terrain vague CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Biographies TERRAIN VAGUE EXHIBITION: Alessandra Chilá – Olympian Visions ALLAN PARKER – AGREE/DISAGREE/NOT SURE DAVID BLACKMORE – DETOX Tania Coates – Transient Topography Publicity Transport & Insurance Contact Details (Back cover)
terrain vague dysfunction, enchantment and the landscape Terrain Vague is a group exhibition of photographic work featuring the work of four photographic artists curated by Allan F. Parker. First coined by Man Ray in 1934 to describe an unresolved and marginal space in an urban landscape, Terrain Vague has come to refer to areas of indeterminate identity in general. Increasingly familiar in a crowded country, these sites – neither fully urban nor rural – have changed our notion of what landscape is. In some of the works in this exhibition we experience the landscape as a creation in its own right – a built response to a dynamically changing set of interests and aspirations frequently in conflict with each other. In others, landscapes designated for particular purposes such as tourism and recreation, sit uneasily next to industrial sites and utility buildings. We also see ways in which the environment is used metaphorically, its condition informing our own states of mind. We readily refer to our surroundings to describe our experience, and its modifications are reflected in the images we make and the language we use. David Blackmore’s images of urban locations feature the UV lights used to discourage heroin users. They reveal the impact of social policy on the urban landscape as well as highlighting their mysterious allure as urban stage sets. Alessandra Chilá’s lightboxes
feature the site currently in development for the 2012 Olympic Games. She looks at the regeneration the area is currently undergoing – a process with both environmental and social consequences. Allan Forrester Parker’s images are accompanied by texts screen-printed on to glass. The texts are taken from the psychometric tests used to assess potential employees for large organisations. The juxtaposition of text and image explores the complexities of place, mind-set and metaphor. Tania Coates explores the physical and material transformation of the land around us. This series documents the creative and destructive processes that result from the engineering of the environment. In these works she shows the landscape in flux – presenting compositions that exist only in transition, while new sites are being formed. Allan F. Parker 05/07
The exhibition was first shown at the Whitecross Gallery, London 26 July-25 August 2007.
AGREE/DISAGREE/NOT SURE ALLAN FORRESTER PARKER
AGREE/DISAGREE/NOT SURE – Allan Forrester Parker In agree/disagree/not sure statements similar to those used in psychometric tests are juxtaposed with landscape pictures and images of installations found throughout Britain and occasionally abroad. psychometric tests are given to individuals to assess their suitability for certain types of work. The tests are designed to expose personality traits which may have been overlooked during interviews. There are many such tests and in general respondents are asked to “agree” or “disagree” by ticking boxes beside various statements. Typically, a test may contain around four of five hundred such statements. The results are then evaluated and the conclusions are fed back to the respondents or to their potential employers. In a crowded country, the landscape is often obliged to accommodate a variety of interests and aspirations – which are frequently at variance with one another. The landscape and its images is so much a part of us, that we instinctively use it as a metaphor for our own aspirations and states of mind. Opposite: ‘The Future’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10) (for the following tiles please see the end of this section)
Further details of this work including series two and three can be seen on: www.allanforresterparker.co.uk
Previous page: (clockwise from top left) The Law’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10) ‘A Great Discovery’, 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10) ‘Dreams’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10) ‘Think’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10)
AGREE/DISAGREE/NOTSURE BOOK OFFER A 48 page book of series I and 2 of agree/disagree/not sure with dustjacket is available in a numbered addition of 500. (Dimensions 210mm x 125mm)
Page facing previous page: (clockwisefrom top left)
It is available by post from the publisher (£10 including postage and packing)
‘Democracies’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm
Please send a cheque made out to PURE LAND to:
archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10)
Allan F. Parker Pure Land Press 42 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8NW Tel: 020 7831 7094
‘Success’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10) ‘Truth’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm
It is also also available from:
archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10)
The Photographers Gallery, London Manchester Cornerhouse Bookshop Bookart Bookshop, London Artwords Bookshop, London The Whitecross Gallery, London
‘Know’ 46 x 33cm x 85cm archival inkjet print, screen-printed glass, (edition of 10)
OLYMPIAN VISIONS ALESSANDRA CHILรก
Alessandra Chilá – Olympian Visions Taken in and around the 188 acre site designated for the 2012 Olympic Park, the photographs of Olympian Visions aim to document the complex microcosm this area presents. If the Olympic Games are seen as a great opportunity to regenerate an area that has been characterized by environmental degradation and socio-economic deprivation, the photographs of Olympian Visions attest to the existence of an already existing mixed community that will soon be replaced by the partially imaginary one made up of world-class citizens. Through topographical views and documentary style images, the series from which this image is taken combines the architecture of the city and its correspondence to the people, capturing the coexistence of natural elements and the industrial, the social and the political.
