Through photographic projects by Edgar Martins and Jordan Baseman, Flat Death presents two series of work that invite us to reflect on how we deal with death, as a society and individually.

Edgar Martins attempts to understand our relationship to death and photography’s role in this process through a variety of images. Jordan Baseman’s exhibition of memorial images sits within a long tradition of photography being used by families to remember their loved ones after they have passed.

The exhibition’s title, Flat Death, is taken from Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, which considers the photograph as a fixed record of a moment in time.

Our Curator, Thomas Dukes has been in conversation with Angela Samata. Angela sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group tackling suicide prevention in England and Wales and is a presenter and arts professional. Angela presented the BBC documentary ‘Life After Suicide’ which has recently been recognised with a Mind Media Award. Together, Thomas and Angela discuss themes that arise throughout the exhibition.

THOMAS DUKES: Good Morning Angela, thank you for agreeing to having a conversation around the exhibition Flat Death.  From the outset the gallery has been talking to a lot of different people and organisations who deal with bereavement, to try and ensure that the exhibition remains as open and constructive as possible, and so we appreciate your time to contribute to the discussions we’ve been having here.

ANGELA SAMATA: Morning Thomas. Thanks for inviting me to talk to you about the show. I’m interested in Flat Death both because of my personal experience as someone bereaved by suicide and professionally as a curator. Can I ask where the initial idea for the exhibition came from and did you always plan to exhibit Edgar Martins and Jordan Baseman simultaneously?

TD: Well, in 2014 we were talking to Edgar Martins following the release of his work The Rehearsal of Space & the Poetic Impossibility to Manage the Infinite.  He had worked with the European Space Agency to create an incredibly comprehensive & meditative survey of this leading scientific organisation. The project presented items and asked questions of them, as Martins says “an approach that was simultaneously descriptive and speculative”.  In conversation, Martins said he was producing a new body of work with exclusive access to the Portuguese Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences around the human relationship to death – and we were really excited to see Martins create a similar forensic/poetic vehicle to reflect on a mental space Western Society can often distance itself from.

Then, knowing Jordan Baseman’s work, we understood that we could continue the visitors’ experience in a more durational, installation way.  The two pieces have a conversation of style and ethics between them, and together make a powerful experience for the visitor. This seems like a good time to say that both of the artists have been phenomenal to learn from and work with.

I wanted to talk about how we have needed to be careful in the selection of the work – as there are some pieces that in consultation with various groups,  we are looking to not include.  In this instance, entirely to try and safeguard rather than any ethical or taboo based consideration.  It’s a very difficult question for me,  but what do you think a public gallery should consider in presenting potentially difficult/challenging work?

AS: If we view Flat Death in the context of Open Eye Gallery’s long history of presenting shows which confront the viewer with often uncomfortable truths, then this exhibition follows in what is a strong tradition for any public gallery. Looking more specifically at some of the work here, once the objects depicted in a selection of Martins photographs have been utilised in the actions that many of us are unfortunately familiar with, they change forever. Photographic truth, capturing an object or a moment in time is an important aspect of photography, but these objects also represent life changing actions, with all the impact that those actions elicit. They transform from inanimate, everyday objects that don’t even register in our psyche, into significant, constant reminders of what was lost in those moments. Curatorially, I see the merits of and place for each image, however, I do find them personally challenging. I hope some of these points will be raised in the ethics debates.

TD: Yes, I’m looking forward to hearing from a cross-section of voices and seeing if some people change or question their own position on the responsibility of a public gallery when working with challenging material. By bringing together arts professionals along with people working in mental health I’m hoping that we’ll end up with some useful thinking to share (the questions and findings are being presented in the gallery).

You raised the nature of photographic truth earlier, and I do find myself coming back to the difference between presenting archive imagery of crimes, autopsy or trial material, for example the Burden of Proof exhibition recently on display at The Photographers’ Gallery, and the work that functions more as an art object when the source material is so similar. I see something of the divide of art from the ‘real life’ processes of science or social history here; we can consider an image differently when its purpose is defined by a scientific objective to when it is used in a creative sense.

AS: Again, yes, I hope during the ethics debates we consider these contextual issues and moral dilemmas for both photographers and the viewing public regarding this type of image. I think we could probably write a book on one aspect of this conversation alone, Thomas!

TD: There is so much writing and discussion about the relationship of photography to death; it’s a subject that comes from our humanity, creativity and science. I hope that people find their visit thought provoking.

Thank you, Angela, it’s been a pleasure looking at these ideas with you.

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LINKS

Flat Death: Edgar Martins & Jordan Baseman

Sunday 13 March 2016, 2:30pm-3:15pm
Monthly Exhibition Tour with Angela Samata

Thursday 24 March 2016, 6-7pm
Public Discussion

Flat Death: Edgar Martins video interview

Documentary: Life After Suicide