A new exhibition by conceptual artist Alexandra Lethbridge explores visual deception.
The Construction of Truth is showing at City Space, Winchester, until 18 November.
Lethbridge works with photography and installation.
Her practice includes the use of found and appropriated imagery, sculpture and moving-image.
Recurring themes are deception, misdirection, misinformation, visual truth and the cognitive processing and consumption of information.
The Construction of Truth explores visual deception through gesture and body language and considers the differences between spoken and expressed languages.
Post-truth society
“Successful communication needs both verbal and physical expression and must be joined together through the act of understanding,” says Lethbridge.
“Non-verbal communication is defined by gesture and body language and makes up a large part of how we interpret and misinterpret each other.
“This includes clues to how we lie to each other.
“A lie is to make a false statement with a deliberate intent to deceive and history suggests humanity learnt this art of deception not long after spoken language first emerged.”
Lethbridge says we now live in a ‘post-truth society’ where alternative facts and falsehoods are a regular occurence.
This culture of fake news confirms our need to adapt our visual literacy to recognise mistruths.
The Path of an Honest Man, featured in The Construction of Truth, explores this concept.
It looks at visual deception through gesture and body language, considering the differences between spoken and expressed languages.
The work looks to the archetype of the 1950s salesman for inspiration.
“By understanding a time where methods of persuasion were taught and mastered, the work questions whether lying and deception is a visual code, one that could be understood and ultimately mastered,” says Lethbridge.
Alexandra Lethbridge
Alexandra Lethbridge is a conceptual artist working with photography and installation.
Drawn to ambiguities and interpretations, she explores how we consume visual culture.
Lethbridge bases her work with scientific research, contrasting this objective theory with experimental image-making.
The Meteorite Hunter was shortlisted for the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award.
Lethbridge graduated from the University of Brighton with a masters in photography.
Previous education included Winchester School of Art and the International Center of Photography in New York.
Alongside her practice, Alexandra is a lecturer in photography at Southampton Solent University.
She is also digital programme producer for Photoworks.
Exhibition information
The Construction of Truth is on at City Space, Winchester Discovery Centre, until 18 November.
It includes works from The Path of an Honest Man series alongside wider research material from Lethbridge’s archive.
For more information, visit hampshireculture.org.uk/event/construction-truth.