When do we start questioning as a child? And when did it stop? Child’s Play & Other Stories introduces Mark Neville’s five social documentary projects on post-industrial identity in working class communities, the challenges of spaces for play, and his personal experience as an official war artist in Helmand.
While grounded in conventions of social documentary practices, Neville takes on new forms of dissemination and activism experiments with the intention to bring practical benefits to the subjects.
How To Document a Community (Professional Workshop)
16 – 18 Sep
DECK
Social Documentary (Seminar)
19 Sep, Wed
6 – 9pm
DECK
Stories Untold (Artist Talk)
20 Sep, Thu
7:30 – 9pm
The Arts House, Screening Room
Guided Tour
22 Sep, Sat
2 – 3pm
The Arts House, Gallery I
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About the Artist
Mark Neville (b. 1966, United Kingdom) works at the intersection of art and documentary, investigating the social function of photography. He makes lens-based works which have been realised and disseminated in a large array of contexts, as both still and moving image pieces, slideshows, films, and giveaway books.
His work has consistently looked to subvert the traditional role of social documentary practice, seeking to find new ways to empower the position of its subject over that of the author. Often working with closely knit communities, in a collaborative process intended to be of direct, practical benefit to the subject, his photographic projects to date have frequently made the towns he portrays the primary audience for the work.
Points of reference for his practice might include the ideas of Henri Lefebvre, or the art works of Martha Rosler, John Berger, or Hans Haacke.