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Since
childhood Noemi Otamendi has had an insistent impulse to produce
images of horses. It is a subject matter that has occurred repeatedly
in her work as an artist and which she returns to in this exhibition.
The work in 'Kabàlles' is concerned directly with the
compelling nature of fascination itself.
Otamendi's
photographic work is the creative opportunity to think of ourselves
outside our personal identity. The horse is explored and displayed
as the 'opposite', the non-human subject, appearing like an imagined
mythical beast.
In
these large-scale photographs, Otamendi focuses on details; eyes,
nostrils, the tops of limbs; framing them in extreme close up.
Body parts are abstracted and the subject is created in an exercise
of re-assembling the fragments. The effect is disorientating.
The works are displayed in groups of twos and threes, creating
a sense of fractured movement. Sensuous at first viewing, the
images are both familiar and unsettling. We recognise the shapes
but cannot quite form the whole creature in our minds. She causes
us to consider the strangeness of this animal and our relationship
to it.
Noemi
Otamendi was born in La Coruña, Spain. She studied Fine
Arts at the University of Pontevedra and after gaining a 'Fundacion
Barrie de la Maza-British Council' Scholarship she completed
an MA in Photographic Studies at the University of Westminster.
She has exhibited widely in Spain and in London.
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