Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

I will finish my guest posts with a short piece about my 3 favourite works of  the ARKA Group. The ARKA group is a collaboration between Ben Jeans Houghton and Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (yeah, I know, great names). They often work with additional collaborators but essentially they are the ARKA group. I began my Der Greif blogs with a piece about Pina Bausch. I discussed how Pina took broad universal themes such as love and hope whilst always keeping a close engagement with reality. The ARKA group also keep it broad. They deal with the universe and the wonder we feel when confronted by it. I photographed their Zabludowicz Collection Invites exhibition entitled On Between. It might of had something to do with the fact I had not eaten all day, felt tired or it could have been the sheer mass of stuff, intermittent audio loops, wafts of blueberry essence or just the fact I was immersed in the single room installation for over 2 hours, anyway I was nauseous and dizzy when I emerged. It was a great feeling and I think it was the desired response to the sculptural compositions they created. At once, everything felt overly familiar but also a million miles away as if you reached out to grab it it would disappear in a puff. From an overview it was overwhelming, in isolation it was overwhelming but it was also comforting and easy to forge a personal path finding meaning, making sense and then having it all completely obliterated again. As an-aside was also interesting for me knowing both Ben and Matt's individual practices and knowing who led what and also completely getting it wrong. An introduction to the work as on the Zabludowicz Collection website. "A new installation of sculptural works by the ARKA group. On Between further develops the ARKA group's dismantling of cinematic ideas and methodologies, replacing moving images with sculptural forms, found objects and sound. For On Between, the ARKA group have created sculptures with materials collected from liminal spaces around London and Newcastle; spaces at the margins or intersections of the built environment. The new works take inspiration from the incidental compositions and materiality of the objects discovered in these negative spaces that are inadvertently created between more clearly defined landscapes. Made within the gallery, the new works are combined from a wide assortment of materials gleaned during a period of finding and composing. Soil, tarpaulin, leaves, hair, plastic bags, clay, paint, drinks cans, fabric, rubble and meteorites." [gallery ids="50296,50298"] They are good at making you realise just how insignificant you are. An earlier work Beginnings which I first saw at Space In Between and then at Whitstable Biennial is in their own words "an immersive installation that tells the story of our universe from the point of view of a meteorite. Starting with the Big Bang, the meteorite travels to earth, where it is molested by human culture before the red sun swallows everything and the cycle begins again." You sit with a blackout cloth on your head within a beautifully draped old cinema screen, clutching a meteorite whilst the soothing narration guides you through the meteorites journey. The piece lasts about 15 minutes but both times I experienced it I was exhausted afterwards. The meteorite appeared to get heavier throughout the process whilst the cloth sat heavy on my shoulders. Finally, one of my favourite ARKA group projects and again an older work is EXTRAMISSION: On the Research of Professor J. Hillard a film made as part of the Cornerhouse Micro Commission programme. We showed it at Night Contact in 2014 as part of Brighton Photo Biennial where our programme explored collaboration, authorship and influence. Unlike the other two works which you won't experience until next time they show them EXTRAMISSION can be viewed here. Enjoy! [vimeo video_id="23496030" width="1000" height="563“] For further insight, here is a good interview with Ben and Matt on Dazed Digital