** TROLLEY GALLERY ** Sur les Traces

Sur les TracesPatti SmithSun 26 Nov 2006 - Mon 08 Jan 2007

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'Sur les Traces' featured polaroid prints taken by the artist and donated to Trolley to raise awareness and funds for the publication of Double Blind, a book on the war in Lebanon in 2006, with photographs by Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin.

They capture fleeting perceptions of objects and ephemeral moments connected to such poets and writers as Blake, Rimbaud, Hesse, Woolf, Keats and Victor Hugo. Smith visited London to take part in a celebration marking the anniversary of the birth of William Blake, the poet and artist she has long been inspired by, and also performed poetry at St James's Church, where he was baptized, on behalf of The Blake Society. The exhibition was the first step in a wider collaboration between Trolley, Patti Smith and Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin, aimed at publishing Pellegrin's photographs of the 34 day conflict in Lebanon. The photographs intimately capture the fear and powerlessness of the Lebanese population in the face of the ceaseless Israeli air strikes, revealing the terror and despair of families and friends witnessing the deaths of their loved ones, whilst around them their homes, hospitals, roads and entire infrastructure were destroyed. In particular Pellegrin also documented the aftermath of the attack on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon; many of the victims children, his photographs reveal the immense suffering of the civilians involved.

Alongside his work exposing the consequences of indiscriminate attacks on a civilian population, the book features a 3000-word account by Scott Anderson, the journalist who accompanied Pellegrin in Lebanon, and the words of Patti Smith, who has written a song titled after the village, Qana. Her words appear interspersed among the photographs.

Pellegrin and Anderson were both wounded in a missile attack by an Israeli drone, which fired on their vehicle as they travelled through the city of Tyre. Along with the civilians of southern Lebanon, they were stranded for weeks under heavy bombing and air strikes by the IDF.

'There's no one

in the village

not a human

nor a stone

there's no one

in the village

children are gone

and a mother rocks

herself to sleep

let it come down

let her weep'.

Patti Smith, from 'Qana'

http://www.pattismith.net

www.pattismith.net