Dominic Rouse
Classic Joinings
through May 2, 2003

English photographer Dominic Rouse presents his collection of unique imagery in the CPA gallery for six weeks during March and April.

In his most recent exhibition at the Benham Gallery in Seattle, Washington, Rouse had the opportunity to show the dark silver shadows of his surrealist inspired work with fellow artists Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor. Now at the Center, he will exhibit an even greater number of his strangely dream-like photomontages.

Rouse has been working in this style for many years. He begins with making sets or environments as a backdrop for the final image. he then creates the next layer

or layers frequently using the female figure as the subject, then combining them via the computer, with the end result being a silver print derived from a digital film-recorded negative. These are flawless images with the visual presence of traditional large format presentation. Perhaps this intense visual acuity is the cornerstone of the work; it helps us to believe that what we are looking at is more real than is possible.

Dominic takes us down many roads of his imagination. Thay are not well lit and are seemingly steeped in a dark past with personal issues too numerous to mention. The recurring theme of religion plays a major part in the images' metamorphoses. Religious sites and ritual symbols weave their way through the cloth of this body of work.

The work is open and honest with an elegant use of technology smoothly merging with the creative flow from an artist of the 21st century.