Night sites #2
Leigh Mitchell-Anyon, Artist
This is one of the
photographs
in our collection.
It was made in
Whanganui Region, New Zealand
in 2003.
Measurements
(Image) 295 x 448 mm
Media
Epson inkjet prints on Archival Matte Heavyweight Paper
Description
"The dark is a foreboding place, full of the unknown and possible danger. Things happen, bad things. There’s often a sense of incipient violence looming just beyond your view – all you can see are the flicker of eyes as the flash catches them. There’s no way you can see your way out either, the exit is obscured – but you can see where others have been.
While I was making an exhibition called Tiki Tour, I became quite enamoured of the velvety texture of the blacks of the Epson inkjet paper. Really it’s been a matter of convenience and desire that Night Sites has developed the way it has.
Photographing in the dark using flash is like using the night sky as a black cyclorama - the subject becomes isolated and stilled, rigid, colours glow. The photographic idiom, capture, seems quite pertinent. Many of the images in Night Sites show objects that have been captured, locked in cement, chained down, fenced in – generally not going anywhere. It’s curious to me that we are so keen to cement boats down when they have provided so much mobility to our cultures.
The Night Sites project stems from a lifetime living here and knowing colonial Wanganui started as a garrison town. I feel that spirit remains. Although five of the sites are not in Wanganui, the project could be summed up as an expression of nightlife in my town – a few hairy beasts roaming around, things going nowhere and the feeling of being cornered."
Artist Statement from the exhibition "Art Bizarre" Sarjeant Gallery 2005
While I was making an exhibition called Tiki Tour, I became quite enamoured of the velvety texture of the blacks of the Epson inkjet paper. Really it’s been a matter of convenience and desire that Night Sites has developed the way it has.
Photographing in the dark using flash is like using the night sky as a black cyclorama - the subject becomes isolated and stilled, rigid, colours glow. The photographic idiom, capture, seems quite pertinent. Many of the images in Night Sites show objects that have been captured, locked in cement, chained down, fenced in – generally not going anywhere. It’s curious to me that we are so keen to cement boats down when they have provided so much mobility to our cultures.
The Night Sites project stems from a lifetime living here and knowing colonial Wanganui started as a garrison town. I feel that spirit remains. Although five of the sites are not in Wanganui, the project could be summed up as an expression of nightlife in my town – a few hairy beasts roaming around, things going nowhere and the feeling of being cornered."
Artist Statement from the exhibition "Art Bizarre" Sarjeant Gallery 2005
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 2003.
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
03 Sep 2003