Opening this week at the London Festival of Photography
LET THIS BE A SIGN - SIMON ROBERTS
Dates: 25 May to 01 July 2012
Venue: Swiss Cottage Gallery
Address: Swiss Cottage Central Library, 88 Avenue Road, London, NW3 3HA
Disabled Access: This event has wheelchair access
Map: View
Opening Times: Mon–Thur: 10am-8pm, Fri: 10am-5pm, Sat: 10am-5pm, Sun: 11am-4pm. Closed bank holiday 4-5 June.
Price: FREE
New work from Simon Roberts looking at the economic, political and social effects of the recent UK recession. Alongside the exhibition, a participatory space will be set up where visitors will be invited to share their thoughts and experiences.
See the full festival schedule!
http://www.lfph.org/diary
Simon Roberts has been photographing the landscape of the UK extensively since 2007, the results of which include the acclaimed publication We English (Chris Boot 2009) and his appointment as the official Election Artist by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee in 2010. During this time he has witnessed the credit crunch as it unfolded, giant institutions previously presumed to be immovable features of the economic landscape teetering on the brink of collapse, and the country moving into a period of enforced austerity.
While it seems that not a day goes by without more grim economic news, the current recession has been largely invisible. This is in spite of the fact that the eventual effects of such news – a lost job, a vanishing pension, cuts to social services – are intensely personal. Over the past eighteen months Roberts has been looking at modes of representing the physical, political and social effects of economic change. His approach has been multi-disciplinary, using photographs, moving image, and text and collecting physical objects such as protest banners, in an attempt to find ways of interrogating our new predicament and the shifting perception of the country’s economic and political landscape.
As with his previous projects, Roberts will be adding a collaborative, interactive element to this exhibition by encouraging public participation. There will be a pop-up library of economic-related literature available to read, share and discuss as well as a wall for the public to leave messages about how they have been affected by the recent cuts and suggest ideas for change.
Read a recent article in the Financial Times and New York Times about this body of work.
