On Wednesday evening I was privileged to witness the first public airing of “Destroying The Laboratory For The Sake Of The Experiment“, a collaboration between Mark Power and the poet, Dan Cockrill, at Foto8′s Host Gallery.
It was great to hear the pair talk about the organic nature of the project, and on the night itself neither of them knew what the other would be bringing – the choice of images and poems made totally separately, with happy accidents, correlations and juxtapositions embraced throughout the span of the project. Power is actively seeking to break the tighter constricts of his past work, “wanting to lose control” this time around and enjoying the “uneasy feeling of not knowing what’s going on”.
The project is scheduled for a show at Atlas Gallery in June, followed by a highly ambitious sounding book “that will break the mould of what a photography book is”.
It was both parts humbling and frustrating to hear how even Mark faces constant hostility and interrogation for photographing in public. I’ve always assumed that artists of his stature could just say, “It’s ok, I’m Mark Power” and doors would open up and the red carpet would roll out. However, in reality, art-world reputation counts for very little outside of our somewhat insular industry. The best anecdote described Mark on top of a fen, overlooking an industrial estate (with camera safely in van) when a security guard asked what he was doing. “Looking” replied Mark. “Have you got a permit to look?” was the deadpan response.
“You are always interested in what you are interested in…”
© Mark Power
On Wednesday evening I was privileged to witness the first public airing of “Destroying The Laboratory For The Sake Of The Experiment“, a collaboration between Mark Power and the poet, Dan Cockrill, at Foto8′s Host Gallery.
It was great to hear the pair talk about the organic nature of the project, and on the night itself neither of them knew what the other would be bringing – the choice of images and poems made totally separately, with happy accidents, correlations and juxtapositions embraced throughout the span of the project. Power is actively seeking to break the tighter constricts of his past work, “wanting to lose control” this time around and enjoying the “uneasy feeling of not knowing what’s going on”.
The project is scheduled for a show at Atlas Gallery in June, followed by a highly ambitious sounding book “that will break the mould of what a photography book is”.
It was both parts humbling and frustrating to hear how even Mark faces constant hostility and interrogation for photographing in public. I’ve always assumed that artists of his stature could just say, “It’s ok, I’m Mark Power” and doors would open up and the red carpet would roll out. However, in reality, art-world reputation counts for very little outside of our somewhat insular industry. The best anecdote described Mark on top of a fen, overlooking an industrial estate (with camera safely in van) when a security guard asked what he was doing. “Looking” replied Mark. “Have you got a permit to look?” was the deadpan response.