WHEN : 1st Dec – 13th Jan
WHERE : Queensland Centre of Photography
In 2008 I spent 40 days on a pilgrimage, walking from one end of Northern Spain to the other (El Camino de Santiago). The mental, physical, philosophical and some may say esoteric experiences encountered during this journey were recorded/interpreted in various ways and inevitably came to inform this body of work.
I was particularly drawn to the ‘ghost towns’ and abandoned houses explored along the journey, for it was within these internal environments I found a past held within the present history of their walls. These works mainly comprise of spaces that have traces of memory, yet are paradoxically absent of living human presence.
All my journey was experienced on foot along a path well traveled, which in itself bared the signs of the past, and it too became a necessary part of these works. The path would oscillate from barren open desert-like plains to forest portals that led you in and out of lush forests. The landscape had a tendency to dramatically change from one setting to another in just one walking day.
These works are intended to emit an impression of memories stored and recorded in that they are not merely documentations of the journey: they are manipulated and tweaked to the point that they function more like apparitions or images conjured by the imagination whilst the eyes are closed. None of these works are intended to promote any kind of organised religiousness, but their ethereal nature does engage with the fascination and mystery of the world that is often exorcised within us once our pace and sense of space is shifted beyond an everyday context.
For more information about Kim Demuth, visit his website
Text – QCP, 2012
Image – Kim Demuth ‘Camino Dia 29’ 2010 – Sculptural photography
