I came away feeling that I had seen the world as a young child does, making new sense out of every new sight. In this eery upside down silent world, I noticed that people's legs are long, that the lights on cars and traffic signals shine like jewels and I felt aware of something connecting all the separate aspects of the scene – it seemed imbued with integrity, certainty, pattern and purpose beyond that of individuals going about their daily business.

In another room different sized piles of postcards of various images of Niagara Falls sit on a table. Some are facing one way, some another. Many of the images are exactly the same, with variations in colours, some looking faded, printed on different types of card, some with postmarks at the top of the images. This feels like somebody's personal, loving, obsessional collection, in the process of being organized and catalogued. A notice asks you not to touch the postcards, so all the messages from unknown tourists remain unread but are implicit. I was reminded of Susan Hiller's 'rough sea' postcards; both have dynamic, startling images of powerful water, used by tourists to send messages home; collected up and collated by the artists like pebbles from a beach. 

A third room shows large analogue photographs of the sun. These look like varying sizes of light blobs emerging through clouds. Each one has the sun in a slightly different place and they feel drenched in light and therefore imprecise and misty.

Overall this is a great show and I am very pleased I now know about Zoe Leonard.