robots endlessly sort through photographs in oliver frank chanarin's latest show

a perfect sentence: photography in the algorithmic age at karst

UK artist Oliver Frank Chanarin presents his latest exhibition, A Perfect Sentence, which interrogates the photographic image in the age of the algorithm. At the center of this installation are two machines made in collaboration with fellow artists Tom Cecil and Ruairi Glynn. These robotic entities continuously hang and rehang framed photographs stored in stacks on the gallery floor. Appropriating the language of automation, the machines handle the images according to an inscrutable logic: identifying, sorting, displaying, juxtaposing, and storing photographs for the exhibition’s duration. A Perfect Sentence, commissioned by the non-profit platform Forma, is on view at KARST in Plymouth until March 23, 2024.

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore

Oliver Frank Chanarin turns robots into unsettling ‘curators’

For this exhibition at KARST, Oliver Frank Chanarin (see more here) reflects on the unsettling sensation evoked by his work, suggesting that viewers feel observed by the artwork itself: ‘There’s something about the way the photographs are handled indiscriminately by the machines – the intimately human analogue prints bristle against the brutally mechanistic display. It goes against the grain of the images, and there is a sense that we are entering a factory rather than a gallery. Inevitably, we are left to reflect on the life of photographs, the myriad ways in which they circulate and accrue our attention or get ignored, and the hidden forces that shape these experiences.’

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore

The archive of images on display for A Perfect Sentence, only ever partially seen at any one time, was produced by Chanarin last year while traveling across the United Kingdom. Shaped by many spoken and unspoken exchanges with strangers, the artist became increasingly preoccupied with people’s conflicting desires and anxieties around being seen and the fraught experience of making documentary photography in this new social paradigm. Over 12 months, he produced over 3000 color negatives portraying encounters with hundreds of participants, from which he hand-printed unique, C-type prints in the darkroom. Many artworks featured handwritten annotations on cropping and color filtration or show exposure gradients. These interventions on the surface of the images point to a printing process in development and allude to the mercurial nature of identity and the subjectivity inherent in image-making.

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore

a continuous collaborative project led by forma

Following the presentation at KARST, A Perfect Sentence will then be a highlight of Images Vevey Biennial, Switzerland in September 2024. Subsequently, the exhibition will open at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in November 2024 and National Museum Cardiff in 2025, with additional presentation dates pending. A selection of Chanarin’s C-type prints was exhibited for the first time at Derby’s The Museum of Making earlier this year as a highlight of Format23, the UK’s leading photography biennial. The presentation program and a publication designed and published by Loose Joints will be accompanied by digital outputs and public acquisitions in 2024.

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore

‘In 2022, Oliver met and photographed groups and individuals in Plymouth, from navy officers and cadets to skateboarders and sunbathers. A selection of these photographs will be presented alongside images from Oliver’s encounters around the UK. […] Throughout the course of the exhibition at KARST, i-DAT (University of Plymouth’s creative technology research collective) will collaborate with Oliver to develop the AI algorithms, making it both an exhibition and a live research project,‘ shares Ben Borthwick, KARST’s Head of Creative Program.

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore

A Perfect Sentence is commissioned and produced by Forma, in collaboration with eight UK arts organisations. Photography took place in the regions of the co-commissioning and co-production partners: Derby: Derby QUAD, FORMAT International Photography festival and Derby Museums; East Anglia: Norfolk Museums Service and original projects; London: Guildhall Art Gallery; Plymouth: KARST; Wales: Artes Mundi; Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

The production is supported by A Perfect Sentence’s co-commission and co-production partners, and has been made possible through generous funding from Arts Council England and Outset Contemporary Art Fund, and an Acquisition Commission grant from Art Fund. In addition, National Lottery through Arts Council Wales, Kick The Dust and the City of London Corporation’s Inspiring London Through Culture grants programme have supported the productions in Wales, Great Yarmouth and London respectively.

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Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Pam and Mike, 10 x 8 inches, C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, Untitled, 10 x 8”, C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Mark, 10 x 8”, C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Elaine, 10 x 8 inches, C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Adam, 10 x 8”, C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

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Oliver Frank Chanarin, Untitled, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with anon, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with L/Cpl Oliver, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with June, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Joshua, anon and Andrew, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Fay, Maisie and Robyn, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, with Ash, 10 x 8'', C-type print, 2023 | image courtesy and © the artist

Oliver Frank Chanarin, A Perfect Sentence, 2024. © Oliver Frank Chanarin | installation view: KARST, Plymouth, 2024 | commissioned & produced by Forma jointly with eight UK organisations | images courtesy the artist & KARST | supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund & Outset Contemporary Art Fund |image © Dom Moore