Opposite: ‘Lea Valley, March 2007’ 15ocm x 120cm x 16.5cm Lambda duratran print in Aluminium lightbox, (edition of 6) Next page: ‘Hackney Wick’, March 2007’ 15ocm x 120cm x 16.5cm Lambda duratran print in Aluminium lightbox, (edition of 6)
DETOX DAVID BLACKMORE
DAVID BLACKMORE – DETOX Over the past decade institutions and public sector organisations in Europe have initiated the use of blue (UV) lighting in certain areas of semi-public spaces, such as public toilets. These are specific spaces in which intravenous drug users have been known to frequent. The reasoning behind the presence of these lights is that under blue light it is difficult for users to discern their veins. The work enters into a discourse surrounding addiction and the control of addiction and of our environment by the state and semi-public organisations. “For me each light apart from performing a desired function stands as a form of vigil or warning light in the same way a lighthouse warns ships.” Opposite: ‘Untitled bush.’ 2005 36 x 24” Lambda photographic print mounted on dibond, No.1 of 7, Following page (clockwise from top left): ‘Corridor leading from court 16, The Four Courts, Dublin, Éire’, 2004 48 x 36” Lambda photographic print mounted on dibond, £1000 (No.2 of 7) ‘Arts block, Trinity College, Dublin, Éire.’ 2005 48 x 36” Lambda photographic print mounted on dibond, No.1 of 7, £1000 (No.1 of 7) ‘A&E x-ray department, The Adelaide & the Meath hospital, Dublin, Éire’, 2005 48 x 36” Lambda photographic print mounted on dibond, £1000 (No.1 of 7) ‘Reception area, The metropolitan Children’s Court, Dublin, Eire’, 2005 48 x 36” Lambda photographic print mounted on dibond, £1000 (No.1 of 7)
TRANSIENT TOPOGRAPHIES TANIA COATES
Tania Coates – Transient Topography Transient topography is concerned with mankind’s relationship with the surroundings, and explores explores the physical and material transformation of the land around us. Tania attempts to show the creative and destructive processes that are part of our engineering of the environment: physically creating new vistas resulting in the formation of new landscapes, and the obvious destruction or displacement taking place to reach these ends. The real subject of this work is the landscape in flux – the images depicting compositions that only exist in transition, while new sites are being formed.
Opposite: ‘Screened Weathered Chalk (Ag-lime 0-15mm)’ 50 x 40 inches C-Type Print, on 2mm Acrylic, £1000 (edition of 6) Next Page: ‘Recycled Asphalt Planings (20mm RAP)’ 50 x 40 inches C-Type Print, on 2mm Acrylic, (edition of 6) ‘Rock Dust (0-5mm)’ 50 x 40 inches, C-Type Print on 2mm Acrylic, £1750 (edition of 6)
Transport and Hire All works are crated and ready for transportation. The works are fragile and can only be hung with the fixings provided which require holes to be drilled in gallery wall. For hire details please contact Allan Parker, 42 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8NW pureland@dircon.co.uk 0207 831 7094
PUBLICITY & PRESS FOR TERRAIN VAGUE at the WHITECROSS GALLERY August 2007 PRINTED MEDIA Time Out Guardian Guide British Journal of Photography ELECTRONIC MEDIA Critical Network Time Out Art Rabbit Italian Cultural institute Art Forum New Exhibitions of Contemporary Art London for Fun (voted in top ten art events in London) e-photozine Art Monthly
www.criticalnetwork.co.uk www.timeout.co.uk (first thursdays AFP gave talk) www.artrabbit.co.uk (www.icilondon.esteri.it/IIC_Londra) www.artforum.co.uk www.newexhibitions.com www.london forfun.com www.ephotozine.co.uk www.artmonthly.co.uk
BIOGRAPHIES Originally from Dublin, David Blackmore lives and works in London. David’s work detox was short listed in the documentary category for the 2005 Next Level Photography awards, and this body of work has also been published by Gomma magazine. Recent solo shows include Gallery Vassie, Amsterdam and Draiocht, Dublin. David is a lecturer at University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham. Currently based in London, Alessandra Chilá has worked professionally for various magazines and was commissioned by Mute magazine to produce work for the ‘Dis-Integrating Multiculturalism’ issue. She collaborated on the short film Polly II: A plan for a Revolution in the Docklands. Other commissioned works include publications in The Wire magazine and Untitled. Tania Coates has exhibited in London, Dublin, Berlin, Brussels, and various other locations around the UK. Tania graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design in 2001 and her work is held in several public & private collections. Portfolio magazine recently published Tania’s work Transient Topography in issue 45. Allan Forrester Parker has worked and exhibited within the UK and abroad. His project The Mela Pictures was commissioned by the V&A and shown in South India last year and at the V&A in 2005. His work has been supported by the British Council in India, Germany and Greece, and is on permanent display at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in London. He is a senior lecturer on the MA and BA programmes in Photography at the University of Westminster.