Alignment

Musical instruments, although similar in their construction and component parts, diverge in the way they look and are played but ultimately align into a beautiful piece of music.

The same could be said for the work of Ian Chamberlain and Sachiyo Nishimura, process is fundamental to both these artists' work.

Chamberlain and Nishimura's meticulous use of etching and photographic manipulation respectively take their work on different paths but ultimately, the two paths converge. 'Alignment' examines the journey taken by these two artists' work and focuses on the resultant shared intricacy.
Devoid of people, it is the man-made and urban that become the prime subjects for both these artists. Reworking and evolving their subjects, the finished images propose a more complex and thought provoking rendering of what actually exists.

Fascinated with technology and architectural forms, Chamberlain's work has included locations and structures within industry, agriculture, science and the military. His work acting as a visual historical document and record of the places that he visits. The shelters, watch towers and outposts of the cold war period influence his current work. Juxtaposing the traditional process of etching with the recording of new technology, Ian interprets the form and function of these objects. The continual evolution of Chamberlain's work through the constant alteration of the copper surface as he revisits it time and time again is also reflected in the methods of Nishimura's iterative photo-manipulation work.
Sachiyo Nishimura is drawn to the visual language of industrialisation; by pushing the boundaries of photography she conveys the fascinating anonymity of certain urban spaces and objects of which we have become oblivious. On the one hand these are familiar to the viewer, but on the other, out of context and without location, they are rendered ambiguous. Through her meticulous post production process, which involves grid schematics and geometrical sketches, she proposes another version of the cityscape. The divergent journey is especially evident in the 'Lines' series. Nishimura crops, overlaps, and modifies the scale of the original photograph, the urban objects get further away from their original context and get closer to an abstract interpretation of the landscape within a new complex structure.
In bringing these two artists together, 'Alignment' exhibits the artistic unity akin to the harmony of a musical duet.