Outer Space / Krystyna Ziach, text by Alexandra Noble,
Catalogue, 32 pages, published by The South Bank Centre, 1991, London
Outer Space, a national touring exhibition in UK 1992-1991 from the South Bank Centre Londen in collaboration with the Laing Art Gallery and Projects UK, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, curated by Alexandra Noble & Yve Lomax
Alexandra Noble is art historian, former curator of the South Bank Centre and former director of the Estorick Museum in London.

Krystyna Ziach spent two months in Japan in 1987. Shinto, The Way of the Sacred Spirits,The Anatomy of a Big Buddha and Infinity were selected for this exhibition because they all relate to the religions of Zen Buddhism and Shinto. In keeping with the tenets of the spiritual systems, we are presented with images in which nothing is cluttered or superfluous. The placing of the figure of the artist in the side panels of Shinto, The Way of the Sacred Spirits presents an abstraction and integration of the human with the spiritual. The configurations of sand and pebbles are a new development extending the wall works onto the floor of the gallery; a sound tape increases the sense of calm and meditation present in the works.
When surrounded by these elements one is reminded of the words of Carl Andre who said: ...the Japanese have for centuries been concerned with this matter of place - their gardens of various kinds, the raked sand and stones gardens /.. /these are places charged with great calm and a great feeling that, if one cannot really contain the universe, perhaps in one’s mind, one of these gardens gives the very secure feeling /../.one is contained within the universe...*
This installation contains the viewer within a European artist’s experience of another culture. While Ziach’s “migration” to Japan was temporary, the presentation of elements resonates with more than a series of impressions; it is photography’s illusions that powerfully give us a sense of the sacred here. The infinity of tiny Buddhas reflected in a mirror on the floor metaphorically suggests how another culture cannot be quantified.
*Carl Andre Sculpture 1959-1978 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1978

8 photo & video installations by :
Judith Barry
Ania Bien
Geneviève Cadieux
Willy Doherty
Ulrich Görlich
Jeffrey Shaw
Susan Trangmar
Krystyna Ziach

Exhibition tour:
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
28 September – 17 November 1991
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
30 November – 19 January 1992
Camden Arts Centre, London
20 March – 26 April 1992
Arnolfini, Bristol
23 may – 28 June 1992