The current exhibition of Paul Schutze's photography at the Alan Cristea Gallery shows two distinct styles - his studies of empty public buildings by moonlight, and his intensely abstract macro work.
How was it visiting the abandoned Marshall Street Baths and the Victoria & Albert Museum after hours?
Visiting
the baths was wonderful as, drained, they become really sculptural. The
marble ramp of the pool base is like some strange
sports court for a forgotten game. Very resonant for me also, as my
partner and I met at this pool fifteen years ago (during the day I
hasten to add).
The cast room of the Victoria & Albert Museum is almost alarming by night as
everything appears huge and looming. Your eye is drawn up to the
skylights and it feels like a
huge pit full of frozen figures.
What's the attraction with disused and empty buildings?
I'm very interested in the separation of the building and its contents. By moonlight all the sculptures merge with the architecture and create a total environment whereas the view we all see by day has each object picked out by careful lighting and pushes the building into the background. The various types of stone and metal also merge as the moonlight sucks most of the color and detail from the rooms. Most of these structures were built before the advent of electricity so in a sense the night view would be closer to that first seen by the original users.
Working with many low-lit scenes, are long exposures key?
It's surprising but as a lot of these buildings have large Victorian skylights (the Oxford University Museum has an entirely glass ceiling). With a full moon there was so much light that the exposure could always be kept under twenty seconds.
La Terre de l'Encre Noire (above) is an incredible texture study, with the short focal range drawing attention to the details while keeping the subject a mystery. Can you tell me what it is? I'm guessing it's either ice or metal.
In fact it's frozen calligraphy ink. As the ink is full of shellac the freezing causes a beautiful mineral crystallisation which looks like metal in the right light.
You
also create music and soundtracks - how seperate are the fields of
sound and light for you?
The
two areas feel completely connected to me. I use the same impulses and
aesthetic for each and in my head sound and image are pretty
interchangeable. I always think that art
is largely decision making. The medium isn't the message.
You can see more of Paul's work at his exhibition, Twilight Science, running till 7 June at 31 and 34 Alan Cristea Gallery, Cork Street, London W1.
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