| This
exhibition brings together the work of four photographers
who explore notions of contemporary landscape and our relationship
to the natural world. Each of them incorporates fictionalised
rural scenes or backdrops into their images, either through
their own construction or by documenting recreations of rural
settings in other locations.
Roger Hopgood creates
digitally constructed landscapes combining rural backdrops
with unlikely modern ruins, siting a disused petrol station
or a dilapidated climbing frame in an overgrown field or village
green.
Whilst Peter Oetzmann , recipient
of a Jerwood Photography Award in 2006, paints large canvases
of idyllic views, taking them out in the street and photographing
passers-by posing in front of them as though gazing from some
imaginary 'viewing point'. For Mandy Lee Jandrell it is constructed
leisure environments which are of interest. For the works
in this show she has photographed the artificial landscapes
seen in theme parks, zoos or shopping malls, juxtaposing the
fake with the reality beyond the fence.
Simulated rural
scenes found within modern buildings and cities are also to
be seen in the work of Jung A-Yang. This time it is brightly
coloured photographic friezes punctuated by light switches
and fire extinguishers which draw us back and forth between
the real and fake within the images.
From different cultural
perspectives all of the artists examine our romanticised view
of landscape, questioning the gap between our perceptions
and the real. The works also highlight the duality of our
desire to surround ourselves with depictions of nature whilst
the reality is constantly eroded around us.
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