Instagram Takeover: Natasha Caruana

HOUSE Festival co-commissioned photographic artist, Natasha Caruana, takes over our Instagram account, October 2017

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Natasha Caruana is a photographic artist living and working in London. She has an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London and is a Senior Lecturer of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK.

Caruana’s art practice is grounded in research concerned with narratives of love, betrayal and fantasy. Significant to all Caruana’s work is the questioning of how today’s technology is impacting relationships.

It's @natasha.caruana on takeover • • Timely Tale 30.09.17 – 05.11.17 University of Brighton Galleries / Brighton / England Natasha Caruana: Timely Tale / Reviewed by Gemma Padley / 05.10.17 • • "By telling her mother’s story in an intimate and intentionally stifling way, Caruana points to wider inescapable issues that ultimately affect us all – the changing landscape of the NHS and the potential consequences with regard to public health and finances; our collective insatiable hunger for ‘more’, whether we need something or not, and what the effect of this might be; and our desire to find Mr or Mrs Right, believing, perhaps foolishly, that this will bring happiness. Tapping into the private to explore the public is well-worn territory, but Caruana’s approach feels fresh, original, and illuminating. “For me, the personal is political,” she said at the press launch. “We are living in a really political time.” It is also a time when the possibilities for photographic representation are rapidly opening up. How might that change how we see, utilise, and experience images, Caruana’s work asks. There are no obvious answers of course, but my goodness Timely Tale throws the door wide open with aplomb". • • #review @gemmapadley @photomonitor.co.uk • • #igtakeover #photography #natashacaruana #caruana #installation #brighton #art #film #360 #filmstill #excess #medication #VR

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 21, 2017 at 11:32am PDT

It's @natasha.caruana here. • • Timely Tale 30.09.17 – 05.11.17 University of Brighton Galleries / Brighton / England Natasha Caruana: Timely Tale / Reviewed by Gemma Padley / 05.10.17 • • "Some artists constantly surprise – in a good way, I mean. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on their work, they do something totally ingenious and you’re left scratching your head in the best possible way. Natasha Caruana is one such artist whose new project Timely Tale is currently showing at the University of Brighton Galleries as part of the 2017 HOUSE Biennial. The work, which was co-commissioned by Photoworks, is in two parts: there is an immersive six-minute film centred around her mother that uses 360 degree technology; visitors are invited to experience this in the setting of a medical waiting room that Caruana created from scratch (she sourced and collected genuine furniture and items from hospitals and doctors’ waiting rooms). The unnervingly authentic waiting room – clinical, and devoid of warmth or character – serves as a “liminal space”, says Caruana – a portal into her mother’s world. Around the corner is an installation of teapots that belong to her mother, neatly ordered on a dresser. So far, so surreal, but once you don a VR headset and the film begins, it all starts to make sense". • • #review @gemmapadley @photomonitor.co.uk • • #igtakeover #photography #exhibition #review #soloshow #gemmapadley #brighton #installation #film #vr #exhibition #360 #health #love #excess

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 21, 2017 at 11:27am PDT

The newly commissioned, Divorce Index, is currently showing at at FACT Gallery, Liverpool, until October 1st. The piece is a culmination of the work made during her residency at the Open Data Institute, as part of the Data as Culture Programme 2015/16. In 2014 Caruana was named as the winner of the prestigious BMW Artist in Residence Award at musée Nicéphore Niépce, France. The award led to solo shows at Les Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo and the monograph Coup de Foudre.

Her work has been shown across Australia, China, France, India, Lithuania, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Her series Married Man and Fairytale for Sale has been included in numerous contemporary photographic catalogues, printed as monographs, and has toured widely, most recently in Public, Private, Secret: International Center for Photography Museum, New York, 2016, The Real Thing, Flowers Gallery, New York, 2016, Photo50, Feminine Masculine, London, 2016.

Hi, it's @natasha.caruana on takeover. It is always really interesting to work on quick commissions and I definitely use them as an opportunity to push my practice. This is because the commissions offer a support network, a deadline, funding and final show which makes it a fairly safe space to work with new possibilities. For this commission, it has been absolutely this process, and although working with a tight budget, it has allowed me to bring specialists on board. For example, I worked with composer Emile Levianaise-Farrouch, who created an emotive composition for both the film and installation. And Sven Mattes who recorded and compiled ambisonic sound to be experienced in the 360° environment. • • #IGTakeover #natashacaruana #caruana #photography #dreamteam #360 #installation #art #health #nhs #VR #film #brighton #soloshow

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 17, 2017 at 2:48am PDT

Hi, it @natasha.caruana on takeover. Timely Tale, installation ? • • Could this be a look into the future where were all receive medical care via a headset?? Kinda looks that way! • • #IGTakeover #natashacaruana #photography #caruana #timelytale #house #VR #360 #documentary #film #nhs #medical #excess #love #desire #art

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 16, 2017 at 2:49pm PDT

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