Working exclusively with photography for over thirty years, Garry Hunter was immersed in the alchemical process of analogue, motivating him to look for other ‘image-making’ methods than just the instant hit of digital. After cognitive response research with the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, a residency at Total Kunst during the Annuale Festival of Independent Practice, allowed him to experiment with ‘textographs’ composed of words replacing photographs-not-taken.

The Imagined States series was created during a circumnavigation of the globe in 2010, when Hunter sent mobile phone text updates to friends – not photographs – each one set in an imaginary nation. These were output as 20×24” photographic size prints previewed at Total Kunst and developed into a larger series for Hanmi, where each floor of this empty advertising agency had a theme dedicated to pre-digital processes, inviting Ben Wilson to install miniature paintings and Peter Mackertich to collaborate on a large pinhole camera-obscura. Hunter established the Interim series of site-responsive installations, as the building slowly transformed into an art gallery.

A limited edition hand-finished book featuring ‘hang-ins’ of film processing equipment, quality control strips and resulting imagery from Hunter’s photographic practice, was produced (see slideshow at top left)

Project Title
RE:DEVELOPMENT from the series Responses to Locations in Transition

Locations
Total Kunst Gallery at The Forest, Old Town, Edinburgh
Hanmi Gallery, a former advertising agency, Maple Street, London W1

Production
Nathan Horton at So Shoot Me studios, Phnom Penh
Nick Ritchie at BFBS/BATSUB jungle training base, Belize
Sheridan Orr for Hanmi Gallery

Curation
Mirja Koponen for Total Kunst Gallery
Gisèle Louise Bertin for Hanmi Gallery

Artists
Ben Wilson
Garry Hunter
Peter Mackertich

Media
Chewing gum, collage, ephemera, photography, pinhole, repurposed medical equipment, textographs

Date
July 2011

Lindsey Berthoud, Londonist review