In 2018 the Outset 91-93 Baker Street Residency hosted four recent Royal College of Art graduates from the MA Photography course. Victoria Fornieles' work investigates how representations of the female body within landscape can affect the way in which we culturally understand gender, identity and geography. Joshua Phillips aims to democratise the hierarchy of materials whilst using it also to guide conversations around accessibility, value, class, preservation and national heritage in his work. Ben McDonnell's practice stems from research into promoting a dialogue between sound and the still image, exploiting the difficulties and 'cracks' in this relationship to make work about memory, space and architectural environments. Nemo Nonnenmacher's work initiates a discourse about the significance of the digital world and its implications for the understanding of the concept of our bodies.
Although their work is diverse in its themes, the copying, twisting reproduction and re-appropriation of the image is central to all their artistic practices. Through the acceleration and deterioration of the physical printed image, the artists made use of the space as a residency and studio, coming to the space to discuss, collaborate and produce as a way of expanding their practices individually and also collectively.
To accompany this residency, there was a curated public programme which involved artist talks, evening performances as well as a printed-materials / curated artist book launch. Invited writers, curators, collectors, art historians and composers were tasked to respond and contribute to the context of the residency, its themes and uses of printed materials to produce and generate new discussions and questions.
This took shape in the form of artists-in-dialogue, performance and music compositions which responded to the exhibition themes, commissioned texts and sound pieces, as well as a collaborative artist book launch.
About the artists:
Victoria Fornieles uses her body as a tool, a camera and a mark making device. By combining camera based and camera-less techniques in the darkroom her work sets out to subtly subvert the characteristics of photography. She is also a School of the Damned alumni. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Cyprus School of Art in 2013 and was awarded a place on a residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2016.
Joshua Phillips' work uses the photograph as a motif to investigate ideas and compose research, often taking an artefact or locating a historic position as a starting point to investigate the construction of cultural narratives associated with place. He has recently been nominated for PARALLEL European Photo Based Platform and will be exhibiting work and participating alongside cultural organizations as Procur.arte, Kaunas Photography Gallery and Organ Vida.
Ben McDonnell's background as a musician informs his visual practice, using photography, installation and sound to create a cyclical relationship between sound, silence and the still image. He has exhibited and performed widely in the U.K., Europe and Asia, including Paris Photo in 2016. He is also an associate lecturer in art and photography at the universities of Salford and Huddersfield.
Nemo Nonnenmacher is a german visual artist who uses photography, digital sculpture and installation to explore how contemporary technologies affect our cultural identity. He has had exhibitions throughout the UK, Germany and Italy, including the Schleuse Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim, Germany in 2017 and at the Fondazione Fotografia in Modena, Italy in 2016. From 2012 to 2017 he has been a fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.
