Mark Excell

Mark Excell presented a series of original work featuring an intriguing study of waterside environments and industrial pockets of cityscapes. In Visual Drift, 2007, Excell imparted an artistic estrangement to seemingly archetypal places by creating a layer of mystique and fascination to his sizaeble images.

Through taking images of the familiar and “making them strange”-whether through poetic devices or by unconventional camera angles - Soviet writer and pamphleteer, Viktor Shklovsky, argued the public could be aroused from its dulled perceptions of the world in order to “recover the sensation of life.” As he described it, the function of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms problematic, to increase the difficulty and length of perception. It is this enchanting obstinacy I see within the work of Mark Excell, who uses this technique to great effect in this new work. Victor Simao, co-curator

Excell's work was presented at Hinterland's HQ - a temporary space rented for Hinterland throughout October 2007. This was to showcase some of the new photography commissions undertaken in the summer curated by Victor Simao. HQ was situated amongst the literal hinterland which is Colwick Industrial Park and adjacent to the city's out of site services such as waste management depots, storage units, factories and garages. Visitors were encouraged to take the bus out of town to this little known pocket of the city and walk though the industrial estate to HQ.  The site was also very close to the Trent itself and could be easily accessed on foot or by bike.