Who's afraid of the dark

Whilst on this trip to Montréal the evenings offered the usual mix of character free hotel rooms, the prospect of drinking alone and TV programming not worthy of the technology that brings it to our homes and hotel rooms. Instead I wondered the streets and soon found myself drawn to pools of blackness topped with a blinding single lamp or two. These were the many empty parking lots that pepper the city of Montréal as I think they do most north American cities. Visually they initially attracted me, with their open space punctunated by these small isolated make shift huts. But it was only when I began photographing them that I was captivated by my fear of the process within the space. My sense of being exposed, seemed fascinating and reflective of a place which it's sole purpose is to act as a place of refuge and safety. But the pools of light from the crudely assembled lamps servered more to high light the ever present dark corners.


Montréal Parking Lot. Nr.3.  2011.

Uncommon place, for Common Ground

There is a chance to see for real, for those near or in the city of Berlin the piece - common ground - this coming Tuesday 4th October. It is included in a show of three photographers under the broad title of - Iconclash 01- along with work from Luke Abiol and Rainer Sioda. Feel free to come along and experience this public showing in such a intimate private space in a way Berlin knows how to do so well.

AUSSTELLUNG.


                                UNCOMMON PLACE

ANDY RUMBALL · LUKE ABIOL · RAINER SIODA

Iconoclash 01: Urban Sceneries

05th October – 17. December 2011

Opening Times: Visit by Appointment

Opening: Tue, 04. October 2011, 7 pm

Location: 

U

ncommon Place c/o Daniel Klemm, Singerstr. 1, 10179 Berlin, Germany

The second exhibtion at Uncommon Place presents three associated photographers that live and work in Berlin. In the photographic work shown in the exhibition they occupy with different sorts of traces – of the past, of cultural imprints, of natural conditions – and create extraordinary statements of our surroundings. The collectionof these unpretentious yet significant documents of urban sceneries are shown in this combination for the first time in Berlin.

Andy Rumball’s work explores the issues and usage of Common Ground in Germany, Poland and the UK. The photographic process includes actually burying the images in common ground. The work hence become a combination of visual content and the content matter itself.

With the eyes of a relative stranger Luke Abiol discovers corners and angles of Berlin which are not necessarily noteworthy to local residents. Yet the more these images characterize the cultural habitat we live in.

Rainer Sioda seeks to discover visual traces of progressing change in the still stucturally weak urban environment in the region of Brandenburg surrounding Berlin. He documented a selection of paintball areas with a focus on the qualities of informally created architecture and its use as functional urban structures.

http://awrprojects.blogspot.com/

http://www.lukeabiol.com/

http://www.rainersioda.de/

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common ground. 2007. (triptych- silver gelatin prints (10), glass, wooden frame, soil)

There and back and almost the same again.

I did say that the 'green box' had inspired a new question and theme. Boxes themselves are fascinating things, they allow you the sense of ownership, you can hold them or know of there where abouts, they won't move on their own and we recognise and understand the form of a box. But its function means that there is always the possiblity of the unknown and the infinite within the finite.

Montréal - red box. 2011

The fine sense of touch

As the last two posts have been in some way or other related to the sense of touch I'd thought I would finish the theme off with a final call to the tactile aspect of life. For the last few weeks my work has ment that I have spent more time than I would choose with 1's and 0's. The currency of modern photography usually ends in the term 'file'. But my love of the medium is not set alone by it's image making power but also the smell, touch and almost the taste which accompanies film, foil wrapping, the interior and backs of cameras and of course all those dirty chemicals. They will always be an important part.

Danemark. summer 2011 – another type of printing which leaves you with truly dirty fingers, pure joy.

There and back, here again.

I guess it is no coincidence that what I wrote in the previous post relates very well to what lies beneath what I wish to say now. In the last couple of months I've been very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Danemark and Canada. I mention this because to the first I drove and the second I flew. When I compare both journeys it underlines what we loose in our need for expediency. Don't get me wrong it's still relatively a long time to travel to Canada, but to fly leaves you not truly understanding the distance and effort required to get to where you wish to be. I mourn alittle the fact I have no sense of the fantastic volumes of water I have with such ease skipped over to stand amoungst the bi-lingual babble of Montréal. With the drive, and it's proximiety to the ground, I had far more the sense of where I was headed and a better understanding of my arrival. Maybe there is a question there about human speeds of understanding just as we relate scale to our own physical size. Anyhow, both were wonderful places to see and over the next few posts I promise to show something of what came out of these trips. First a photograph from northern Danemark, which has inspired the question and theme for a new series.

Danemark - green box - 2011.

sound advise

I heard once on the radio, the type that crackles and sniffs for its own pleasure, Antony Gormley make a simple suggestion in 60 seconds for a way in which to improve our lives. I very much admire the work of this artist and I very much enjoyed his simple suggestion. It was that each of us should more often take the shoes and socks off which house our feet and let them touch the silent and still earth, ground, planet call it what you will, beneath them. For in this way we have for a moment real contact and understanding with who we are and where we are. I think I need to take my shoes off more often.