Stephen Giblett – Low Fidelity

In his first solo exhibition at Anna Pappas Gallery, Low Fidelity, Stephen Giblett draws a parallel between Lo-Fi (low fidelity) music and Lo-Res (low resolution) imagery from iPhone screen-shots and the Internet.

Low Fidelity or ‘Lo-Fi’ is a term commonly used to describe a type of music that contains technical flaws, often due to poor quality or low budget recording equipment. The Lo-Fi aesthetic often reveals something about the time and place in which the music was recorded and it is considered by some to be a more ‘authentic’ than High Fidelity recordings.

Giblett believes that the technical flaws in the original files provide avenues for creativity. They create a distance between the ‘idea’ of what is seen and what is actually presented – a shift from idealistic photorealism towards the freedoms found in abstraction.

In Low Fidelity, Giblett will present a new series of oil on linen paintings in a range of sizes. Giblett’s smooth brush strokes create a distinct blurring effect as his sumptuous colours blend and morph into one another. The viewer’s eye traverses the canvas, trying to find a focal point, taking in one out of focus form, one patch of colour after the next, in a glorious mediation on the beauty of the Lo-Res.