Ustopia - Anywhere but Nowhere
“Ustopia is a world I made up by combining utopia and dystopia – the imagined perfect society and its opposite – because, in my view, each contains a latent version of the other." (Atwood, M. 2011, The Road to Ustopia, 14 October, Available at www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/14/margaret-atwood-road-to-ustopia)
Ustopia was created in response to the recent political landscape. Each body of work, created by the selected artists, responded to the theme of Real Utopias with reference to Margaret Atwood's key article discussing the construct of Ustopia. The resulting images represent the depth and diversity of each artist's interpretation of the theme.
space where nobody is
Amanda Gordon
Following Amanda’s Photo Fringe 2020 exhibition, she swabbed the surface of her displayed, aluminium sculpture and placed these samples within 37 individual petri dishes.
These tiny orbs depict worlds, that usually remain unseen. The sealed petri dishes, in which they continue to grow within, have allowed these organisms to become visible yet isolated from our world, existing in their own time and space.
Website
Documents
Eva Kalpadaki
Eva is presenting a selection of works based on her cameraless explorations.
‘Documents’, as part of the online @photofringe22 exhibition, is a body of work concerned with issues regarding the utopian idea of ‘flatness’ of modernist painting and the ‘seamlessness’ of photography, which Eva challenges by engaging in the abstract expressionist act of slashing the medium’s surface that resonates with Lucio Fontana’s 1960 Spatial Concept `Waiting'. But unlike Fontana’s elaborate act of cutting the raw canvas, Eva has forcefully violated the surface of the negative in an attempt to beat its resistance. Blindly handling the negatives in a dark bag, her only guide were the tactile sensations between her hands and the materiality of the negatives.
The ‘Black and White’ diptych exhibited at the Skyway Gallery ‘presents’ the concrete materiality of photography in a bare ustopic form open to interpretation.
Website
Dérive
Lee Copleston
“One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: “drifting”], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.”
- Guy Debord - Theory of the Dérive
Wandering randomly around city streets has long been my favourite source of photographic inspiration, long before hearing the term ‘psychogeography’ and learning the fundamentals.
This series of double exposures is the first project undertaken with the added knowledge of the situationist’s approach to psychogeography; seeking synchronicities, observing chance occurrences and being “drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.”
The final images in ‘Dérive’ are snapshots of these drifts in the city of Brighton. Each moment blended into the next, as the memory of lived experiences blur and overlap in the fuzz of our minds.
Website
Sussex Sleepwalks
Alex Bamford
For over 10 years, in a place somewhere between sleeping and waking, Alex Bamford has been following the surreal adventures of a pyjama clad somnambulist. The resulting images are lit by the full moon and fuelled by the lunacy that it instills in the sleeping mind.
Website
Autonomy Regained
David West
Following on from Photofringe 2020, David has continued to develop work through processes which intentionally result in disruption of conditioned elements of the photographic image.
In the first of two bodies of work to be exhibited at the Skyway Gallery, 'Autonomy Regained' explores a particular sector of the infra-red spectrum to create otherworldly landscape images. Made in within the confines of the South Downs National Park, this two year long study is a homage to the majestic and timeless qualities of the local countryside.
Website
PicoSystem
Philip Perch
Coming late to photography and in this his first ever exhibition, Philip demonstrates his habit of obsessively photographing objects, the resulting images are ordered using mathematical formulae, the resulting displays are unapologetically unevenly composed the coded displays uneasy on the eye.
Strongly influenced by time living in a park, In this series entitled ‘PicoSystem’ Philip offsets the utopian beauty and bounty found in the late summer countryside with the darker and harmful influences of man.
Equlibré
David West
Following on from Photofringe 2020, David has continued to develop work through processes which intentionally result in disruption of conditioned elements of the photographic image.
In the second of two bodies of work to be exhibited at the Skyway Gallery, 'Equilibré' is a response to the beauty of the ever-changing seascape made throughout the period of national lockdowns 2019-2021.
Website
The Showman's Dream
Felix Tuffin
Wandering the BN43 area, Felix uses photography, combined with text, to record his personal experience of living life in a dreamlike state.
Eyes fixed upon the ground,
uncertain of which way to spin,
falling through the space,
whispering ghosts surround,
Picking up a dog,
The wretched fool smiles,
Teeth biting the wind
The Timelapse - From the Front
Letizia Lopreiato
Letizia Lopreiato
The Timelapse - From the Front constitutes the first chapter of visual poet Letizia Lopreiato’s four year autobiographical documentary (2018-2022).
This body of work, shot on 35mm film between Ireland and Italy, depicts the healing journey through photography of both the artist and of her mum, following the passing of the artist’s dad, and a series of traumatic events which followed. It is her way to bring justice to both stories, honouring through art the most transformative moment that trauma and grief presented to them; a journey which deserved to be narrated and shared as a story of self- empowerment in their identity as women.
The project embodies the cathartic power that only art could have gifted the artist with, and the transmutation of grief into the highest source not only of strength and courage for her, but above all of resilience and faith in life.
To sequence her photography and poetry work from this period in order to bring this project to life, Letizia had to find a way to revisit, manage, and process, the emotions which characterised that time; a period which both her mum and herself had stored in the dusty recesses of their minds, whilst purposely making its memories inaccessible to their hearts, a survival mechanism. Until they decided to let go of them ...
The Timelapse - From the Front is the tale of how both the artist and her mother came home, home to themselves, and home to one another after sixteen years apart ...
As photography brought sense to the chaos.
It all then transformed from a journey of loss, into one of love.
Shoreham Centre
2 Pond Road
Shoreham by Sea
BN43 5WU
Map
8–28 October
Monday 10:00–16:00
Tuesday 10:00–16:00
Wednesday 10:00–16:00
Thursday 10:00–16:00
Friday 10:00–16:00
Saturday 10:00–16:00
