Exhibition Review (Extract):

Broadsheet Online, 2011
Conor O'Brien, The Last White Cloud at Block Projects
By Dan Rule

Across a suite of seven photographs, he translates a mountainous, alpine landscape into something immediate and emotive. What might be interpreted as atmosphere or spaciousness assumes a kind of loaded presence.

In one work, a cragged rock formation juts out of the snow, towering like a sculpture, a hero piece. It is permanent and powerful. In another, a blizzard engulfs a mountainside, a cluster of boulders and a barbed wire fence barely visible through the cloud of falling ice. It is a moment, an instant, a fleeting vantage. What lies in front of our eyes, O’Brien seems to stipulate, has the potential to disappear at any moment. Another work sees a flash throw a short span of light across a darkened forest path. What lies beyond the blinding flare of soil and pine is unknown. It is a moment, condensed and contained.

Two of strongest works feature a young man and woman, each silhouetted against a lake and mountainous backdrop, their backs turned to the lens. That we avoid their gaze is crucial. They are signifiers of an experience shared, of an intimacy.