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Press Release
Exhibition: Irremovable Signs
Venue: City Atrium
Dates: 29 March – 12 May 2006
Author: Emma Elia-Shaul

“The shadow is the very prototype of the irremovable sign. It is undetachable from, co-existent and simultaneous with the object it duplicates”
Victor I. Stoichita A Short History of the Shadow

The forthcoming exhibition at City Atrium features recent photographic work by British artist Eva Bensasson.

Irremovable Signs will include large-scale images of well-known city landmarks such as Oxford Circus and Trafalgar Square. Although familiar, these spaces are imbued with an uncanny sense of dislocation and detachment. Through digitally manipulating the image, Bensasson has blacked out the people or crowds who inhabit these historic public spaces, creating a sense of stasis and disconnect between the built environment and the population who pass through it. Individuality is clearly delineated, yet is completely denied through the body’s total submersion back into the solid pool of blackness which now comprises its outlined form.

As well as questioning the status of the individual within the state as a whole, the relationship between subject and object is thrown into relief as both remain dependent on each other within a constant cycle of negation and delineation. Separate and immobilised, each remains in a perfect balance of survival and denial.

It is through this aesthetic process that Bensasson reveals much of the nature of human social behaviour within the public space, and the way in which these environments influence this dynamic.

Irremovable Signs is Part I of a continuing project by Eva Bensasson which looks at the place of the individual within society. Part II of this project will be exhibited at City Atrium in the autumn.After finishing her Foundation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Eva Bensasson went on to complete a B.A. in Fine Art at Kingston University. She completed her M.A. in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 1997.

Her work has featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally, and is included in several notable public and private Collections.Based within the Atrium of the School of Social Sciences building at City University, City Atrium provides a programme of cross-disciplinary work by established and emerging artists. Projects created for City Atrium will work with and react to the dramatic architecture of the space.