1 July to 8 August 2010
NEW VENUE: Viewfinder Photography Gallery, 46 Greenwich Church Street, Greenwich, London SE10 9BL
As our cities and coast lines seem to change at an ever increasing pace, these photographs present us with a record of places on the cusp of dramatic reconfiguration.
Mike Whelan writes: "The catalyst for my Ad-Site project was the increase in new construction works taking place in London. Walk past one of these building sites and you'll be greeted with 'artists impressions' of modern utopias, which promise an elevated social existence by living, working, or even just visiting one of these locations. There is a radical distinction between utopian vision and the social reality which attends the upheavals of regeneration, however, and this remains out of public view. I wanted to deconstruct these projections of pristine living and suggest towards the unseen on the social infrastructure that 'gentrification' entails."
Milo Newman writes: "in the autumn of 2007 I began travelling to the low-lying shores of the British Isles searching for the manifestations of anthropogenic Climate Change - the predicted rise in sea levels, the storm surges that prey upon our coastal defences and the increasingly violent weather systems that pass over them – in order to portray them, and the reasons for them, in a series of photographs.
The resulting images in my series 'Till the Slow Sea Rise' follow Walker Evans’ principle of lyrical documentary, linking together to form a cohesive narrative. They are direct responses to these landscapes, as well as to vernacular objects found within them, speaking of the wider social and environmental themes involved in how we choose to react to the threat of anthropogenic Climate Change. The majority of the photographs are taken in twilight, at the beginnings and ends of winter days. This strategy enabled me to make use of the vague, grey light that causes a de-lineation of form, melting the corporeal world, thus speaking of loss, as well as of change, allowing the photographs to convey the fragile beauty of our deteriorating world."
Curator Louise Forrester comments: "This exhibition shows us the impact of civilisation both at an urban scale, and on the environment at large - they are striking, resonant images which I urge you to see!"
