Futureproof 2011
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow

Posted on 16/08/11
Article by Danny Hearn

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Futureproof is an annual group exhibition of up-and-comings from Scottish colleges and universities. 2011's offering cements Futureproof's reputation as a credible and eclectic showcase of promising young photographic artists.

Futureproof is in its third year now. This mixed group show at Glasgow's photographic centre Street Level Photoworks is an annual showcase of graduates from Scottish colleges and unis. In most cases, the artists have been selected from other exhibitions they have been involved in, often hand-picked from their degree shows, or in some cases from solo shows in Glasgow and beyond.

It's always interesting to see a show dedicated to taking a healthy cross-section of the current photo-educational zeitgeist. While there are eminent trends within the exhibition, such as a usage of archive images by a number of participants, the subject matter, techniques and presentations are quite diverse.

One of the most unique installations is that of Sofia Silva (Glasgow School of Art), whose work, taken from her series 10227 Days of Lost Affection is a cannibalism of the artist's own snapshot collection, repurposed to summarise her life story through single windows into each year of her life. This is a clever take on the idea of using archive material – as it is her own archive which is being accessed, without the neutrality of disconnection. The prints examine the idea of finding beauty and meaning in an image regardless that its initial intention was passive.

Others who looted the archives include Victoria Cheape (University of the West of Scotland), whose work Let the Old Dead Make Room for the New Dead consists of a WW2-era photograph of an anonymous young man in a sequence of sixteen prints during which the image fades to white. The work acknowledges the fleeting nature of photography itself – in an age in which several million new images are created everyday, older images are obtaining obsolescence quicker than ever before. Cheape, like an archaeologist, has resurrected an artefact of beauty from burial and given it a moment to be appreciated again for what it is, before once again slipping to obscurity. This is a valid and thoughtful application of the practice of using the work of anonymous others.

Also from UWS is Radek Nowacki's portrait series Barras DNA. Presented as a series of nine, the work achieves its goal of examining the diversity of the people of Glasgow's Barras market. The series seems photographically conservative amongst the other works of the exhibition, though the romanticism of the subject matter is aided by the traditional documentary approach.

Fabien Marques' (GSA) typology Der Männergarten consists of interior images of bedrooms from legal prostitution facilities in Saxony, Germany. These three large prints are striking for their plastical finish which echoes the tacky gaudiness of the settings within the images. The tone of the series is distinctly different from some other artists' insights into the sex industry of recent years, such as Natascha by Dana Popa, in that the images are not humanistic, profound or tragic. This is no harrowing exposé of a seedy underworld. The rooms in the images on first glance might not even appear to be anything other than bedrooms of young women; the recurring motif of fairy lights being possibly the only clue to the sleazy nighttime reality.

On the same wall, in stark contrast to Marques' work, sit two images from the series Not Calculus by Louise Menmuir (Edinburgh College of Art). These are fantastical depictions of childhood imagination, presented as punctuated moments in the daydream of a young girl. The images have a beautiful bare simplicity which emphasises the very nature of the daydream itself, and evokes an era before the age of material distractions.

Amongst the more unique presentational methods on display are a series of cyanotypes by Lauren Boyes (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee) and metallic inkjet prints by Song-yun Kim (GSA). Boyes' abstract images reflect a detached yielding to the forces of influence which she acknowledges in her exhibition statement – mentioning that her work has been compulsively influenced since reading a particular piece of literature whilst at school. The result is a depiction of the ephemeral nature of inspiration itself; its mysterious influence on one's actions which is felt but cannot be easily articulated. Song-yun's untitled works are aimed at eschewing the traditional method of viewing photography as something which is transmitted at the viewer and must be 'decoded'. In presenting his abstract images on a reflective surface, they become adaptive to their setting and therefore more of a unique, situation-specific experience.

Other highlights include Ryan Gibson's (Napier University) study of the relationship between travel and tourism by way of pairing official souvenirs with landscapes of the locations they supposedly represent. Furthermore, a colossal panoramic landscape of a rural Scottish setting by Daniel Cook (Jordanstone) dominates one of the larger walls in the space. The exhibition's poster image Octopi by Joanna Lyczko and Seila Susberg, which depicts a naked torso adorned with cephalopod shoulder pads, was not present, which disappointed me slightly, but will go on display at a different part of the gallery complex in a few weeks' time – which could encourage some return visits. The robust variety of work on display merits two visits anyway.

Link: Futureproof on www.streetlevelphotoworks.org

Artist links: Angus Behm, Lauren J Boyes, Victoria Cheape, John Clarke, Daniel Cook, Rosalind Dallas, Nuno Direitinho, Ryan Gibson, Hannah Imlach, Song-yun Kim, Simone Kubik, Joanna Lyczko & Seila Susberg, Fabien Marques, Nina Marvin, Louise Menmuir, Radek Nowacki, Sofia Silva, Karen Simpson, Antonia Spagnoletti, Dagmar Vyhnálková.