bocs

Private View
8th August 7-9.00-PM

Open to Public 9 – 30th August 2008
(Monday- Saturday 10am-4pm)

Originating from Cornwall, my work is concerned with ideas of narrative and identity within set up and studio photography. I work with myself as the singular model for the creation of characters and alternate personae in surreal, often heavily saturated, realities with ambiguous and fragmented narratives. Working with digital photo manipulation techniques to create realistic images of the impossible, I multiply myself within the frame in the form of different characters. These may be pictures of myself, but they are most certainly not self-portraits. I work to create layers of staged realities that are at times highly theatrical and that spring forth from a wide range of inspiration, from classical painting to contemporary cinema.

Photo by Dan Ponting

I began production of elaborately staged images consisting of vividly coloured constructed sets and featuring multiple characters – a series of work I would come to call ‘Self(ish) Characters’. In thinking about the creation of characters I began to explore the notion of becoming a separate or new identity. The work began to take on a characteristic of itself, a signature visual style of dramatic and intensely vivid situations in which the frame is filled with information to enlighten a narrative or event and yet the nature of this is still ambiguous enough for the viewer to be able to form their own reading. Dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, use of the rhetorical gesture and semiotics of the human body form a distinct visual language utilised to convey a sense of narrative. A theme of domination and submission began to be evident in the work as a whole, as well as a wistfully comic portrayal of life and death, indeed comedy is an essential aspect of the work – balancing what can at times be a somewhat morbid subject matter.

The use of digital manipulation is implicit; the images themselves could have obviously never taken place, though great lengths have been taken in order to maintain a sense of realism. This reliance on artifice creates a strange uncanny effect, the viewer knows that the image has been ‘faked’ but is at odds to see how it has been achieved. If the indexical nature of photography is a means for the representation of reality what happens when the reality that the image represents never took place?

I recently exhibited at ‘Control Art Delete’ in London’s Truman Brewery as part of Free Range 2008 the country’s largest coalition of degree art shows as well as being part of ‘100%’ an exhibition of Bath Spa Alumni at Mauger Modern Gallery in Bath. Concurrent with ‘Self(ish) Characters’ at Oriel Dafydd Hardy I am part of the show ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ at the Arts Organistation, Nottingham and future endeavours see me embarking on a solo exhibition at Art Beat Gallery in Brussels and a group show at Attic Gallery in Italy in Summer 2009.

For more information please visit: www.danponting.com

Or contact Dan at: dan@danponting.com or 07725988887