I find it hard to categorise my photography, but it has been described as ‘social landscape’ in that the ‘landscapes’ depicted (in the ‘Carceri’ series, for example), are social constructs, and the people and housing depicted (in ‘Harrold Hill’ for example), form a particular part of the social landscape of South Essex.
I find it hard to categorise my photography, but it has been described as ‘social landscape’ in that the ‘landscapes’ depicted (in the ‘Carceri’ series, for example), are social constructs, and the people and housing depicted (in ‘Harrold Hill’ for example), form a particular part of the social landscape of South Essex.
I am engaged in a conscious scrutiny of ‘space’, both exterior and interior.
In the Catalogue for the ‘Uneasy Spaces’ exhibition, Washington DC in 2008, Liz Wells, the curator wrote: ‘Landscape’ in visual art dates back to the Renaissance, with lineages via Italianate painting and Germanic Romanticism, both of which also influenced art forms ranging from literature to landscape architecture. It is, of course, an ideological construction; one which has little to do with everyday evolution and seasonal change in the countryside. Martin Pover’s pictures of the false ‘natural’ reality constructed as settings for animals in zoos remind us of the force of such idealisation. The painted landscapes and polystyrene rocks offer nothing of the sounds, smells and tastes of the wild; the baroque staging panders to human sensibilities rather than to the needs of the captives. In drawing attention to viewpoints and angles of vision constructed for visitors, Carceri reminds us to question assumptions and desires underpinning the construction of fields of vision.
Martin Pover
Curriculum Vitae
Exhibitions
2015 ‘Concrete Nature’
The Arts Centre gallery. Stamford, Lincolnshire. 3 30” x 30” photographs.
(Exhibition supporting the annual symposium of New Networks for Nature)
2015 ‘Pool’ ‘The Swimmer’.
CGP. Southwark, London 6 20”x 24” photographs.
2012 ‘Territories’ Galerie Windkracht Den Helder. Holland
2011 ‘Carceri’ Brighton Photography Biennale
2010 ‘Carceri' Camelot Gallery, Krakow, Poland. (Solo show)
2008 ‘Rummage: Museum of Natural History, Strasbourg’
Café Gallery Projects. Southwark, London One 5’x5’ photograph.
2007 ‘Meme’ Tower Bridge Complex. LONDON.
2007 “How We Are’ Photographing Britain, 1840s to present” (Curator: Val Williams)
Tate Britain. 6 photographs. Catalogue
2006 ‘Uneasy Spaces’
Washington Square East Galleries, New York (Curator: Liz Wells) Catalogue
2004 ‘Slither& Slice’
Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London
2004 Open Studios
Bow Arts Trust, London
2003 ‘Connections’
James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, Surrey
2002 ‘Stranded’
Old Aldwych Tube Station, London
2000 ‘Ark 2000’
Dilston Grove/ Cafe Gallery Projects, Southwark, London
1998 “8’x 4’’
Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London
1993 ‘Kunstbrucke’
Galerie am Wasserturm, Berlin
1993 ‘2 Works’
Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London
1989 ‘Household Choices’
Henry Cole Wing, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
1985 ‘12 Works in Colour’
Optica Gallery, Montreal, Canada
1983 ‘New Work’ 30 Photographs. Almeida Gallery, London
1975 ‘Photographic Collection’
Aktuell Photographi, Stockholm, Sweden
1974 Contemporary British Photography Asinus Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
1974 ‘Recent British Photography’ Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex
1973 ‘Serpentine Photography '73’
Serpentine Gallery, London. 21 photographs
Publications
2007 ‘London Independent Photography’
10 images and interview
2005 ‘Portfolio’ magazine, issue 41
pp10-15, ‘Carceri’, incl. essay by Liz Wells
1993 ‘Kunstbrucke’ catalogue
British Council and Goethe Institute
1989 ‘Household Choices’. Catalogue,
Arts Council of England
1988 ‘The Name of the Room: The Electronic Cottage’,
Edited by Martin Pauley, BBC books. 15 photographs
1984 ‘Images of Lust, Sexual Carvings in Mediaeval Churches’,
13 photographs; E. Jarman, Batsford Press
Education
MA Fine Art, University of East London
BA Photographic Arts, Polytechnic of Central London
Teaching Experience (selected)
University College for the Creative Arts. MFA Photography Supervision.
Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Course Leader, BA (Hons)Photography
Middlesex University, Senior Lecturer Fine Art, Photography, Printmaking
Limkokwing College, Kuala Limpur. Malaysia, Visiting Lecturer Photography, Printmaking
Curtin College, Perth, Australia, Visiting Lecturer Fine Art, Photography, Printmaking
Havering Technical College, Essex, Lecturer II, F/T, Foundation
Photography, Printmaking
Vanier C.E.G.E.P, Lecturer (Professor), F/T, Montreal, Canada, Foundation
Exchange Photography, Film, Drawing for Architects, Printmaking
Slade School of Art, University College London, Teaching Assistant, F/T
Postgrad. School, Printmaking, Photography
External Examining:
Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen BA Photography
University of Wales, Newport/ Caerleon BA Photographic Arts
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. BA Photography
University Campus Suffolk, Great Yarmouth College. BA Photography
Roehampton University BA/BSc Photography
Akto College of Art and Design, Athens, Greece BA & MA Photography
Professional:
Trustee of CGP - CaféGalleryProjects in Bermondsey, SE1
Member of the Bermondsey Artist’s Group since 1992