Manchester Evening News

Review: Dryden's a screen star

Riazat Butt

CONTRASTS: Dryden Goodwin

AS CULTURE vultures flock to the Turner retrospective at Manchester Art Gallery, art of a very different kind is being exhibited on the same floor and, as first appearances go, the contrast couldn't be greater.

JMW Turner, one of Britain's most popular artists, used oil and watercolours to paint scenes that were a stage for human drama and he also drew on historical and mythological themes for his work.

Video artist Dryden Goodwin, on the other hand, has created an eight-screen video installation with a soundtrack.

React
Dilate, his exhibition, explores contrasting environments and how we react to different landscapes.

"In Dilate I'm attempting to find a language to describe physical space, and to question the relationship between images and sound. The viewer is aware of their position within the octagonal space."

It sounds slightly pretentious and the explanation leaves me a bit nonplussed. But standing inside the video installation illustrates his point.

"You hover between being involved in what you're seeing and being aware of your role as a voyeur," he adds.

The eight screens are suspended from the ceiling and the panoramic images immerse the viewer with vivid scenes of city and country life. In open, unpopulated spaces, we can feel liberated, and in an urban scene we can feel alienated or anonymous.

One sequence, filmed aboard a Channel ferry, is exhilarating and unsettling. I am aware that I am on dry land, in a city centre art gallery, but the sounds of seagulls, the wind and day-trippers surround me, as do images of a deck, a funnel and vast stretches of water. I am part of the experience, yet I am not really there.

Links
Goodwin says that the gallery was excited about the links between his work and Turner's, because both create "experiential" works of art.
Of course, Goodwin's approach is very 21st century, using digital technology and the support of a camera crew to capture his landscapes.
At times, the accompanying soundtrack, which plays during the 20-minute sequence, sets sound movements against different visual sequences and this disparity forces the viewer to question what they see and what they hear.

Goodwin acknowledges that his work will challenge visitors, saying: "I'm aware that there are different levels to my work, so people will have different interpretations of it."

Extravaganza
His work doesn't fit into any categories and it's this square-peg-in-a-round-hole reputation that led him to the 50th Venice Biennale, a six-month cultural extravaganza.
Goodwin's installation of floor and ceiling-mounted video screens caught viewers between footage of churchgoers staring upwards and images of a cathedral ceiling's cosmic geometry.

The 32-year-old artist from London has also exhibited at Tate Britain where his audacious work Closer saw him use a laser beam to scrutinise figures in a way that could be erotic or menacing or playful.

Goodwin's work is daring, thought provoking and his installations are a talking point in the modern art world.