A Place in Change
The world is in constant flux. 'A Place in Change' delves into the visual narratives born from these changes and the transformative forces reshaping the spaces we call home. This exhibition captures the elusive and often tumultuous journey of places, people and cultures caught in the throes of change – an invitation to reflect on the places we inhabit. The works on display are a call to engage with the evolving narratives of our environments, fostering a sense of connection and responsibility toward the places we hold dear.
Nobody knows how come the hum hum…
Ashutosh Shaktan
‘Nobody knows how come the hum, the Hum…’ centers around an enigmatic noise, an elusive, low-frequency phenomenon experienced by a select few. With no definitive explanation for its origins or source, it serves as a catalyst for numerous theories and narratives.
It delves into the delicate balance between belief and disbelief, where individual imagination fuelled by quasi-science weaves a reality where the boundaries between fact and fiction blur and intertwine. At the intersection of science, conspiracy theories, and the unexplored recesses of the human psyche, The Hum becomes more than just an auditory oddity, it becomes a subtle symphony of low frequency vibrations and unexplained theories whose notes are whispered in hushed tones, a melodic secret shared among those who bear witness to its enchantment.
The allure of the unknown and the human tendency to seek meaning and patterns can lead to the coexistence of scientific exploration, conspiracy theories, and spiritual interpretations and all of them together shape up an alternative narrative.
From Where We Used To Drink
Hannah Morgan
‘From Where We Used To Drink’ was created in a small radius of land in Bath, UK where Morgan grew up. The project is a collaboration with nature and a journey of rediscovery of a place lost to the changes of time and neglect of the UK’s natural water sources. Using the location much like an artist would their studio, Morgan’s work relinquishes control to the environment and offers it a voice through the physicality of her work. The direct-positive photographs were developed using a number of experimental plant-based recipes such as wild mint, garlic, nettle, bracken and various grass species, all combined in a solution of stream, river and rain water collected from the land. Images would often float amongst stones, plant matter and deceased insects; each harnessing the physical essence from where they came by leaving behind traces, scars and imbedded debris.
Statement from the artist: ‘As a child my mother would take me to a stream that flowed through this land; it was swimming with fish, insects and rich vegetation, filtered through ancient stone as smooth as marble. We would always drink from the stream before walking home; a means of hydration became a ritual. Years later I returned to the stream, no longer flowing and too polluted to drink.’
A Language of Healing: Fragments from the Sea
Immy Poole
‘A Language of Healing’ draws from the Japanese principle of ‘yūgen’, encompassing a response of powerful, deep emotion in connection with the Earth; a feeling that is indescribable, beyond the limitations of our language.
Each object looks to signify and hold space for a relationship of intrinsic feeling and interconnectivity of Self, Earth, and the wider universal - our ‘interbeing’.
This particular body of work centres around one coastline, as artefact in conversation with place and inner connection - an invitation to the internal landscape.
Loop
Lauren Kaigg
‘Loop’ attempts to visualise missing pieces, exploring conflicting emotions that can arise when contemplating the unknown. Even in what we might consider empty or void, there is a possibility of hidden substance and meanings. By blurring the boundaries between what is real and imagined, Loop both questions and reveals subtle mysteries that exist within the everyday. It represents a search, forever evolving and shifting, yet seemingly never finding a fixed or absolute destination.
Ghosts in the Field
Murray Ballard
‘Ghosts in the Field’ is an exploration of life in rural Salento. Ballard has been visiting and photographing Salento, in southern Puglia, every summer for the past ten years, staying with his wife’s family in Cocumola, a small village 10km inland from the coast. During that time he’s witnessed the place change dramatically. Up until a few years ago Puglia produced nearly half of Italy’s olive oil, but a deadly plant pathogen, Xylella, thought to have been transported from South America on imported coffee plants, has decimated nearly all the region’s ancient olive trees and in turn the local agricultural economy. Alongside this, Puglia is the fastest growing tourist destination in the European Union. A place that once seemed to exist out of step with the modern world is changing, and with it a generation’s aspirations and lifestyles.
Growth Studies (work in progress)
Sam Laughlin
These photographs are the first from a new series which explores annual change in the natural world. The works are durational and are a continuation of Laughlin's interest in Time as manifested in natural cycles. They are to be produced each year in phase with the seasons. Ultra-long exposures make visible the spring growth of plants and trees. By utilising shutter speeds ranging from hours, to days and even weeks in length, Laughlin distils the movement of growth into single photographs. Gradual changes that occurred during the exposure slowly accumulate on the negative over time. Lengthening stems, unfurling leaves and the plants' response to the passage of the sun through the sky are rendered as blurring, reminding us that nothing remains still as the earth rotates on its tilted axis.
10- 14 Waterloo Place
Brighton
BN2 9NB
Map
Window Gallery
5 October - 17 November
Weds - Sunday, Midday - 5pm