Kevin Newark

"My practice resonates around the themes of space, time, anxiety and displacement. In photographing discarded plastic carrier bags found in the canals of East London, I looked to find some solace for the exiled soul of the plastic bag. After short, useful lives, discarded plastic bags enter into a perpetual state of retirement, their spent utility a metaphor for our own mortal anxiety, whereas the demise of plastic is a distant, uncertain prospect. The moment of disclosure (cognition) is delayed to induce a sense of disorientation allowing the viewer to disassociate themselves from the dogma of optical faith." This is how Newark himself describes this series of photographs.

 




"Newark takes a different approach to the Israeli, photographing discarded carriers found in the canals of East London in a search for the soul of the object in pursuit of “transcendent possibilities”.
He’s focusing on time, anxiety, displacement and space – last time Pavilion commissioned Newark, the results were sky-high pieces of art formed by vapour from the exhaust of a jet engine as it condensed above 30,000 feet – and won the Jerwood Photography Prize in 2007." - http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art65276

From what I understand of this series of photographs Newark has captured the formation of carrier bags in a river but ones with an alternate view, making you think that they are something that they aren't. Like with these images from a quick glance you would think that they are photographs that are taken in space due to the compositions and colours that are within the images. Which is quite interesting as it is giving the images a different meaning from what they actually are. It is like the one image has two different meanings.