JOAN FONTCUBERTA

Some of the work in this exhibition includes explicit content which may cause offence.

Admission is only available to persons over 18

Image Opposite: Crucifixion

Joan Fontcuberta was born in Barcelona in 1955 and is one of the most significant artists to emerge from Spain in the post-Franco era. Beginning his career in advertising and journalism, his work since the 1970s has been characterised by its sceptical and often humorous investigation of the authority of the photographic image to represent objective reality and truth.

Datascapes includes two major bodies of work produced since the millennium which explore the intersection of photography and digital imaging.

In the Googlegrams, Fontcuberta uses photomosaic freeware linked to the popular search engine Google to cull images from the internet by controlling the selection criteria with the input of specific words. These are reassembled into larger iconic images of the artist’s choosing displaying challenging and often ironic relationships between words and pictures. Demonstrating this process, the exhibition will include an interactive element enabling the visitor to create their own Googlegram on a projected screen.


For his Orogenesis, ‘Landscapes Without Memory’ series, the artist has co-opted a piece of software originally designed for military or scientific use which enables the user to build photo-realistic models based on information scanned from two-dimensional sources such as satellite surveys or maps.

Using this as a starting point he has scanned fragments of reproductions of iconic landscapes including those of Cezanne, Dali and Hokusai, forcing the programme to read the contours and tones of these works as cartographic information and transforming this data into virtual landscapes which are exhibited alongside the original image.

LECTURES

FRIDAY 24 APRIL
6.30-7.30PM
(FOLLOWED BY PRIVATE VIEW)

DJANOGLY ART GALLERY LECTURE THEATRE
ADMISSION FREE

AN INTRODUCTION TO DATASCAPES
BY JOAN FONTCUBERTA

WEDNESDAY 13 MAY
6.30-7.30PM

DJANOGLY ART GALLERY LECTURE THEATRE
ADMISSION FREE

LANDSCAPE PROGRAMMING:
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIFICE IN THE
WORK OF JOAN FONTCUBERTA

Dr. Alex Vasudevan, Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Geography, the University of Nottingham.

GALLERY TALK

THURSDAY 28 MAY
1-2PM
DJANOGLY ART GALLERY
ADMISSION FREE

An introduction to the work of Joan Fontcuberta and guided tour of the exhibition with Neil Walker, Visual Arts Officer, Djanogly Art Gallery.

Please book in advance by calling the Box Office on 0115 846 7777. If after booking you are not able to attend, please let us know so that we can offer the place to someone else.

Watch a podcast about the exhibition