Mute | Martin Usbourne
Award winning photographer Martin Usborne will unveil a solo exhibition of haunting dog portraits at East London gallery, theprintspace, this October. The collection, called Mute, consists of eight large-scale prints of dogs looking out of car windows in the dead of night. The exhibition is not your usual pet portraiture but takes a serious look at feelings of loneliness and isolation both in relation to animals but also humans.
I was once left in a car at a young age. I don't know when or where or for how long, possibly at the age of four, perhaps outside a supermarket, probably for fifteen minutes only. The details don't matter. The point is that I wondered if anyone would come back: in a child's mind it is possible to be alone forever. Around the same age I developed a deep affinity with animals - in particular their plight at the hands of humans. I remember watching TV and seeing footage of a dog being put in a plastic bag and being kicked. What appalled me most was that the dog could not speak back. It's muteness terrified me. It is clear that both these experiences arose from the same place deep inside me: a fear of being alone and unheard. The images in this series explore that feeling, both in relation to myself and to animals in general. The camera is the perfect tool for capturing silence and longing: the shutter preserves the subject like a creature pickled behind glass. In this instance two layers of glass are placed between the viewer and the viewed: the glass of the lens and the glass of the car window. The dog is truly alone. When I started this project I knew the photos would be dark. What I didn't expect was to see so many subtle reactions by the dogs: some sad, some expectant, some angry, some dejected. It was as if upon opening up a box of grey-coloured pencils I was surprised to see so many shades inside. I hope that these pictures are engaging and perhaps a little amusing. I want to show that there is life in the dark places within us. I will stop writing now and you can stop reading. Words can only get us so far. After all, we are all animals
Martin Usborne, Sept 201022 October > 9 November 2010Mutetheprintspace74 Kingsland RoadShoreditchLondon E2 8DL
