Evoke/Provoke
Mansi A. (Umbhoray), Olivia Cooper, Kerry Holland, Adam Isler, Josh Liesicke, Priyanka Pattni, Mingyi Sung, Reeve Hart
'Evoke/Provoke' showcases the work of seven recent MFA Photography graduates from the University for the Creative Arts. From Mansi A. (Umbhoray)'s 'Death Over Indignity', an exploration of caste-based discrimination in India to Cooper's investigation of her mixed-race heritage in ‘Warm Olive’, this exhibition offers a diverse exploration of the human condition.
Holland's 'Between Worlds' delves into the interactions between the real, virtual, and alternate worlds, while Isler's 'Insomnia' focuses on the challenges of aging and loneliness in long-term couples. Liesicke's 'Resident' reflects on the envy of birds' ability to escape negative situations, and Pattni's 'May You Not Get Evil Eye' explores her Indian heritage through recreated cultural rituals. Sung's Looking for Nirvana reveals her personal journey of exploring non-monogamy and confronting childhood trauma.
Through personal narratives and critical methodologies, these emerging artists aim to provoke thought, spark dialogue, and inspire change.
Death Over Indignity
Mansi A. (Umbhoray)
For centuries, a section of the Indian society was being ostracised purely based on the families they were born into- based on their caste. Death Over Indignity confronts Indian Caste Discrimination, an archaic apartheid system that is culturally in practice even in the 21st Century. The Dalit community faces fatal atrocities for menial actions- sporting a moustache, owning or riding a customary wedding horse, using a public water tap. With the project, Umbhoray intends to inform a global audience of the nuances of caste discrimination.
Website
Warm Olive
Olivia Cooper
Warm Olive delves into Cooper’s Indian-British mixed-race heritage. Often reflecting on both her British heritage from her father and Indian heritage from her mother, Cooper’s work reveals the blends and clashes between both, and the search for where and how she belongs. Her practice involves and weaves together constructed imagery, self-portraiture, set design and creative writing to elevate the overall narrative within her work, using a constructed documentary style.
Between Worlds
Kerry Holland
Kerry Holland (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Southeast of England who primarily focuses on exploring the interaction of the virtual and the real in the post-digital age. Holland’s practice uses a blend of video, sound, digital and alternate photography to create spaces in which the real and virtual merge and interconnect with each other. She takes predominant influence from her profound love for the game series Legend of Zelda which Holland has immersed herself in since she was a child and uses her experiences within the game as inspiration for her experimental projects. Holland borrows from the world of Zelda, traversing the land of Hyrule, recording her peaceful explorative experiences there. Using similar experiences in the real Holland creates immersive journeys through the multiple worlds creating intriguing links that act as a utopic escape for some and sparking initial questions on the ideas of experience beyond the real for others.
'Between Worlds' is a multi-project concept that focuses on an exploratory journey through the real, the virtual and the alternate. It provides an environment to observe the interactions of the worlds to see how they interlope and phase through each other; using personal connections she has developed with the virtual world she has interacted with since was a child. Contrastingly Holland takes on another approach widening her exploration, focusing on serene natural settings of fauna and flora to allow for a more visually direct connection between one world and another.
Website
Insomnia
Adam Isler
Adam Isler is a photographic visual artist and long-time street photographer, originally from New York, now in the UK, most recently concerned with inequality in its many guises, working with staged and constructed images, as well as digitally collaged text-based images.
In 'Insomnia' Isler looks at aging in long-term couples. As men grow older, they often find it hard to stay asleep; for older women, conversely, it is often difficult falling asleep in the first place. 'Insomnia' is a lonely place, even beside your partner. 'Insomnia' is a sub-project of 'Modern Romance', exploring intimacy and distance in older couples' long-term relationships, as we face a crisis of loneliness. Working with his long-term partner they collaborated to perform tableaux of moments from one possible such couple's experience.
Isler holds degrees from Columbia University, City, University of London, and an MFA in Photography from the University for the Creative Arts in the UK and is a project member of the CRUX: Landscape of Inequality project.
Website
Resident
Josh Liesicke
Joshua Liesicke is a UK based artist. Liesicke uses performance, photography, and illustration, attempting to forfeit elements of control and precision from his practice in an aim to give a more raw and honest approach. With a focus on animals and shared empathy, Liesicke adopts experimental techniques to help bring detailed fantasies and elaborate backstories to life, often assuming the perspectives of fictional or other beings.
Inspired by various independent and experimental media such as poetry, fiction and film, his experimental techniques include – film scratching, point and shoot, paper negs, and stripped back style film, playing with the materiality of an image.
'Resident' is Liesicke's personal take on birds comes from an experience of jealousy or feeling of envy; for they are able to easily escape and move away from regretful and negative situations simply by flying away, whereas for humans we have to spend time constantly in battle with our own emotions, processing and moving through traumatic and adverse conditions.
May You Not Get Evil Eye
Priyanka Pattni
‘May You Not Get Evil Eye’ explores cultural rituals within Pattni’s Indian heritage, passed down by the women in her family. Pattni recreates these moments in a studio setting, as the use of the studio allows for a sense of privacy and the reclamation of control over space. The project
works closely with minimal set design, paying close attention to small details that give into the significant importance behind the rituals and the memories that they hold for Pattni; whilst using self-portraiture to reconcile with her sense of self and the space that they take up as a person of colour within western society.
Looking for Nirvana
Mingyi Sung
Mingyi Sung (born 1996, Taiwan) uses photography as a therapeutic tool to represent intimate relationships in the 21st century. Her practice involves staged photographs, self-portrait, performance, and text, combined with feminist and phototherapy methodologies. Often embedding a sense of vulnerability and melancholy, Sung’s work reveals the nuances of love and intimacy, as well as the healing power of self-expression.
'Looking for Nirvana' is a personal exploration of non-monogamy and the unexpected self-realisation of childhood trauma. In 2022, Sung and her partner mutually agreed to pursue an open relationship. Their bond would be “the primary”, and any external connections would not develop into love affairs. However, while Sung began seeing others (C and K), her partner did not pursue external relationships himself. This experience triggered a process of self-reflection, prompting Sung to confront the impact of her childhood trauma on her current relationships.
Having grown up in Taiwan, where discussions about intimacy are often muted, along with being raised within a household lacking affection, Sung finds herself grappling with the lasting impact of this upbringing on her adulthood. Through a combination of portraits and self-reflective text, ‘Looking for Nirvana’ becomes a feminist and introspective exploration, challenging patriarchy through the lens of non-monogamy and examining the intersection of sexuality, intimacy, and personal history. In Sung’s work she searches for a path to inner peace and trying to reshape an understanding of love. By sharing her personal struggles, Sung aims to spark conversations about the female desires, the importance of self-acceptance, and the power of vulnerability.
Website
92,000,000,000
Reeve Hart
92,000,000,000 is a series of photographs created by Reeve Hart from 2022-2024, consisting of livestock animal portraits, documentary images depicting slaughterhouses and constructed photographs of sentient beings dressed in raw meat. The work aims to inspire empathy for the 92.2 billion land animals annually killed for meat. By juxtaposing meat with the animals it derives from, the project addresses our disconnected relationship between the food we eat and its origin.
Website
83 Queens Road
Brighton
BNX 3XE
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4 October–30 November
Monday 09:00–17:30
Tuesday 09:00–17:30
Wednesday 09:00–17:30
Thursday 09:00–17:30
Friday 09:00–17:30