Output details

‘Dialogue' was a group exhibition that included Chorlton's double-sided diptychs 'Quinconces' and 'Across the River', four large paintings on paper suspended from the roof, and the 'Bordeaux Sequence', a series of small paintings. All were developed from images of Bordeaux. Derived from old and new photographs, they create a sort of filmic walk around the city, to filter the tourist gaze through individual experience and the act of making. The invited exhibition built on previous exchanges between artists in Birmingham and Bordeaux. The participating artists, the Dialogue group (Graham Chorlton, Dr Myfanwy Johns, Peter Grego, Joss Burke and Tom Ranahan), were asked to create new work as a response to Bordeaux for the 2010 Art Chartrons Festival. They were given the Halle de Chartrons, a 19th century market hall, to create the keynote exhibition for the festival

Chorlton produced two sets of work: ‘Bordeaux Sequence’, nine small paintings hung on the outer walls of the octagonal building, and a set of 3-metre long hangings suspended from the roof, ‘Quinconces’ and ‘Across the River’. ‘Bordeaux Sequence’ allowed for exploration of the use of images placed in sequence, each image adding to an accumulated sense of moving through a city in space and time. This created an implied narrative, as in film, but with meaning or logic withheld, creating feelings of displacement and longing. The hangings pictured present-day Bordeaux, echoing the city outside the exhibition. These presented a challenge in terms of scale; their sculptural presence in the room, hanging in space and painted both sides, was emphatically physical. The viewing of the paintings, especially close-to, was immersive; viewed alongside ‘Bordeaux Sequence’ the viewer moved in and out of space and time, both literally and metaphorically.

Both sets of work allowed for extended exploration of painted surfaces, of the relationship between the painted mark and the image depicted. This development of a personal expressive painting language using a sense of place is part of the contemporary painting agenda which foregrounds the formal properties of painting itself, such as composition and colour, informed by the personal experience of the painter, to create new representational possibilities for the medium.

The exhibition was opened by the British Consul, reached an audience of around 1,500, and featured on local television. The project received a grant of just under £10,000 from Arts Council England. The link between the British and French artists has continued, with an exhibition of French artists at the Article Gallery, Birmingham City University, and the Dialogue group’s curation of a space at ‘Allotment’ for MAC Birmingham in 2012, which included work from both groups.