Robin Mellor is a London based portrait, documentary and advertising photographer. He is also a co-founder of the unique Space Explorer project. Robin’s current work Another Space & Time captures those living in North America’s desert communities.
“I’m fascinated by people’s stories, especially those who have a great obsession in life or who like to live outside the norm. The American desert is a microcosm of American counter-culture. I wanted to know what brought these rich, colourful characters to gather here, lit up by the spare, rundown backdrop.
I knew for a question as big as the meaning of life I had to go to a place where people weren’t bombarded by the influences of modern society, full of personalities big enough to form their own attitudes, rather than regurgitate the opinions of others.
The hardship you must endure in the desert is perfectly counterbalanced with the freedom you are granted. It is this relationship that makes for an incredibly creative and resourceful environment, one which forces those who live in it to explore and learn about themselves as well as the world around them. The project looks at how this environment has shaped its people and how they now see the world, both philosophically and practically.”
– Robin Mellor
Another Space & Time is the first in a series of exhibitions launching the Space Explorer project, which is unique in utilising GPS technology via a free downloadable App to provide a 4D outdoor gallery experience. The App itself is available for both Apple and Android mobile phone platforms and allows the user to experience a GPS activated soundscape, once in close proximity to the individual art work. However, consideration has been given to the technophobes out there and an accompanying magazine with a map is also available.
Bringing art into the community as part of the built urban environment, the 15 billboard size images can be found in the quiet back streets of North London’s Hackney district and are located some several hundred meters apart. the images create an interesting juxtaposition of municipal controlled public housing with arid desert landscapes and the colourful characters that inhabit them. The exhibition runs from this week until the 30th of June 2016.
EXHIBITION
Space Explorer: Robin Mellor Another Space & Time
From 5th May -30th June 2016
Hackney, London
37 Coate Street
London, E2 9AG
United Kingdom
Open 24 Hours
http://space-explorer.co.uk/
http://www.robinmellor.com/wp/
