Beth Kane – Hidden Hunger
Vacant Lot is a photographic and video exhibition featuring the work of five young artists, who are part of the UK Young Artists collective. The exhibition is being held at Embrace Arts which is about a 15 minute walk from the DMU Campus. The exhibition features a small but strong selection of the work from these five talented artists.
All the works focus on exploring the relationship between the individual and society within the context of consumerism. They complement each other within the exhibition space and allow the viewer to reflect on the different approaches taken by these artists. It’s surprising that the works aren’t labelled however there is a useful exhibition guide which provides details about how the artists carry out their work.
Sam Laughlin’s photography is beautifully bleak. He looks at architecture in a transitional state – buildings left unfinished, not fully made, as a result of economic and political reasons.
Laughlin presents these unfinished structures as powerful symbols of something which could have been. They are haunting reminders of potential which was never realised.
Sam Laughlin, Frameworks
Beth Kane’s featured work is mesmerisingly sad. She has four photographs from her Hidden Hunger series on display, where she has photographed the spaces used by free food distribution services. These spaces are empty apart from tables and chairs. Her use of colour and composition is fantastic, creating these desolate, empty, characterless spaces where the viewer is left to imagine the mania of what ensues when the food bank is open. It’s the lack of people in the photographs that really emphasise feelings of isolation, and aloneness to the viewer. These non-places, where the forgotten members of our society gather to feed themselves, are presented in such a way through Kane’s photography that they invoke the very same feelings of isolation and alienation in the viewer which surely the forgotten and hungry must feel.
Beth Kane, Hidden Hunger
The exhibition also features works by Anna White, Joshua Green and Olivier Marc Thomas Leger.
Location: Embrace Arts,
35 Lancaster Road,
Leicester LE1 7HA
Opening Times: November 7th – 8th
Friday 9.15am – 6pm
Saturday 10am – 6pm
Sunday 10am – 6pm
https://www.facebook.com/ukyoungartists?fref=ts
Rating: 4/5 Stars