David Ryrie: This ain`t Kansas Dorothy catalogue

gallery ecosse
‘Halcyon’ Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579
www.galleryecosse.com.au
info@galleryecosse.com.au 02 4883 4466
open fri - sat 10am - 5pm
sun 10am - 3pm or by appointment
david ryrie
this ain’t kansas dorothy
30 MAY - 9 JULY 2015
David Ryrie
Carrot Face
(DR2013.TAKD18.06.02), 2013
110cm x 73.4
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
Edition of 6 plus 2 APs
Price (including GST): POA
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Contact:
Andre de Borde
andre@galleryecosse.com.au
Nina de Borde
nina@galleryecosse.com.au
Gallery Ecosse at ‘Halcyon’
Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579
www.galleryecosse.com.au
info@galleryecosse.com.au
02 4883 4466
0403 936 624
open thu - sat 10am - 5pm
sun 10am - 3pm
or by appointment
David Ryrie
Untitled
(DR2014.TAKD19.06.02), 2014
100 x 150cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $5,500
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
Untitled
(DR2014.TAKD20.06.02), 2014
81 x 54cm, (9 Panels)
27cm x 18cm/panel
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $3,800
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
All images:
David Ryrie, 2013
7.3cm x 9.5cm
(Scanned Polaroid)
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 4 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $900
each
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Waiting for Jake #1
(DR2013.TAKD21.04.02)
Waiting for Jake #3
(DR2013.TAKD23.04.02)
Waiting for Jake #2
(DR2013.TAKD22.04.02)
Waiting for Jake #4
(DR2013.TAKD24.04.02)
David Ryrie
Cloud study #1
(DR2014.25.06.02), 2014
40.5 x 52.7cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
Cloud study #2
(DR2014.26.06.02), 2014
40.5 x 52.7cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
Pretty pretty pest
(DR2014.TAKD27.06.02), 2014
120cm x 89cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $3,900
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
Untitled
(DR2015.TAKD28.06.02), 2015
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #16
(DR2014.TAKD16.06.02), 2014
110 x 73.4cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $3,600
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #17
(DR2014.TAKD17.06.02), 2014
110 x 73.4cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $3,600
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #1
(DR2014.TAKD01.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #2
(DR2014.TAKD02.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #3
(DR2014.TAKD03.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #4
(DR2014.TAKD04.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #5
(DR2014.TAKD05.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #6
(DR2014.TAKD06.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #7
(DR2014.TAKD07.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #8
(DR2014.TAKD08.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #9
(DR2014.TAKD09.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #10
(DR2014.TAKD10.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #11
(DR2014.TAKD11.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #12
(DR2011.TAKD12.06.02), 2011
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #13
(DR2014.TAKD13.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #14
(DR2014.TAKD14.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This aint’t Kansas Dorothy (series) #1 thru #15
40.5cm x 27cm each
Pigment Ink on Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 2 plus 1 APs)
Price (including GST): $15,000
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #15
(DR2014.TAKD15.06.02), 2014
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
David Ryrie
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy #29
(DR2011.TAKD29.06.02), 2011
40.5cm x 27cm
Pigment Ink on
Archival Art Paper
(Edition of 6 plus 2 APs)
Price (including GST): $1,200
Prices are quoted in Australian
Dollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quoted
above is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
this ain’t kansas dorothy
In this day of digital imagery it has become harder to make a work
that is respected as being more than just that. It is more about having
something worthwhile to tell about the subject. So said André de Borde,
Director of Gallery Ecosse, in reference to an earlier group of works by
David Ryrie, Three Steps North of South, but the comment is equally
relevant to Ryrie’s latest offerings in This Ain’t Kansas Dorothy.
David Ryrie is one of those photographic artists whose works bear close
scrutiny and having done so, command that elusive respect. There is
an essential honesty in his endeavour and he places a high value on
making art from digital photography, not through technical trickery, but
by rigorously interrogating the subject that is in the lens.
