Mind the gap! Darren Harvey-Regan's A Collection of Gaps at the Exeter Phoenix

Everyone knows a net is a heap load of holes tied together which string, and you could end up getting caught up in knots if you spend too much time scratching your head over Darren Harvey-Regan‘s solo exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery, Exeter.

This show, A Collection of Gaps, brings together Darren’s recent work which explores the interplay between image, object and meaning.

The starling (installation) stares at the image of itself (photograph) as if it’s a mirror. And in a way, photographs are mirrors, reflecting a certain view of the world and of ourselves.

Darren says: “In my recent practice I have focused on the interplay of photography and object.

“This has involved creating installations whereby the photograph is situated in direct relationship to the object it portrays or, perhaps, its own two-dimensional nature is fore-grounded through folds and cuts. creating an overlap and tension between the things in and of the world and their photographed image.

“I emphasise the photograph as a means of constructed representation that both informs and reflects the way we order the world around us.”

He goes further than images – in this Elisions series he explores the language surrounding animal classification, inspired by the labelling, archiving and presentation of museum specimens. He exposes the created human narrative surrounding the animals, as if we’re trying to make them act like people, when in effect, it’s us who are.

Darren was selected for the New Contemporaries 2010 and the Caitlin Art Prize 2011.

Darren Harvey-Regan’s A Collection of Gaps is at the Exeter Phoenix from Thursday, July 21 to Thursday, September 1