Approved: 23.02.2016

Martin Pover

Artist, Lecturer / academic

Approved: 23.02.2016

I find it hard to categorise my photography, but it has been described as ‘social landscape’ in that the ‘landscapes’ depicted (in the ‘Carceri’ series, for example), are social constructs, and the people and housing depicted (in ‘Harrold Hill’ for example), form a particular part of the social landscape of South Essex.

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  • Location: LONDON, London
  • Contexts: Project
  • Tags: carceri-tiergarten, photography
 
 

Artist Statement

I find it hard to categorise my photography, but it has been described as ‘social landscape’ in that the ‘landscapes’ depicted (in the ‘Carceri’ series, for example), are social constructs, and the people and housing depicted (in ‘Harrold Hill’ for example), form a particular part of the social landscape of South Essex.

I am engaged in a conscious scrutiny of ‘space’, both exterior and interior.

In the Catalogue for the ‘Uneasy Spaces’ exhibition, Washington DC in 2008, Liz Wells, the curator wrote: ‘Landscape’ in visual art dates back to the Renaissance, with lineages via Italianate painting and Germanic Romanticism, both of which also influenced art forms ranging from literature to landscape architecture. It is, of course, an ideological construction; one which has little to do with everyday evolution and seasonal change in the countryside. Martin Pover’s pictures of the false ‘natural’ reality constructed as settings for animals in zoos remind us of the force of such idealisation. The painted landscapes and polystyrene rocks offer nothing of the sounds, smells and tastes of the wild; the baroque staging panders to human sensibilities rather than to the needs of the captives. In drawing attention to viewpoints and angles of vision constructed for visitors, Carceri reminds us to question assumptions and desires underpinning the construction of fields of vision.

CV & Education

Martin Pover

Curriculum Vitae                                                                               

Exhibitions

 

2015                ‘Concrete Nature’

                        The Arts Centre gallery. Stamford, Lincolnshire. 3  30” x 30” photographs.

                        (Exhibition supporting the annual symposium of New Networks for Nature)

2015                ‘Pool’    ‘The Swimmer’.

                        CGP.  Southwark, London 6  20”x 24” photographs.

                      

2012                ‘Territories’  Galerie Windkracht  Den Helder. Holland

2011                ‘Carceri’   Brighton Photography Biennale

2010                ‘Carceri'  Camelot Gallery, Krakow, Poland. (Solo show)

2008                ‘Rummage: Museum of Natural History, Strasbourg’    

                        Café Gallery Projects.  Southwark, London One 5’x5’ photograph.

2007                ‘Meme’  Tower Bridge Complex. LONDON.

2007                “How We Are’ Photographing Britain, 1840s to present” (Curator: Val Williams) 

                         Tate Britain. 6 photographs. Catalogue

2006                ‘Uneasy Spaces’

                         Washington Square East Galleries, New York (Curator: Liz Wells) Catalogue

2004                ‘Slither& Slice’

                        Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London

2004                Open Studios

                        Bow Arts Trust, London                     

2003                ‘Connections’

                        James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, Surrey

2002                ‘Stranded’

                        Old Aldwych Tube Station, London

2000                ‘Ark 2000’

                        Dilston Grove/ Cafe Gallery Projects, Southwark, London

1998                “8’x 4’’

                        Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London

1993                ‘Kunstbrucke’

                        Galerie am Wasserturm, Berlin

1993                ‘2 Works’

                        Cafe Gallery, Southwark, London

1989                ‘Household Choices’

                        Henry Cole Wing, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1985                ‘12 Works in Colour’

                        Optica Gallery, Montreal, Canada

1983                ‘New Work’ 30 Photographs. Almeida Gallery, London

1975                ‘Photographic Collection’

                        Aktuell Photographi, Stockholm, Sweden

1974                Contemporary British Photography  Asinus Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

1974                ‘Recent British Photography’  Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex

1973                ‘Serpentine Photography '73’

                        Serpentine Gallery, London. 21 photographs

 

Publications

2007                ‘London Independent Photography’

                        10 images and interview

2005                ‘Portfolio’ magazine, issue 41

                        pp10-15, ‘Carceri’, incl. essay by Liz Wells

1993                ‘Kunstbrucke’ catalogue

                        British Council and Goethe Institute

1989                ‘Household Choices’. Catalogue,

                        Arts Council of England

1988                ‘The Name of the Room: The Electronic Cottage’,

                        Edited by Martin Pauley, BBC books. 15 photographs

1984                ‘Images of Lust, Sexual Carvings in Mediaeval Churches’,

                        13 photographs; E. Jarman, Batsford Press

 

Education

 

MA Fine Art, University of East London

BA Photographic Arts, Polytechnic of Central London

 

Teaching Experience  (selected)

University College for the Creative Arts. MFA Photography Supervision.  

Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Course Leader, BA (Hons)Photography

Middlesex University, Senior Lecturer Fine Art, Photography, Printmaking

Limkokwing College, Kuala Limpur. Malaysia, Visiting Lecturer Photography, Printmaking

Curtin College, Perth, Australia, Visiting Lecturer Fine Art, Photography, Printmaking

Havering Technical College, Essex, Lecturer II, F/T, Foundation

                        Photography, Printmaking

Vanier C.E.G.E.P, Lecturer (Professor), F/T, Montreal, Canada, Foundation

                        Exchange Photography, Film, Drawing for Architects, Printmaking

Slade School of Art, University College London, Teaching Assistant, F/T

                        Postgrad. School, Printmaking, Photography

 

External Examining:

Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen  BA Photography

University of Wales, Newport/ Caerleon BA Photographic Arts

Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. BA Photography

University Campus Suffolk, Great Yarmouth College.  BA Photography

Roehampton University BA/BSc Photography

Akto College of Art and Design, Athens, Greece BA & MA Photography

 

Professional:

Trustee of CGP -  CaféGalleryProjects in Bermondsey, SE1                

Member of the Bermondsey Artist’s Group since 1992