Fifth Exhibtion

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EXHIBIT is proud to present the debut photographic installation by British artist, Roger Coleman.

Coleman’s thought-provoking and beautiful work questions the impact of urban values on rural environments. In 2007 global urban populations overtook those in rural settings, completing the evolutionary march from hunter gatherer to urban consumer; from Homo Sapiens to Homo Urbanis.

One hundred and fifty years ago Britain embraced urban dwelling in a way that much of the world is only just beginning to catch up with. This change has shaped our rural landscape to the needs of city dwellers. The result is a radically transformed country – the focus of Coleman’s work in Flat Earth 2007.

28 images closely hung around four walls and against a dark background take the viewer into a tranquil moment to explore the existing landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fens. The works capture the impact of urban demands on what was once a wetland of marshes and shallow meres, and is now perhaps the most productive and intensively farmed area in the UK. This contemporary working landscape has been shaped by cities and supermarkets, but there has been little debate about why it should be as it is, who should take responsibility for it, and how we can relate to it. Coleman’s work highlights these shifts by documenting the landscape as a record and also as an attempt to find a new, unromantic aesthetic in the modern landscape as it exists.

“One of the things that binds me to the Fens is that, as drained land it is so completely constructed and artificial, yet constantly changing with the weather, seasons and crops. Drawing and photographing are for me, a way of trying to nail down this conflict between the human and the natural.” Roger Coleman, 2005

29 March – 12 May 2007