Drift #201218, 2018, Paul Snell
Lambda print face mounted to perspex 75 x 75 cm
Provenance: Colville Gallery, Hobart.
Paul Snell is a Tasmanian photographer who works with immersive colour without obvious signs or objects to pursue the creative potential of the digital image. His works blur the line between making and taking photographs by pairing, overlapping and sequencing visual data on a screen-like Plexiglass surface. Devoid of any particular narrative or apparent subject matter, Snell's artworks are purely self-referential; they are works that contain a multitude of images, dissembled, reconfigured and undefinable. In 2012 he won both the Flanagan Art Prize in Ballarat, and the Tidal: City of Devonport National Art Award. In 2015 he was awarded the Moreton Bay Region Art Award and the Whyalla Art Prize.
Artist Statement
The pause, the gap and the omission are increasingly significant in our saturated image driven society. Through this work the daily saturation is replaced by selective sensitisation, these pieces continue my exploration of non-representative forms and examines the possibilities of abstraction and minimalism in photo-media. The work investigates the transformation of photographic modes of production and the manipulation and exploitation of data to invent new visual forms. By rhythmically repeating, pairing, overlapping, reversing and sequencing through the investigations of specific colour relationships, I seek a sensory understanding of the physical object. These pieces are not representations of certain realities; they are their own reality (1).
Other works by this artist: