PROLOGUE By Appointment Only is an exhibition of new work by David Osbaldeston which makes use of the interior spaces of the gallery office usually out of view from the visiting public. This working environment forms the backdrop for his second exhibition at Matt's Gallery where specific objects are sited to echo their spatial relationship to time.

The works on display are depictions of private view cards reproduced as unique intaglio etchings. The graphic features of each preview card have been meticulously transferred into a unique hand-produced print. By elevating the objects to a status for which they were never originally intended (as artworks in themselves) the works represent the affirmation of a one to one encounter.

In a seemingly quixotic attempt to achieve a sense of permanence from the most marginal and transient subject matter, the works are embedded into the office architecture, placing them in proximity to the living accumulation of office and artistic life. The gallery furniture; a double cupboard, along with its contents and fittings is transformed into a display case.

Putting aside any voyeuristic connotations, a 'private view' in continental parlance is known as a vernissage (varnishing) a term of translation that neatly transposes a physical or visual process into an event. Private view cards are regularly mass printed for museums, institutions & galleries, acting like a miniaturized time-sensitive monument to a future cultural event. Those selected here for etching have been taken from the previous years' stream of artistic production and transformed into 12 intaglio prints, each representing a month within a calendar year.

Bookings to view the work are currently being taken, please call the gallery office on 07741 313941 to make a weekday appointment. Osbaldeston's work is known for its recurring interest in the re-adjustment or transformation of pre-existing subject matter that often undergo a number of reproduction processes which defy the logic of conventional methods of communication. His work often takes a sideways glance into established forms of communication where the 'familiar' is often re-imagined and re-constructed.