Instagram Takeover: Alexander Mourant

We welcome photographer Alexander Mourant to our Instagram takeover, October 2017.

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Alexander Mourant was born in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1994. Having studied at Bryanston School he progressed to BA (Hons) Photography at Falmouth University, graduating with First Class Honours in July 2017. He has previously worked as an intern for Simon Roberts and Nadav Kander. His work has been featured online with The British Journal of Photography, AINT-BAD, Virgin, Pylot Magazine and TRIP Magazine. Alexander has also exhibited a variety of work, most notably with CCA Galleries, Mall Galleries and in a duo show with Andy Hughes RCA held at the Royal Geographical Society in London, May – June 2017.

Good afternoon, @alexandermourant here! I am very excited to be shortlisted for the South West Graduate Photography Prize 2017. This is an annual showcase by @fotonow_cic of emerging photographic artists from the South West region. Our group show is opening next Thursday 12th at #PHOTOBLOCK photography festival, held at @trumanbrewery. I will be showing two works from my series Aurelian, including this image ‘Blue Parrot'. . On show at PHOTOBLOCK London from Thursday 12th until Sunday 15th October. Shop 7, Dray Walk, 91 Brick Lane! . Meet the artists (drinks): 6-9pm on Thursday 12th October
For further info contact: swgpp@fotonow.org . Featuring: 
Katie Mordan
Hannah Blissett
Jessica Ashley-Stokes 
Megan Wilson-De La Mare 
Alexander Mourant
Shannon Mundy
Lauren Booth
Josh Huxham . @eliz0rcutt @monikafischbein @iop_falmouth @inspiredaub @bathspauni @uwebristol @uwe.photography @falmouthuni @plymuni @plymouthcollegeofart @photoplymouth @uniofglos @trumanbrewery @bricklanelondon @millennium_images @knowlewestmedia @timeoutlondon @alexandermourant @jessicaashleystokes @letmeblissyou @joshdavidhuxham @l.e.booth @meganwdlmphoto @shannonmundy @katiemordan 
#southwestgraduatephotographyprize . #swgpp #swgpp2017 #photoblock #trumanbrewery #oldtrumanbrewery #draywalk #E1 #photography #fotonow #fotonowcic #graduates #exhibition #emergingtalent #igtakeover #alexandermourant #photography #mamiya7ii #analog

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 8, 2017 at 8:24am PDT

Morning all, it's @alexandermourant posting on my series Aurelian. . My pictures are vibrant and some would say 'unnatural'. Although, the colour studies suggested through my work should not be disregarded as a folly or indulgence of aesthetic, there resides a stronger theoretical origin. . Flusser questions the integrity of photographs, highlighting concerns on perceptivity and the role of genuine colours within this system – “The ‘more genuine’ the colours of the photograph become, the more untruthful they are, the more they conceal…”. One could argue the subjective nature of experience and memory, alongside individual photographic processes, lends itself naturally to be represented through a spectrum of a shifting myriad of colours. . Thus, colour is a coded concept, unique to each being, such as reality. As I recall, Gerhard Richter commented on his abstract canvases, “You realise that you can’t represent reality at all – that what you make represents nothing but itself, and therefore is itself reality”. My photographs, though bold and unusual in colour, make visible a reality which is enduringly elusive and indescribable. They do not attempt to copy painting. They testify to their own reality and postulate another more concealed experience. For Maya Deren, a photograph functions in the same respect “as a form of reality itself”. . We can conclude the photograph is ultimately the most truthful, as Flusser suggests, when not attempting to convey what we expect the ‘real’ to be, but with a wild and reckless abandon of colour towards a world of its own. It is the suggestion of this other reality which brings a seduction and mystery to my abstract photographs. Through form, colour and a subtle movement my photographs explore both aesthetic formality alongside theoretical ideology. . #igtakeover #alexandermourant #photography #conceptualart #mediumformat #analog #mamiya7

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 7, 2017 at 1:14am PDT

Alexander Mourant’s practice is focused on ideas of experience, space and the metaphysical. His work is often influenced from literature and the land art movement. However, the most crucial part of his process stems from experience — with photography as a tool — his practice probes and decodes the nature of this enigma. The work, both bold and unusual in colour exists paradoxically; the photographs construct an imagined or subjective view of space whilst in their creativity they attempt to deconstruct, for the viewers and himself, the nature of experiential stimulation. Through the photograph we can question everything that surrounds us, we can elevate the most banal occurrences in everyday life to create a metaphor of our existence.

@alexandermourant here! . Image: Untitled VI, from the series Aurelian, 2016-2017. Previously exhibited at @freerangeshows . Psychologically charged, the interior photographs are a meditation on this sensory tropical space. They examine and harness the materiality of the atmosphere by employing experimental exposures and degraded unused film from my travels through Africa. Thereby through their very physicality — weakened by humidity and temperature in Africa — we can witness the metaphorical transferal of one ‘time’ into another. The unknowing spectator is invited to witness the conveyance of a tropical geographic terrain and individual consciousness through the butterfly house. . #igtakeover #alexandermourant #photography #mamiya7 #aurelian #analog #abstract

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 5, 2017 at 10:01am PDT

Gooooooood Morning, @alexandermourant here commenting on my series Aurelian. The project disseminates elements from butterfly houses — by transferral of condensation — to either historic or contemporary vessels. . ’Display dome with atmosphere’ illustrates such a transferral idea, by utilising a Victorian taxidermy display dome and creating a breath like atmosphere inside the object. By photographing a historic object which is immersed in the Victorian tradition of butterfly collecting, I reassert the object’s cultural importance whilst also exploring a conceptual dialogue with the subject of space. . It’s interesting to note Hans Haacke for a series of works created in 1966 which he described as “Real-Time Systems” (Haacke 2004: 41). These systems employed a variety of technical and natural processes using the elements; earth, water, air and light. All materials and energies used in this art were interrelated and relied on the artwork’s functioning in time (Grasskamp 2004: 41). . In some respect Haacke’s work is a romanticism, but also a fascinating conceptual revelation and insight into the raw materials which create life. I’d hope my cultural objects can be seen to hold the same potency. . #igtakeover #alexandermourant #photography #wista45 #largeformat #blackandwhite #sculpture #aurelian #analog

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Oct 6, 2017 at 1:39am PDT

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