Nigel Bennet (UK/USA) Residencies: September 2012, August 2013
Nigel Bennet’s (*1975, American/British) artistic practice is not only research based, but the research process forms a central element of the work itself. His interests do not lie in photography for photography’s sake, but rather he employs the medium as a tool to make visible that which is normally considered impossible to depict.
Bennet’s background studying Social Anthropology and Asian languages at SOAS (University of London) facilitates an approach to themes that are as much of interest to science as they are to art. His work is often community-based and relies upon social interaction, as is beautifully illustrated by his series “Silence Has An Echo” (2010/2012), where he studies the emotional and psychological aftermath of political upheaval and tragic death in Bangkok.
Combining the poetic with the scientific (such as “folk taxonomies”), Bennet is often able to pinpoint moments when ordinary communicative systems fail, where we become lost in translation, and where linguistics and semantics cannot reach, yet somehow the semiotic echo-chamber of his artistic research reverberates within us.
This is his 2nd visit since 2012 and he was supported by Asian cultural council to do his project at Studio Kura. The project called「hakuro」which he took pictures of people&things in Itoshima, was held. At the end of his stay, he had a group exhibition「open kura」to show his work.
Damian Christinger – gallerist and curator
