Darkness Visible
The Queensland Centre for Photography (QCP) is a non-profit organisation established in 2002, devoted to providing a voice for local artists working with photography. The organisation’s gallery space has developed with leaps and bounds since it opened in May 2004 and it has been home to monthly exhibitions by local, interstate and international artists, which provide a broad snapshot of current photographic practice. Included in a recent group of five solo exhibitions were Tai Spruyt’s photographic explorations of urban landscapes.
Spruyt’s exhibition featured twelve photographs from the ‘Darkness Visible’ series, which were all shot at night using extended exposure and taking advantage of the failure of daylight film. The project of this series is the literal act of making visible that which we cannot usually see. The darkness of night is predominantly impenetrable to the human eye and when seen, colours are dull, muted and appear as shades close to black. Using her camera Spruyt reveals the mystery of night and the spectrum of colours on offer beyond our perception. The works could almost be glamour photography for urban industrial sites. These sites, which in daytime exude a roughness and are characterised by limited colour palettes, here glow with rich colours, at times artificial, but always astonishing in their range and depth.
The skies across the series display a multitude of colours and are a particular point of interest. In one work, the deep blue sky is more brilliant than many experienced in daytime, and another aquamarine expanse of sky would be more familiar in an underwater setting. In contrast to the blues, there are a number of red, purple and orange mixes, which ironically are created by the smog