Title: The Universal Now: National Gallery 1985/1988

Date: 2010

Medium: Cut and folded book pages

Dimensions: 31.1 x 35.1 cm (framed)

Title: The Universal Now: National Gallery 1974/2000

Date: 2012

Medium: Cut and folded book pages

Dimensions: 37.2 x 36.7 cm (framed)

Artist: Abigail Reynolds

Exhibition: Path of Conjunction, 2026

From artist:

The Universal Now is a series of three-dimensional collages, composed of imagery sourced from publications such as guide books. The works, which the artist calls sculptures, combine photographs of familiar landscapes or monuments, enmeshing them in a process of splicing and joining. Cuts are made into the printed surface and the paper is folded and pushed upwards and outwards, creating a three dimensional object, a grid-like construction that changes and moves with your perspective, underlining your presence as a viewer. Within these pieces parts of the images line up uncannily, perhaps where a landmark building remains, but the environs have often changed, underlining the passage of time.

The series title refers to the instant when the camera shutter opens and closes, often years apart, but both moments register a ‘now’. The precise nature of ‘now’, which is debated in many fields from psychology to physics, isn’t resolved within these works, however the objects are infused with an overriding awareness of time, as the viewer also encounters these pieces within their own separate present. Each photographer has arrested in a different moment in the flow of time, and cutting the images together creates a gap between the two that untethers each from the instant of their capture.

Website:

https://abigailreynolds.com/

Instagram:

@abigailreynoldsartist