Phossil Despite my ongoing output as a photographer and respect for the medium, I’ve begun to view photographs as flat visual receipts – fossils, “phossils”. Whilst photography supports looking and investigating, this process somehow stops once the record is made. Looking and photographing are two very different practises and functions - a blink of the eye leaves a residue that fades into memory, an aperture shuts and holds an inert record which toys with memory. The former is a human action, the latter, a mechanical – albeit directed – action. It is the chasm between these two outcomes – the intangible memorised image and the fossilised visual record – that is the starting point for my work. A steady frustration with the outcome and a need to interact further with photographs themselves has led me to creating my own images (paintings, drawing and collages) and to consider photographs as beginnings rather than end results. I attempt to revisit, scrutinise and question the visual makeup which amounts to a recorded image, deciding on, within a given image, which visual information is worth investigating and which areas are best left as empty vacuums or faint traces. The body of work here is collectively represented by the title ‘Car Boot Safari’ – much like snapshots you might happen upon at a car boot sale, my images speak for themselves. I welcome chance both in the production process and the choice of source material.
I remember when I was 18 or so I would go to nightclubs in Manchester and take E or acid and shadows shifting up and down the walls swans, red glass purred me to sleep candle at my mum's ornaments...
The show is a reflection of Liu Bolin's multifaceted and complex view of contemporary society and culture. The critically acclaimed and internationally renowned artist will release the first works of a new series, Hiding in California.
