SALVE

SALVE (a romanesque greeting) is a series of works made over the past four years during research trips to Italy to visit examples of early renaissance (photographic) painting. Questions and doubts of faith are central to these new works - can universal structures or systems of visual and harmonic arrangement cast any light on the slippery particularity of photography in its ever expanding communicative reach? Although there seems to be some agreement that there can no longer be such grand old narratives as used to orient us, there is also the inherent notion that narratives-as-such are still necessary for orientation. What are the stories that we tell ourselves now, and how could an engagement with the visual illuminate our new dark age?

David James Grinly’s work is about the photographic - using photography as a central orienting medium his practice expands into painting, writing and music.

David works as a lecturer in Critical Studies and as a Research Associate, and worked for ten years as a photographer. His approach balances technical understanding with theoretical and philosophical insight, one being as important to his practice as the other.

Defining his work via a series of balances, contradictions and negations he describes it as “...theoretical rather than conceptual, theological rather than therapeutic, ethical and legal rather than logical or political, and metaphysical rather than epistemological.”, and describes the central themes of his practice as “photos, faith and love.”

www.davidjamesgrinly.com