Lucien Rizos - 'A man of His Time' - photospace Gallery, 25 July-22 August 2020

Lucien Rizos, from 'A man of his time'. Exhibition showing at Photospace Gallery, 25 July to 22 August 2020

We're having a Saturday opening for Lucien's exhibition, 11.30am to 2pm on the 25th of July. You are most welcome to come along.
Photospace Gallery has held solo exhibitions by Lucien Rizos in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2014.
Note: new gallery hours are 10am-3pm Monday-Friday, 11am-2pm Saturdays.

A Man of His Time

My Uncle Gerald was born in 1924, and died in 2017. Shortly  after his death his wife, my Aunt Fausta, suffered a severe stroke. She is now in the hospital ward of Rita Angus retirement home.

 These four bookcases are in their house which has remained unoccupied for two and a half years. 
… the contents of the bookcases show the specific reading of a liberal person of his time and place.

I have made these photographs, plus others which also appear in some of the magazines, over a long period, ... since December 2017.

This  exhibition is small portion of a larger project, …
…..of which the magazines play an important part.

- Lucien Rizos, July 2020

Magazines by Lucien Rizos. Set A on the left (yellow stickers), Set B on the right (red stickers)

The Larger Project

Gerald hoarded/collected every scrap of work he considered worth saving, from  infancy onward.
The collection of magazines is in 2 parts:
       (A) Eight of the magazines  deal with  a fictional world he created, from infancy onward, seemingly just for himself. Imaginary countries, detailed maps of these imaginary countries, wars between these countries, Governments and armed forces of these countries, and boxes filled with cutouts of the imaginary people that were in the administrations and leaders of these imaginary countries. This was created at a time when Europe was in flux. The Second World War had started when he was only 15 years old.
[The displayed magazines marked with yellow stickers - Set A.]

 This project was probably wound up sometime in the 1970’s.

If looked at closely, everything seems to be  connected.   

Gerald was a very public man, known and respected in his time, yet no one in his family, or even his wife knew of his imaginary world.  Why this was created is a mystery.

       (B) Almost all the content in the remaining seven magazines is from Gerald’s collection of objects and photos; except for the images I have made over a two-and-a-half year period when the house was unoccupied.

They act as slivers of content  looking into a life over time; a wide range of  different aspects, subjects, interests and pursuits. [The displayed magazines marked with red stickers - Set B.]

…this is an ongoing project.

- Lucien Rizos, July 2020

In Oct-Dec 2022, The Adam Gallery at Victoria University of Wellington exhibited of an expandedversion of this  project, titled 'Everything'.

Below: the other three photographs in the exhibition 'A an of his time'