Exhibition at Viewfinder Gallery: Make Your Mark

Exhibition dates: 14 to 31 January 2010Photographers: Naomi Stannard, Anna Hindocha & Ioana Marinescu,Curator: Louise Forrester.

'Make Your Mark' brings together the striking work of three photographers – each series explores how the placing of a mark in an environment recreates the space. Marks are documented at three very different scales: in cupboards, in rooms and across cities.

Naomi Stannard's series 'The House I Once Called Home' documents her childhood home, and the ways in which personal belongings transform a built space into a home. By photographing each meticulously labeled cupboard, the artist creates her own archive, and in effect, a portrait of her family through their own marking.

Anna Hindocha's work investigates the personal and political use of urban space in London. The artist photographs modifications made to rooms by their inhabitants, from eccentric workshops to murals in squatted social centres. Her series 'The People's City' examines manipulated spaces that appear static, but through their physical modifications speak of history and activity.

Architectural photographer Ioana Marinescu's documentation of gas pipes in Romania reveals how the insertion of a line changes the perception of a space completely. The pipes can be seen as inadvertent municipal branding, as the yellow line of pipes traverses the city.

Curator Louise Forrester comments: "I'm delighted to exhibit these three intriguing projects, which are each so visually distinct but all speak of the marks we make on our environments. I hope that these images will encourage visitors to become aware of their own mark making, and to think about reading the marks that surround us all."

Whether subtle manipulation or willful transformation, Make Your Mark imaginatively considers the many ways in which our personal histories are written in the spaces that surround us. This unique exhibition is a timely reminder of our relationships to our environments,and should not be missed.

This exhibition follows the 2008 exhibition 'Marking/Erasing' at the Viewfinder, in which mark making was employed as part of the image making process.

Make Your Mark is supported by Ambigraph

Upcoming Workshop: Make Your Mark
31 January, free
2-5pm

Join two of the exhibiting photographers (Anna Hindocha and Naomi Stannard) for a creative workshop, accompanying the exhibition 'Make Your Mark'.

Recycle your Christmas cards with the Woodland Trust at Greenwich Shopping Park

Give a present back to the environment this Christmas by recycling your cards with the Woodland Trust.

By recycling your cards in special bins in WHSmith at Greenwich Shopping Park, off Bugsby’s Way in Charlton, this January, you will be helping the charity reach its target – to plant 12,000 native trees or an area of woodland half the size of London Zoo!

Since the Woodland Trust started its Christmas Card Recycling Scheme, a total of 659m cards have been recycled - 59m last year alone, which funded the planting of 14,000 trees.

In the 12 years of the project, 13,080 tonnes of cards have been collected, allowing the Trust to plant 155,000 trees

The big difference this year is that if people visit our web site and pledge to recycle, they can choose the planting region for the trees they are helping to fund.

To pledge, simply click onto www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/cards.

Paul Hetherington, from the Woodland Trust said: “Each year we value the wonderful support from everyone who recycles their Christmas cards with the Trust, which makes a huge difference to our work! This is why we want to say a big thank you this year by giving people the opportunity to choose where their trees are planted.”

Money to enable the Trust to plant trees is generated from donations from the participating retailers.