Intertidal
Handmade pinhole cameras, loaded with black and white sheet film, are placed within the Intertidal zone of the beach. Looking towards the oncoming sea as the tide rises the action of the waves wash over the camera, sometimes completely submerging it by the end of the five to fifteen minute exposures. Salt water and sand come into contact with the photographic material; marking, blemishing, embedding, becoming a physical part of the film. Subject and object collide to create an image that blurs the distinction between land, sea and sky.
Craig Dow (1978 Dundee, Scotland) works as an artist, curator and creative community facilitator, among other things. This website focuses on his artistic practice where he engages photography as a hybrid subject/object straddling the boundary between culture and nature. The camera becomes a technological tool and mediator that can deepen an understanding of our natural environment. This unique quality of the photographic medium is where he focuses attention, to engage the light sensitive film in actions whereby it merges with the physical environment. The camera is used as a means to unite, rather than interrupt. The resulting images show the possibility of a unity of subject and object, representation and abstraction, human being and environment.
The essence of this art is in the process, the becoming. The work becomes as a trace of the physical process. The impulse is to cast a net into the environment and catch a bit of it, something that can be investigated, contemplated, and somehow understood on a deeper level, gaining insight of both the inner and outer world's intrinsic nature.
2022 ARC Independent; Studios, Workshop & Creative Culture, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
2018 Cleave, Glasgow International, Glasgow, UK
Thresholds, Gonzo Unit, Thessaloniki, Greece
2015 ACTINIC Photo Festival, Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, UK
2014 Resident 14, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
Open Landscape, Worcester Museum of Contemporary Art, Worcester, UK
2013 Second Parallel Universe, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London, UK
2012 Technology: High & Low, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
Crash Open, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London, UK
2011 Notice, Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
The Sun is the First Oven The Gut is the Second, The Bun House, Peckham London, UK
2010 By Means of Matter, Generator Projects, Dundee, Scotland, UK
2009 Field of Sets - Pt I Conjunction, Peckham Rye Multi-storey Car Park, London, UK
Time and Time Again, East Wing Collection VIII Re-Launch, Somerset House, London, UK
The Vineyard Poets, (Photographic installation), Courtauld Institute of Art, East Wing
Collection VIII, London, UK
2010 The Bun House, Artist-led Project Space, Peckham, London, UK
Field, Artist Collective, London, UK
2008 Off the Wall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, UK
Translations (with poet Dzifa Benson), The Africa Centre, Covent Garden, London, UK
2007 Aftershock (Photographic visual performances at The Royal Festival Hall, London;
The Watermans, Brentford; Arts Depot, North Finchley & The Albany, Deptford)
AV- Audio Vision, Electrowerkz, Angel, London, UK
D.I.Y, Central Space, Hammersmith, London, UK
Selected Exhibitions/Projects
2018 –
2008 –
2013 RSA Residencies for Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Taigh Chearsabhagh, South Uist, Hebrides, Scotland, UK
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Undercurrents Magazine, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
2012 International Photography Annual 1 (INPHA 1), Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Dundee Visual Artists Award, Dundee, Scotland, UK
2010 Cushendall Tower Residency with Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
By Means of Matter, Generator Projects, Dundee, Scotland, UK
Field Resident Artist, Area 10, Peckham, London, UK.
Residencies/Awards/Publications