Out of Whack is a photographic exhibition that considers the English landscape in its many shapes and forms; how we abuse and mistreat it, whilst on the other hand idolising picture postcard depictions of pastoral scenes.
The projects spanning the last twenty years attempt through the photographs to reveal an aesthetic towards often unloved spaces, whilst at the same time offering up a critique as to how industrial zones clash with the natural world, where housing developments level natural habitats and military ruins dot the landscape, some memorialised whilst others lie redundant.
The projects are the result of extended journeys to the edges of coastal England, the suburbs of South London, former nuclear Cold War sites in East Anglia and the estuary of the River Thames.
The Hush House: Cold War Sites in England (2004) series reflects on former nuclear Cold War sites based predominately in East Anglia, many lying abandoned or becoming repurposed for commercial interests.
Soundings from the Estuary (2014) looks to the Thames Estuary as a site where the river was once seen as ‘The Highway to the Empire’ and now seems to have become a lost world that awaits its predictable urban colonisation if rising sea levels do not claim the estuary first.
Rollercoasting (2022) is a response to the separation of the Kent coast from the rest of Europe both geologically and through recent political events, hinting at a longing perhaps to be reunited with our European allies.
Circling Saturn (2023-) Is an ongoing project derived from reading W.G.Sebald’s book ‘Rings of Saturn’ and reflects Watson’s preoccupation with the East Anglian coast and the environmental threats it faces.
Cul de Sac (2024-) is a reflection upon how the architecture of the suburbs of South London (where Watson grew up) was often intended to blend in with the countryside; think ‘Garden Suburb’. Unlike the photographs in the other projects these images have been doctored to reveal the idealised way home ownership can also be seen as confinement and incarceration.
This exhibition is part of PhotoMonth East
Frank Watson: Out of Whack press release
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