An object to be both looked at and looked through, an apparatus that explores loss and practices of looking. Photographs have the ability to be both moving and still, simultaneously expansive and constrictive in its imagery. Fabricated using components from a deconstructed enlarger, an apparatus that sustains the photograph as an object, a tool used to record the ephemeral moment, to obscure reality, to hold onto an uncertain truth. “An Apparatus for Longing” is an attempt to capture an ephemeral moment in its truest sense, to document duration, fleeting moments, always in a process of response, always failing in its attempt to preserve. Appearing solid in form but continually changing in composition, the image is never fixed, but always in a state of movement, constantly responding to its surroundings, it becomes about the act of looking, the act of searching. [Text: Ursula Handleigh]
Ursula Handleigh is an interdisciplinary artist working with experimental photography, film, and alternative processes of image-making. Her practice explores questions of identity, perception, memory, and kinship. Using experiential photography and the personal archive as a foundation for exploration, her work addresses the ways in which we create personal histories while challenging traditional methods of documentation. “I choose a material to accompany my thoughts and I start a kind of dialogue, I initiate an action and the material responds, and I start to build from there. I enjoy this state of being attentive and like to watch the process develop.” >> The Interview
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2017 // Halifax, Nova Scotia [ca], Anna Leonowens Gallery
2016 // Gimp [kr], CICA Museum
2016 // Florence [it], Giardino dell’Orticoltura
2016 // Toronto, Ontario [ca], Habourfront Center
2014 // Calgary, Alberta [ca], New Gallery +15
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BACKGROUND
2017 // Halifax, Nova Scotia [ca] [NS]CAD University, Masters of Fine Arts
2012 // Toronto, Ontario [ca], OCAD University, Bachelors of Fine Arts
2011 // Prague [cz], Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts
Since 2009 // Regular exhibition activity in Canada
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