The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Landmark at Somerset House

Landmark at Somerset House | Exhibition review
15 March 2013
Harriet Gibson
Avatar
Harriet Gibson
15 March 2013

Somerset House is currently holding Landmark: the Fields of Photography, a collection featuring over 70 leading photographers whose work captures the world as it is, as it was and as it changes.

Through meticulous placement, curator William A. Ewing smoothly guides the viewer from piece to piece. His passion and charisma reflected throughout, he unveils our changing planet with taste and sometimes humour, allowing us to review the relationship between Man and nature and to reconsider the definition of the sublime – or as Ewing describes it, “the ridiculous”.

The exhibition begins with a small collection of untrammelled landscapes with signs of humankind introduced later, from pastoral to urban construction to demolition. There lies the idea of nature existing artificially and, more so, conveniently, adapted to our ever changing way of life. Soon it becomes clear what Ewing means when he refers to the sublime as ridiculous: as the shift in power turns, vegetation becomes more controlled and eventually imitated.

Contemplating the journey through this exhibition it is strange but interesting that the end is so similar to the beginning. There’s clearly an attempt to copy and paste, trying to recapture the scenic through controlled materials and through the internet. Penelope Umbrico and Justine Blau both use images found on Flickr and Google to invent landscapes, which demonstrates how much we’ve come to depend on reproduction. Another example is Florian Joye’s Bawadi, a crude, image of Dubai – a city that fabricates the world’s top landmarks in one spot.

It is an ambitious exhibition with over 130 original works, all of which make you step back and truly consider the state of the planet, pointing out that tomorrow it will be different. Fearless and eye-opening, this is a must-see. It will leave you wondering what the next step is for landscape photography.

★★★★★

Harriet Gibson
Photos: Jay Shaw-Baker

Landmarks: the Fields of Photography is at Somerset House until 28th April 2013. For further information or to book visit the gallery’s website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Art

Ten artistic depictions of the Christmas story through the ages

James White
Read More

Five gifts for art lovers this Christmas

Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Five alternative art exhibitions for Christmas 2020

Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Sensing the Unseen: Step into Gossaert’s Adoration at the National Gallery

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum: The evolution of a force for good

James White
Read More

Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Royal Academy

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night at Tate Britain

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Rob and Nick Carter on Connaught Village’s public neon installations: “Accessibility of art is crucial during a pandemic”

Lilly Subbotin
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Start the year right with these eco-friendly vegan and vegetarian food deliveries
    Food & Drinks
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Capote Tapes
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Assassins: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • Schemers
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Away: An interview with animator Gints Zilbalodis
    Interviews
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Foy Vance at Islington Assembly Hall | Live review
A Late Quartet | Movie review