Rapture - The Art of Ben Davis

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The art of Ben Davis

Artist : aged 21
from West Stoke near Chichester.

Just finished a Media Arts degree at Northbrook College

My final project for my degree is a series of images, which were made in a scrap-yard in Portsmouth. My images depict the remnants of military hardware in the unfamiliar environment of the scrap-yard. I found this place to be simultaneously urban and rural, a kind of no-man’s land between utopia and dystopia.

The photographs are in stark contrast to recent and familiar media images of the monumental, powerful and fetishistic tools of man’s power and authority. Displaying them as broken and decaying scrap metal.. It is an ambiguous site, a formidable yet strangely beautiful landscape that suggests a cautious malevolence somewhere between the media, the real and the imagined. As the redundant hardware now peacefully decomposes the photographs subtly reference nature’s reclamation of the weapons of war.

With my cross-polarisation series I was interested in studying the effects of different colour mixes on the human state of mind. I wanted to offer invigorating and refreshing visual stimuli for people coming off the highly branded streets. The work offers a space in which I hoped people could loose themselves in a visual dÈrive. It was part of a group exhibition ‘Mindfields’ which had the theme of psychogeography, which is the study of the effects of the geographical settings, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual.

Earlier this year I worked with a fire-eater. He needed a visual portfolio to take to a job interview. We concentrated on capturing the feel of the fire, its movement and heat as well as the intrinsic qualities of light itself.

I was happy with the results and so I put them in an exhibition at the Oxmarket. The exhibition got nothing but positive feedback. This took me by surprise as I had assumed the notorious rule of 3rds would apply...

"A 1/3 of the people would hate it, a1/3 of people weren’t bothered by it and 1/3 of the people would love it,"

I’m really keen to get my work seen by as many people as possible... last year I did some artwork for a great local band called Machina... It was really enjoyable and I’d totally love to get into doing more multimedia artwork like that for the music industry.

I’ve just recently done some artwork for a company set up by Robert Young the guitarist from Primal Scream for promoting new bands.

My next exhibition will be at the:-

Gardener Arts Centre in Brighton

Tue 24 June - Thu 26 June
Tue 6pm - 10pm
Wed & Thu 10am - 9pm
Free Admission

I also hope to get my latest projects in …
the Oxmarket Centre of Arts…as soon as I possible.

Now my degree is over, I’m looking for more commissions!

T: 01243 574583
www.ben-davis.co.uk