Now showing at the Beacon Arts Centre are two very different photography exhibitions by Greenock-based photographer, Garth Ivan – portraiture in ‘The Artists & Craftsmen of Inverclyde’ and a series titled ‘The Liturgy of The Moons’, which combines fashion and story-telling.
Ivan, originally from the United States and now living in Inverclyde, works both in Scotland and New York. I was fortunate to have a guided tour of the shows with him, giving insights into these two sets of work, and I learned that these have both been personal and self-directed projects, the briefs for them coming out of the photographer’s own imagination.
The Liturgy of the Moons brings together ‘fashion and celestial mythology’. When asked as to how this project came about, Garth explained that in late 2023 he became very ill and couldn’t make any work for a number of months. When he started to feel better, he found renewed creative energy and gave himself free rein to get back into the studio and just do anything. He has said of the project, ‘It is really about the magical side of photography and celebrating my craft.’
In the upstairs gallery are the resulting ten large prints in the series, each of a single figure, in beautiful black & white. The photographer has taken a short poem as his starting point, with characters from Norse, Greek and Japanese mythologies providing titles for these story-telling images. No faces of the figures are visible, all being covered, either in part or completely, by fabrics, and so each picture has an air of mystery about it.
Garth gathered the clothing and props used in this series from a variety of sources, hand-lettering some of the clothes himself, and in their skilful combination he has at one level achieved the look of a high-fashion shoot and at another, a painterly quality of texture and layering. For light and composition inspiration for this project, he references the ‘exceptional’ photography works of the duo Sarah Cooper & Nina Gorfer, and of Trine Søndergaard, but does say that more usually he would look to the work of painters for that inspiration. Garth explains also that in part, the inspiration for doing something with a celestial theme is rooted in his family background, his father being a radio astronomer and his stepfather a radio mast engineer.
In Europa Tends To Her Oceans and Bides Her Time, the figure’s arm-shaping and the contours of its gown are angular in form, with echoes of Alexander McQueen, and the qualities of the lighting are exceptional, as are the subtleties in tones. Here, as in all these large digital images, the quality of print in the blacks and grey tones is quite remarkable.
Each viewer will form their own ideas about this cast of characters. In At The Frozen Outer Boundary, Hydra Guards The Entrance To The Next Life, to me the shaping of the fabric in the figure’s face-covering is projecting a feline character, and there is an atmosphere of foreboding to the overall image.
There are unquestionably painterly qualities in the whole series of images. In Enceladus, In Eclipse, Weeps Icy, Frustrated Tears once again, the lighting of the subject and the tones and textures brought out in the fabrics of the garments demonstrate the photographer’s great skill. Garth was keen to say that as far as possible, photo effects in these images were produced in the camera itself rather than with photo-editing afterwards; part of his learning with this project was in the experimentation to achieve these results, and he passionately believes in continuing to further his skills as a photographer rather than move towards the use of AI technologies.
In The Artists & Craftsmen of Inverclyde, there are twenty portraits of current artists and craftspeople, highlighting a thriving arts presence in the area. A lot is happening artistically and creatively in Inverclyde, with pop-up gallery spaces in vacant shops showcasing local artists and craftspeople, along with a number of local galleries and art and craft outlets, and, as well as the Beacon, Greenock is home to the recently-opened Wyllieum gallery. Garth has his studio in the nearby Greenock Workshops, and amongst his series of portraits he has captured friends and fellow studio tenants from there.
While some subjects were known to the photographer beforehand, others became known to him as the project progressed, through the interconnectedness of the creative community. Many of them are working in re-purposed industrial, commercial and religious buildings in the area and such facilities are continuing to be developed across Inverclyde. Most photos were shot in the studio, and amongst the subjects are artists and makers working across a wide range of disciplines, including an architect, a film-maker, painters, a sculptor, a photographer, a jeweller and a stained-glass artist.
Each photograph has an accompanying informative biographical text. Glimpses into what the subjects do have encouraged this viewer to go on to find out more about their work and it’s hugely positive that by being seen by all visitors to the Beacon, this show is bringing these local artists and craftspeople to the attention of a wider public.
Among the portraits I particularly enjoyed were Ann Campbell, master kiltmaker – I like that Ann is immersed in tartan in the photo’s composition, the Campbell tartan appropriately.
In the portrait of Jason Orr, art director and sculptor,a multiple exposure emphasises the multi-faceted nature of his work. This inventive multiple image almost has the characteristics of a lenticular image when you see it on the wall.
Willie Sutherland’s portrait perfectly echoes the playfulness of Willie’s art works. Garth confirms that Willie was up for a very relaxed approach to a portrait! The colourful backcloth painted by Garth makes a nod to one of Willie’s paintings.
With the outlines of one of his signature paint-pours used to overlay the image of this visual artist, a double exposure has been used in the portrait of Craig Black, referencing the unique element of his multi-coloured art works which use footballs and football boots.
The black and white image of furniture maker David Watson conveys something of the Bauhaus movement, with David holding different sections of wood in a sculptural grouping, and having his eyes closed somehow signals that he is thinking about forms he is going to create.
The portrait of Bruce Newlands, community architect, seems to convey to me great energy and an engaging friendly nature in the sitter.
The portrait of documentarian Jane McAllister was taken on location in the hills above Greenock. Garth recalls that all the work in preparing the shot was in setting-up the lighting while Jane waited in the car, and when that was all set, shooting the pictures took only a few minutes. I think this setting and composition would be good for a painting too, Garth’s ‘painter’s eye’ evident here.
Garth expressed his appreciation for the encouragement of the Beacon’s Guest Curator Fraser Taylor throughout the preparation of the two projects. He hopes to add to the portraits series in the near future, and has the aim that both of the exhibitions here may be shown at further locations. I very much hope that this will happen, but for now, I recommend a visit to the Beacon to see these fine photographs up close.
Entry to the exhibitions is free. More of Garth Ivan’s work can be seen on his website.
With thanks to Artmag contributor Gordon Reid for this review, and to Lisa McRuvie from the Beacon and to Garth Ivan for all their kind help.
