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murmurART

Nancy Fouts show extended until end of July. A must see. 52 Oakley Square, NW1
Review Feb 11 2009 « | »
Toby Smith opens Light After Dark at Tender Pixel His photography is a powerful meditation on human interaction with nature, and not in the overt rape-and-pillage way that......

Jon Openshaw

His photography is a powerful meditation on human interaction with nature, and not in the overt rape-and-pillage way that you might expect. The collection going on show tomorrow is a series of moody brooding power stations shot a night through slow exposures, but rather than getting snagged on the menace (although the menace is still there) something far more interesting emerges from the haze.

These are solid yet ephemeral forms (to use an annoying contradiction in terms), alien squatters that are somehow at one with the landscape (another almost contradiction). Instead of dwelling on the disjuncture between building and environment, it is the relationship between them that brings about a more holistic change - a change that overcomes and unites both. This brings dynamism and allure to the haunting threat that power stations inevitably possess.

Smith's interest is not in the violence of the buildings, but in our reliance on their existence. The humming nocturnal giants are therefore transformed into objects to meditate upon rather than judge.

Smith is currently working out of the Roof Unit photographic collective in London; more can be found on the Light After Dark series here.

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