About
Featuring Juergen Chill, Edmund Clark, John Darwell, Dornith Doherty, Ben Graville, David Maisel and David Moore.
The theme of Look 11 is âphotography as a call to action' - the role of photography in questioning, documenting and responding to global issues of social justice. Works showcased in this new city-wide festival engage with natural and urban environments, human rights and equality, education and employment, war, law, community, the media and the economy.
Artists at the Bluecoat address the idea of confinement in contemporary life, including legal imprisonment and detention, working conditions, ecological conservation, ethical treatment of animals and psychiatric care. Four concentrate on confinement of humans: Juergen Chill's photographs of German prison cells are architectural studies of the physical space prisoners inhabit; Edmund Clark's photographs of Guantanamo illustrate three views of âhome' in the context of political imprisonment; David Moore explores surveillance through an investigation of Paddington Green High Security Police Station where terror suspects are held under the Counter Terrorism Act; and Ben Graville's penetrating and provocative portraits capture prisoners being driven to and from the Old Bailey.
John Darwell's new photographic series Dogs in Cages, commissioned by the Bluecoat, is an allegory on incarceration. Produced in cooperation with one of the North West's largest dogs homes, the work highlights the nature and mechanics of captivity. In collaboration with leading biologists Dornith Doherty has photographed at seed banks, including the one at Kew, responding to the collection process, containment of biological species and global efforts to insure against starvation. David Maisel documents cremated remains of psychiatric patients collected since the late 19th century. Abstract and elegiac, the photographs provoke discussion about loss, memory, confinement and mental illness.
