The Outset Partners Grants Programme 2022 awarded an Impact Award to A Perfect Sentence by Oliver Frank Chanarin supported by Forma, the most ambitious commission in the organisation's 20 year history. Oliver’s artistic vision, combined with his talent in bringing people together meant Forma was able to build a truly collaborative national project with multiple co-commissioners and institutions, production partners and funders to match the ambition we had set ourselves.
A Perfect Sentence explores the shifting terrain of documentary photography: our drive for attention, the complexity of being seen and our anxiety of being overlooked. Commissioned and produced by Forma with eight partners, A Perfect Sentence is Oliver Frank Chanarin’s first UK solo project and is planned for multiple presentations across the country, public acquisitions, a digital platform and a publication.
Chanarin’s new commission is presented across a series of iterative exhibitions, premiering at KARST, Plymouth 25 January - 23 March 2024. Following the presentation at KARST, A Perfect Sentence is then a highlight of Images Vevey Biennial, Switzerland in September 2024. Subsequently the exhibition opens at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in November 2024 and National Museum Cardiff in 2025, with additional presentation dates pending. A selection of Chanarin’s C-type prints were exhibited for the first time at Derby’s The Museum of Making earlier this year as a highlight of Format23, the UK’s leading photography biennial. The presentation programme and a publication designed and published by Loose Joints will be accompanied by digital outputs and public acquisitions in 2024.
Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director of Forma, said:
“The Outset Partners Grant allowed Oliver and Forma to realise the UK production and complete a very busy period of printing in the photography darkroom. It also ensured we could work with a variety of partners including many charities and small businesses which don’t have access to regular funding. But beyond the financial impact, Outset’s support will open Forma to a network of national and international institutions and art enthusiasts, bringing further attention to Oliver’s work and hopefully creating further opportunities to collaborate, tour the exhibition and generate further institutional acquisitions.”
A Perfect Sentence was commissioned and produced with Forma in partnership with 8 institutions across the UK: Artes Mundi, Cardiff; KARST, Plymouth; Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation; Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, and Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth); originalprojects;, Great Yarmouth; QUAD, FORMAT International Photography festival and Derby Museums, Derby; and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton. Commissioned in association with Images Vevey and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.
