Georgina McNamara

Profile/CV

My work has always dealt with emotional susceptibilities and our relationship to the world. Lodged awkwardly between photography and performance art, my current series ‘Performances’ includes staged sequences to re-create actions. Generally involving a figure in unremarkable surroundings, everyday qualities keep the action firmly rooted in reality. With certain elements of slapstick and the absurd, a quiet humour is used to observe the small unreported routines and tragedies of our day-to-day lives.

Using strong physical and sculptural elements, my work consistently deals with the body.  Miniscule decisions around how much of ourselves we chose to reveal to others and how much we retain, are something we all control on a daily basis. Relating to the idea of persona or the image of character and personality that somebody chooses to show the outside world, these black and white self-portraits playfully refer to aspects of visibility, privacy, masking and disappearance and the minor contradictions which occur within these. 

Growing up around my father, a newspaper cartoonist who worked from home, the nagging fascination I have for sequences is now visible in my work. Emphasizing a performative quality, this sequential format now stretches time. Nuances of body movements, normally eclipsed by fast-paced action, are accentuated while still images operate as animated objects. With the implicit flow of simple actions progressing frame by frame comes a cinematic feel.  An open-ended quality enables multiple interpretations.

Directly influenced by Muybridge, Baldessari, Arnatt and more recently Nadar, the performative elements of emotions are re-made for the camera.  By re-appropriating imagery from the past, I mean to draw attention to the very different ideas contained within the selected frames.

Georgina McNamara Is based in London

2011:  MA Fine Art: Central Saint Martins London

2008:  PG Cert Photography: Central Saint Martins London

2011:  

Bloomberg New Contemporaries: In the Presence: ICA London

The London Group Open Exhibition: The Cello Factory London

Bloomberg New Contemporaries: Site Gallery & SI Artspace Sheffield

MA Fine Art Degree Show: Central Saint Martins London

Photomedia Open Salon: Charlie Dutton Gallery London 

Salon Photo Prize: Matt Roberts Arts Project Space London

The New Pretenders: MA Interim Show: Bargehouse London                

Website www.georginamcnamara.com