Ryrie’s photographs are closely related to story, even history, as in his
earlier series inspired by the Exeter rail crash. His art is not simply
photographic. His concern with image-making has less to do with
accurately documenting what a place or object looks like; the foundation
of his art is in the significance and potency of the place and of the
story that lies there, patent or hidden. What lies beneath and within
contributes to the beauty that is redolent in Ryrie’s images - that beauty
is not derived simply from the subject’s natural attributes and features.
A landscape or a lowering sky may arouse in us, as passers by, a fleeting
memory or emotion that is always personal. It falls to the artist however,
whether on a canvas or through the lens, to provide a more considered
view of what we take for granted. Ryrie’s particular obsession is to
grasp and re-create what it is that exists beyond the image alone - as
he put it, to derive a clandestine beauty when the facade indicates only
a small fraction of what is on offer. In this regard Ryrie is one of many
artists who seek to understand the deeper aspects of their subjects.
And there is a great deal more to David Ryrie’s work than imagemaking and story-telling. In This Ain’t Kansas Dorothy the personal
uncertainty that he writes about so candidly in his introduction seems to
contradict the confidence with which he makes his art. The particular
direction of this exhibition references the storms which he likens to his
own conflicting emotions, and his own perception of the strengths and
weaknesses that inhabit us all, but which perhaps most of us prefer not
to interrogate with the same analysis and perception as he has applied
to his own feelings. Here, his own uncertainties are laid bare.
These works have a surreal quality. They are the stuff of dreams,
imaginings and deep concerns. The storms that he refers to are shown
in their majesty and power, but the works reference also the diminutive
presence of mankind within the elements, whether by the device of a
power line across a threatening sky, or the fragmented light of a car
passing through the ghostly landscape. There is an image of the artist
himself, sleep denied, the twin storms outside the room and within
his soul, both unseen but imagined by the viewer. There is strong
reference here also to the insignificance of us as mortals, characterised
by the image of two fisherman afloat on the ocean, set opposite the
photograph of his older son - as Ryrie puts it, my intention is simply to
let us not forget our significance in relation to the greater world and in
the smaller ones which we create.
Man’s threatening impact on the landscape is not denied here either - it
is instead emphasised as being detrimental, visually and in fact, in a
world where, ultimately, the elements - not mankind - hold court. These
images at once display the raw beauty of the Australian landscape
among the elements, while pointing to man’s skill in ruining it - suburban
sprawl and introduced vermin, both blights on Nature. Then tacky,
garish objects superimposed - the Australian landscape increasingly
threatened. Nature made vile by man. Such are the contradictions
of beauty and ugliness that are surrogates for Ryrie’s own internal
contradictions and deep concerns. In this exhibition he has exposed
both to examination, highlighting the scale between the abhorrent and
the magical, and he has done so skillfully.
Julian Beaumont, May 2015
Born: Sydney 1968
“A photograph is a document and, like any other, it can be objective,
subjective, flawed, loved, hated….a translation of sorts by the
photographer, open to interpretation by the viewer, evidence of a moment
in time, real or imagined.”
Making photographs has always been about having something worthwhile
to say. It was indeed the photographers who said most about their own
lives, and in fact photographed them, that have had the most profound
influence on me. All my experiences, obsessions, perception of self,
mental state, loves, hates and passions have merged into one. All the
parts work together at this point, and for all the damage some of these
segments have done to me in the past, they allow me to make photographs
that represent something important to me.
David first used a camera with some intention at the age of 14. “I have
always taken photographs for myself. Sharing them has been a challenge.
I felt that something was missing and that something was the stories that
goes with them. That was difficult. I have become that storyteller.
Solo Exhibitions
This ain’t Kansas Dorothy, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter 2015
Three Steps North Of South, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter 2013
Group Exhibitions
Mug Shot: a still life exhibition, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter 2015
Burrawang Festival of Designers and Artisans, Burrawang NSW 2014
Autoportrait, self portrait exhibition, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter 2013
Collections
The Australia Club, Sydney
Private collections