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(British, b. 1964)
Biography
Intuitive, balletic and breathtaking,
Robert Davies presents moments in football history that are hard to ignore. The artist’s cropped and unclear images - some almost unrecognisable - are enriched with trivial match data on the back, and by giving each work short catchy titles he brings back the experience to the viewer, again and again. It is one part of a practice where Davies explores the opposing properties of the camera lens and the human lens; ultimately relying on the memory of the viewer to add clarity to an image. Five photographs from the series
‘Epiphany’ were part of the ‘FIFA 100’ exhibition in 2004; a show highlighting football as an artform of itself.
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Davies’ fascination with the power of the short vivid moment goes back to the early nineties when he studied for his MA in photography at Royal College of Art in London. In the artist’s practice the still image acts as a capsule of some sort where time is confined, only to reignite timeless memories.
Later series by Davies show clouds formations; stars on the night-sky captured in movement by his camera set with a long exposure; and a video shot from the front of a commuter train destined for Aberystwyth, his hometown in Wales. All are works where each viewer will have unique and personal references, showing the world in a way it cannot be reproduced by the memory itself due to the inevitable passing of time.
At the height of the EUFA Euro cup in England during the summer of 1996 Davies started on a series which would exemplify his practice. Recognising that most matches can be condensed into a few short and important moments - the ones that people talk about the next day and for years to come - he scrutinised and uncovered decisive moments from the history of World Cups. The images produced by Davies are a long way from the crisp stills that are normally shown in the media. Instead, they are saturated in colour, cropped and blurred, often appearing as photographs shot from live broadcasts straight of the television screen. At first glance these works may not seem as much, but to the spectators whom were present at the time, they are epiphanies - and reconnecting to a range of emotions.
By 2005, ‘Epiphany’ concluded as a series comprising of more than two hundred works and giftedly marks numerous memorable matches from seventeen championships between 1930 and 2002. They are images showing a narrative of excitement, drama and intrigue. Elements that make up the best stories, whether it is a novel or a game played on a grassy pitch.
For almost four decades Davies’s varied body of works have been exhibited widely. The significance of
‘Epiphany’ in his practice stands out with three of the more than twenty solo shows being dedicated to the series, as well as the presence in many international group shows, including the ‘Pelé Collection’ by Eyestorm, which also consisted of photographs by Ralph Gibson, William Klein, Martin Parr, Marc Quinn and others. Ten years after graduating with an MA in photography from RCA in London, Davies was made Fellow of the Royal College of Arts in 2003. Today, the artist lives and works in Wales.
To mark FIFA’s centennial celebration and the popular opinion that football is an art form of itself, Eyestorm turned to
Robert Davies. A series of five prints by the British photographer were part of the official ‘FIFA 100’ exhibition at Eyestorm, which opened on the 2nd of June 2004 and coincided with the UEFA Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal.