Time to reflect on an extended weekend in Nederland ending with a roundtrip to Groningen for the opening of TAXED TO THE MAX at Noorderlicht International Photography Festival where new work from Masterplan is being exhibited. Some really strong work and expertly curated by Hester Keijser and Wim Melis. Thanks to everyone involved from the wonderful Team Norderlicht for a warm welcome and excellent job. Check out their new website!
Enroute to Groningen for the official opening of TAXED TO THE MAX at Noorderlicht. Preview of all the work exhibited on display between 14:30 and 16:30. I’ll be at de Zwarte Doos after 15:00 where work from MASTERPLAN will be on show together with other work from Alan Gignoux, Sergey Novikov, Max Sheer, Michele Borzoni and Tony Fouhse. Many other exhibitions and events totalling 34 international artists are on show all over the city. Launch party at 17:00 at Oude Conservatorium. See you there!
Great to be back in Utrecht at the studio of Kummer & Herrman where Masterplan Project was formed in 2016 when we collaborated on developing its visual concept, website and promotional material. Thanks to Arthur and Inês for a warm welcome and look forward to work on the project in the future. See new work from Masterplan tomorrow at the launch of TAXED TO THE MAX at Noorderlicht in Groningen. http://masterplan.je
Was recommend by a friend in Utrecht to eat at Entrepot, a restaurant at Entrepotdok in Amsterdam. Not only was the food excellent but the name and its location excited me a great deal as the concept of Entrepôt is essentially what my work about the island of Jersey is exploring . These row of warehouses, now converted to apartments were set up in 1827 to stimulate the transit trade in Amsterdam and until 1895 goods could be stored temporarily without having to pay import duties. They only had to pay duty when the goods were put on the market.
The concept of a warehouse is a good allegory for Jersey's success as a trading post. In fact, a previous Treasury Minister of Jersey often referred to the island exactly as a 'warehouse' and its semi-detached status between Europe (+ the rest of the world) and UK has directly benefited the island’s economy and indirectly shaped its identity and character. Constitutional loopholes allowing goods and services to be administered in Jersey, whatever industries were dominating in the past eg. knitting, cider, cod-fish and now finance have made the island a wealthy nation comparable to its size and population.
Both my long term projects THE SEAFLOWER VENTURE and MASTERPLAN explore Jersey’s original wealth acquired through its historical maritime trade and contemporary prosperity as an International Finance Centre with capital inflows derived across multiple jurisdictions and financial markets. They proposes to re-address parts of the legacy upon which the islands’s economic growth and development in the past, present and future has been told.
New work from Masterplan will be unveiled among work from 34 international artists as part of TAXED TO THE MAX at NoorderlichtInternational Photography Festival officially opening on Saturday 5 Oct at 17:00 in Groningen. See you there!
Recently I spoke with Dutch magazine Pf- Professionele Fotografie about MASTERPLAN my ongoing project about the island of Jersey functioning as an International Finance Centre (IFC). Thanks to editor Ton Hendriks for commissioning the article and Lise Lotte ten Voorde for an in-depth interview about the different aspects of my research and work in the past 4 years. A selection of work from Masterplan will be exhibited as part of TAXED TO THE MAX at Noorderlicht International Photography Festival opening this Saturday 5 Oct in Groeningen. Looking forward to see the curation, special publication and hard work lead by Hester Keijser and her dedicated team.
http://www.noorderlicht.com/…/noorderlicht-internationaal-…/
https://pf.nl
http://www.noorderlicht.com/nl/fotomanifestatie/noorderlicht-internationaal-fotofestival-2019/
Two recent reviews appeared in New Zealand in New Zealand Geographic and an iwi magazine Te Karaka from Ngāi Tahu in the South Island.
‘The resulting images avoid the picturesque in favour of something more primal and shifting. The text, too, gropes at shadowy truths, chalking out its meanings in aphorisms and anecdotes, and in the interchanges between Toft and members of his adoptive whānau. Te Ahi Kā is one of the most poetic responses yet to the poignancy of Māori alienation and the life-affirming power of reconnection with the land, the river, and the world of the ancestors.' Vaughan Yarwood
Since its publication with Dewi Lewis in Nov 2018 several reviews and interviews have appeared in Aperture Foundation, GUP magazine, Photomonitor.co.uk, PhotoBook Journal, Archive Contemporary (Archive Collective Magazine), ZEITmagazin, PHmuseum, BooksellersNZ, Whanganui Chronicle, Bailiwick Express, BBC Jersey and The British Journal of Photography.
On Friday 27 Sept between 13:00-14:00 I will be giving a talk about the making of Te Ahi Kā - The Fires of Occupation at Jersey Library as part of the 5th Jersey Festival of Words. Spanning more than 20 years the book explore the physical and metaphysical relationship between the ancestral Whanganui River and its indigenous people in New Zealand. I will be discussing my collaboration with Māori communities and recording my journey through the use of photography, archives and interviews.
Book tickets here: http://www.jerseyfestivalofwords.org/author/?id=3245
Exciting things are happening in Groeningen in preparation for the exhibition TAXED TO THE MAX which will open at Noorderlicht International Photography Festival on 6 Oct - 1 Dec featuring the work of 34 international artists. Can't wait to see the hard work put in by curator Hester Keijser and her excellent team, including a publication to accompany the exhibition with a commissioned essay by Clair Quentin reflecting on wealth and power, the state and the company - all essential foundations in the origin of capitalist society and relevant themes which I am exploring in my Masterplan Project, a long-term research and photographic case study about the island of Jersey operating as an International Finance Centre (IFC)
