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Sarah Pickering (UK)
Sarah Pickering was born in 1972, in Durham, England. Her monograph, Explosions, Fires and Public Order will be published by Aperture in April 2010.
Qualifications
2003 - 2005 MA Photography Royal College of Art
1992 - 1995 BA(hons) Photographic Studies, University of Derby
1991 - 1992 Foundation Certificate in Art and Design, Newcastle College
Artist statement
Incident (2008)
The black and white Incident photographs depict purpose built environments that have been set on fire as practice exercises for Fire Officers to extinguish. The blackened spaces reveal traces of human presence-marks were fingers have dragged across the surfaces and bodies have rubbed past objects. Rather than the charred piles of debris expected to be seen in a burned out building, these locations are strangely pristine. Objects are schematic and approximate as they are designed to be repeatedly burned, and have to retain a distinguishable form. The spaces catalogue potential sites of fires and resonate as an echo of an event. The photograph itself is also a subject of the series- dark areas often appear where lightness should be, creating a slippage between negative and positive; the matt surface of the print echoes the carbon-covered surface in the spaces; the photographic trace a record of multiple moments- anticipating the future and referencing the past.
Fire Scene (2007)
Each room in the Fire Scene series is filled with narrative- clues as to the identity of the perpetrator or victim, scenes of disturbance, violence or carelessness. These are set dressed interiors that are strategically burnt to train forensic teams and crime scene investigators. Painstakingly assembled to have a convincing level of realism, the spaces have pictures on the walls, underwear in drawers, ornaments, trinkets and books on shelves, and even food on the breakfast table. Scene of Crime specialists decide on a detailed scenario (sometimes based on real case) for trainees to decipher from the charred remnants of the room. The forensic investigations look for ‘behaviour patterns’- marks left by the fire as it spreads, and here the behaviour patterns are also those of low-income social group, often on a wrong side of the law, with guilty secrets and complicated personal lives (with more than a passing similarity to the sensational characterisations in British soap operas). Predictably however, every time the culmination of the narrative is a fire. By photographing the rooms as they burn, each image is poised between completeness and ruin and set within a continued cycle of construction and destruction.
Explosion (2004)
The simulation, pyrotechnic industry has rapidly expanded over the last five years: atrocious acts have happened in conflict throughout history, yet training in recent times has had to become more and more realistic to psychologically prepare our forces for the worst. Police and soldiers who have grown up laying computer games and seeing over more spectacular special effects in films are simultaneously disconnected from and situated closer to the “real”. These photographs, which depict pyrotechnic explosions used by British police and military instructors to intensify the sense of drama and tension in training exercises, are part of a series taken at test sites in the English countryside where the bursts of light, flames, sparks, and smoke sit incongruously in the rural environment.
Public Order (2002)
Riots and scenes of civil unrest are a daily occurrence in a small occurrence in a small town called Denton. Despite the heavy police presence the violence is only ever temporarily suppressed. Another day brings more trouble- an incident at the underground station; barricaded streets; an injured civilian to bring to safety. Although remnants of broken glass are strewn across the pavement and debris and smoke stains on the walls, Denton is not a place troubled by graffiti or litter. On close inspection this place seems unfamiliar. The Indian Take Away and Antiques shop share the same blank windows usually occupied by shop display. Door handles, letterboxes and curtains are missing, and there are no signs of habitation.
Denton is a set used by the police, designed to provide a realistic backdrop for a riot. The violent aggressor is defined here by the estate he could inhabit. Although absent from the photographs, his identity can be pieced together from the elements of social stereotyping in this purpose-built environment. The Public Order series of photographs documents the attention to detail and simultaneous lack of realism within this artificial environment. This is a living invention, a fantasy placed within the real world- an attempt to make violence tangible and knowable.
Websites:
Sarah Pickering - http://www.sarahpickering.co.uk
Meessen De Clercq - www.meessendeclercq.be
Qualifications
2003 - 2005 MA Photography Royal College of Art
1992 - 1995 BA(hons) Photographic Studies, University of Derby
1991 - 1992 Foundation Certificate in Art and Design, Newcastle College
Artist statement
Incident (2008)
The black and white Incident photographs depict purpose built environments that have been set on fire as practice exercises for Fire Officers to extinguish. The blackened spaces reveal traces of human presence-marks were fingers have dragged across the surfaces and bodies have rubbed past objects. Rather than the charred piles of debris expected to be seen in a burned out building, these locations are strangely pristine. Objects are schematic and approximate as they are designed to be repeatedly burned, and have to retain a distinguishable form. The spaces catalogue potential sites of fires and resonate as an echo of an event. The photograph itself is also a subject of the series- dark areas often appear where lightness should be, creating a slippage between negative and positive; the matt surface of the print echoes the carbon-covered surface in the spaces; the photographic trace a record of multiple moments- anticipating the future and referencing the past.
Fire Scene (2007)
Each room in the Fire Scene series is filled with narrative- clues as to the identity of the perpetrator or victim, scenes of disturbance, violence or carelessness. These are set dressed interiors that are strategically burnt to train forensic teams and crime scene investigators. Painstakingly assembled to have a convincing level of realism, the spaces have pictures on the walls, underwear in drawers, ornaments, trinkets and books on shelves, and even food on the breakfast table. Scene of Crime specialists decide on a detailed scenario (sometimes based on real case) for trainees to decipher from the charred remnants of the room. The forensic investigations look for ‘behaviour patterns’- marks left by the fire as it spreads, and here the behaviour patterns are also those of low-income social group, often on a wrong side of the law, with guilty secrets and complicated personal lives (with more than a passing similarity to the sensational characterisations in British soap operas). Predictably however, every time the culmination of the narrative is a fire. By photographing the rooms as they burn, each image is poised between completeness and ruin and set within a continued cycle of construction and destruction.
Explosion (2004)
The simulation, pyrotechnic industry has rapidly expanded over the last five years: atrocious acts have happened in conflict throughout history, yet training in recent times has had to become more and more realistic to psychologically prepare our forces for the worst. Police and soldiers who have grown up laying computer games and seeing over more spectacular special effects in films are simultaneously disconnected from and situated closer to the “real”. These photographs, which depict pyrotechnic explosions used by British police and military instructors to intensify the sense of drama and tension in training exercises, are part of a series taken at test sites in the English countryside where the bursts of light, flames, sparks, and smoke sit incongruously in the rural environment.
Public Order (2002)
Riots and scenes of civil unrest are a daily occurrence in a small occurrence in a small town called Denton. Despite the heavy police presence the violence is only ever temporarily suppressed. Another day brings more trouble- an incident at the underground station; barricaded streets; an injured civilian to bring to safety. Although remnants of broken glass are strewn across the pavement and debris and smoke stains on the walls, Denton is not a place troubled by graffiti or litter. On close inspection this place seems unfamiliar. The Indian Take Away and Antiques shop share the same blank windows usually occupied by shop display. Door handles, letterboxes and curtains are missing, and there are no signs of habitation.
Denton is a set used by the police, designed to provide a realistic backdrop for a riot. The violent aggressor is defined here by the estate he could inhabit. Although absent from the photographs, his identity can be pieced together from the elements of social stereotyping in this purpose-built environment. The Public Order series of photographs documents the attention to detail and simultaneous lack of realism within this artificial environment. This is a living invention, a fantasy placed within the real world- an attempt to make violence tangible and knowable.
Websites:
Sarah Pickering - http://www.sarahpickering.co.uk
Meessen De Clercq - www.meessendeclercq.be
