Event: Exhibition – Alt: Analog 16 January – 15 February 2025 Phase 2 of the Chennai Photo Biennale (CPB) – Forum Art Gallery, Adyar, Chennai, India
School of Art and Media Lecturer Holly Birtles’s work Fighting Fish features in the Phase 2 of the Chennai Photo Biennale (CPB) – Alt:Analog exhibition at the Forum Art Gallery, Adyar, Chennai, India. This work was created during the 45 day dark room residency at the CPB Darkroom ( December and into January) awarded to Holly Birtles (see post SAMRKE) and two other artists (Arun and Soham Joshi). For details about the outcome of the residency and all exhibition see the CPB website – https://chennaiphotobiennale.foundation/biennale/projects/darkroom-residency-2024
FIGHTING FISH – produced by HOLLY BIRTLES during the residency
Holly reflects on her work inspired by the Thames River and Estuary, where performers embody ‘Thames Monsters.’ In Chennai, she engages with the Adyar and Cooum rivers, exploring sentimentality, myth, care, and destruction. Her work juxtaposes environmental ecologies with personal responses to the sites, highlighting the paradox between devotion to sacred rivers and the environmental toxicity caused by anthropocentric activity. The project ‘Fighting Fish’ symbolizes the intertwining of magnificence and grotesque, leading to semi-fictitious life forms that reflect the complex relationship between people, rivers, and creatures. Birtles uses analogue photography and AI, collaborating and subverting the Mid Journey dataset through experimental silver gelatine printing. Below are some of the exhibits from the Alt:Analog exhibition at the Forum Art Gallery.
In addition to lecturing in the School of Art and Media Holly Birtles (above) is a London based artist, her work incorporates photography, performance, and prop production through digital and analogue processes. Exploring ecological crises, myth, and personal narratives, she connects performance to place. Recent projects of Holly’s integrate AI and darkroom techniques, responding to slow violence, ecological destruction, myth and sentimentality associated with selected rivers. Holly exhibits internationally, collaborating with writers, visual artists, and musicians.
The work of the Chennai Photo Biennale’s exhibition in Forum Art Gallery had reach as featured in the India Press:
Work Holly Birtles