Siân Pile
London
Photographic artist
'In Memory' The Playground, The Beach, The Sand Dunes, The Walk (2006). My images operate in the half open spaces between the private and the public, observing the mysterious undercurrents of family life. The sites I photograph are significant for a variety of reasons - the scene of an argument, of tenderness, of anxiety. They are moments that emanate outside the regular flow of time. The absence of horizons or their claustrophobic closeness means that space can become ambiguous, time collapses, landscape becomes symbolic. They are a form by which I can record and memorise perceptions. Seeing and memory are defensive operations. In reworking and reediting memories it is possible to breach the order of reality to emphasise psychological intensity. Looking is a form of cognition, a complex and untrustworthy process. Through acknowledging the fragmentary relationship between reality, memory and image, it is possible to re-examine the past and re-create it, as writers create stories with reference to their own lives. In this process my family become 'the family', my child becomes 'the child'. They have become memories filled with colour, toxic and illusive as fantasy. The Glass House (2005-7) This is an ongoing series of images in which I enclose the viewer within the tightly constricting boundaries of a glass house, to create ambiguous, dreamlike spaces. The absence of an horizon encourages an abstract, painterly quality. There is an underlying sense of decay and corruption which sits uneasily alongside the ephemeral beauty of the butterflies and the lush vegetation.
Qualifications and training
2006 - MA Photography, London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle
2004 - PGC Professional Practice Photography (Distinction), St Martin's, Charing Cross Road
1982 - BA (Hons) Textiles, Goldsmith's College, Camberwell
Solo exhibitions
2008 - Sian Pile, Domobaal, John Street, London
Group exhibitions
2008 - Family Archives Lost and Found (funded by the British Council), Skolska 28, Prague
2008 - Through the Lens, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2008 - Welsh Photography 2008, Howard Gardens Gallery, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
2007 - Christmas Show, Art and Architecture, 129 Kew Road, Richmond
2007 - Gesture: Subject and Object, On line exhibition curated by Clare Grafik, www.axisweb.org
2007 - 'I Know You Once Had Hairdos', curated by Damian Thompson, Islington Arts Factory, Islington
2007 - MAP Reading, curated by Wiebke Leister, Bielefeld University, Germany
2007 - MA'S All, Stroud House Gallery, Stroud
2007 - The Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, Piccadilly
2006 - Arts Exhibition , National Eisteddfod, Swansea, Wales
2006 - MA Interim Show, London College of Communication, London
2006 - MA Photography Final Show, London College of Communication, London
2005 - 24, Soho Square, London
2005 - Family Archive: Lost and Found, curated by Val Williams, Eckersley Gallery, London College of Communication, London
2005 - Unfinished, Pavement Gallery, London College of Communication, London
2005 - Works on Paper, RK Burt, London
2004 - 24, Mezzo, Wardour St., London
Artist talks
2008 - Family Archives Lost and Found, Skolska 28, Prague
2006 - Just One Image, Photography and the Archive, LCC, London
2005 - Family Archive: Lost and Found, London College of Communication, London
Corporate commissions
2007 - Platinum prints for Halliwell's law firm, New building to be completed in December, Manchester
Competitions, prizes and awards
2008 - Artists Access into Art Colleges, funded by the Arts Council, England, Central Saint Martins Fine Art Department, London
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