WHAT'S ON / CONFINED - JUERGEN CHILL, EDMUND CLARK, JOHN DARWELL, DORNITH DOHERTY, BEN GRAVILLE, DAVID MAISEL AND DAVID MOORE

13 MAY 2011 - 10 JULY 2011

Featuring Juergen Chill, Edmund Clark, John Darwell, Dornith Doherty, Ben Graville, David Maisel and David Moore

Artists at the Bluecoat consider the festival theme through the idea of confinement in contemporary life. They engage with a range of subjects including imprisonment and detention, the ethical treatment of animals, ecological conservation and the history of psychiatric care.

Four photographers concentrate on the confinement of humans: Juergen Chill’s photographs of German prison cells are architectural studies of the physical space prisoners inhabit; Edmund Clark’s photographs of the American naval base and detainee camps in Guantanamo illustrate three views of “home” in the context of political imprisonment; David Moore explores surveillance in urban space and investigates Paddington Green High Security Police Station where terror suspects under the Counter Terrorism Act are held; and Ben Graville’s penetrating and provocative portraits capture prisoners being driven to and from the Old Bailey, the UKs Central Criminal Court.

Commissioned by the Bluecoat, John Darwell’s new photographic series Dogs in Cages is an allegory on the wider nature of incarceration. Produced in cooperation with one of the largest dogs homes in the North West, Darwell’s work highlights the nature and mechanics of captivity.

In collaboration with internationally renowned biologists Dornith Doherty has photographed at several key seed banks, including the Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Focusing on food plants, her works document and respond to the process of the collection and containment of biological species and global efforts to insure against starvation.

David Maisel’s Library of Dust series documents the cremated remains of psychiatric patients at a state-run hospital collected since the late 19^th century. Abstract and elegiac, the photographs provoke discussion about loss, memory, confinement and mental illness.

Location: The Bluecoat

Opening Times: Monday - Tuesday 8am - 6pm

Wednesday - Saturday 8am - 8pm

Sunday 10am - 6pm