Presented as a 60-metre banner, the Hard Rain exhibition has been shown at over 50 venues around the world including botanic gardens, museums and city parks in East and West Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa, Australia and America.
So why is Hard Rain so stunning and so moving, and why does it feel so right? Part of the answer, of course, lies in the qual
ity of the visual images, mostly by Edwards himself, but also by Sebastião Salgado, Chris Steele-Perkins and other photographers.
But the thematic bundling of these images with Dylan’s song could still seem gauche or exploitative were it not for two factors. The most important of these is the sheer brilliance of the dialogue Edwards has created between the words and the images, the way they synthesise into some third form that combines the stillness of a picture with the urgency of a ballad. Edwards’ conjunctions are so carefully and thoughtfully constructed that they enforce on the viewer a kind of tact that wards off mere voyeurism.
Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times
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