Kaput!

Bonnell, Sian (2008) Kaput! Portfolio: Contemporary Photography in Britain, 47. ISSN 1354-4446

Abstract / Summary

The images making up the series 'Kaput!' were selected by Gloria Chalmers, editor of Portfolio, and featured in the magazine accompanied by an essay by Pavel Büchler. The images were made in 2006 at the Moravska Gallery, Brno in the Czech Republic for the IPRN/Arts Council of England Research Fellowship. This series is part of a high profile series of IPRN/ACE commissions supported by substantial European funding. These commissions were awarded by closed process with four photographers invited to put in proposals. The six week residency enabled a substantial period of research and reflection and time to craft a coherent body of new work., The IPRN/ACE theme, ‘Work,’ could be interpreted in any way. 'Kaput!' employs Bonnell’s aesthetic of ‘Wilful Amateurism’ for continued research into human behaviour. The work’s foci were the consumption, acquisition and excess related to attainment and its attendant workplace bureaucracies. Following, ‘Kaput!’ became an enquiry into workplace stress and the small interventions made when bored, unhappy or frustrated; the objects photographed all relate to work or to its opposite. The 35mm camera work ‘Kaput!’ interrogates the disruptive potential of otherwise utilitarian objects.

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