Lucky Pennies

Artist:

Martin Lang

Location:

Lincoln, UK

Full Category:

Coins > Coins > Novelty

Starting Price:

£0.99

Sale Price:

Unsold

Artist Bio:

Martin Lang is an artist who investigates themes of authenticity, militancy, malaise and politics. He has exhibited in Cyprus, Portugal, and the USA. In the UK his work has been selected for exhibition by the likes of Turner Prize Artist Dexter Dalwood and Tate Curator of Photography Simon Baker. Recent exhibitions include International Festival of Projections (Canterbury, 2016) and Troca de Trabalhos, Galeria-Atelier Metamorfose (Porto, 2014). Martin is a lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Fine & Performing Arts, University of Lincoln.

Curator:

Joiner – Artist

Artist Statement:

I work across different media but always investigates themes relating to authenticity. Nathaniel Hepburn (Curator, Mascalls Gallery) describes my photographic cityscapes thus:

These landscapes reference science fiction and dystopian post-nuclear worlds. Yet, they also remind us of the landscapes we occupy; urban spaces left to dereliction and abandonment. Creating images which sit on the edge of our recognition allows Lang to lure us into believing in these places much as we “believe” many of the manipulated and enhanced images which surround us. Lang’s places are no-places but are laden with potential meaning and open to being populated by the viewers’ imagination and fears.

The “landscapes” are in fact just photographs of packaging and junk from the artist’s studio. This theme was developed into a new body of works for the inaugural International Festival of Projections (Canterbury, 2016) where once more, the viewer is unable to avoid the obvious fact of the work’s materiality. Rather than escaping into the picture, instead the viewer is caught in a dead-end meditation on the impossibility of escaping.