GALLERY: Sensorium by Mike Cunliffe & Ed Howe

This joint exhibtion challenges humankind’s relationship with the natural environment. The artists have chosen different mediums to best express their ideas about how individuals can perceive themselves and their surroundings. Both intend to result in placing the viewer in a position where they question their own perception of how they exist in the universe.

Mike Cunliffe

Cunliffe’s photography mixes traditional photographic techniques with digital production by using artificial light to illuminate the natural landscape. He explores man’s need to take control of life and the world around us. By exposing the darkness with a collision flare, the figures in the images try to overwhelm the approaching night, but find themselves surrounded by a boundary of light that causes isolation. Unwillingly, the figure exposes him-self whilst doing so.

‘The images I am showing aim to explore and question how we view ourselves as internal or external to nature and whether we create that perception unconsciously or it is something we have control over’ – Mike Cunliffe

Cunliffe completed his degree in Documentary Photography three years ago at the University of Gloucestershire. Since then he has lived and worked in London before relocating to Cardiff to join a Graphic display company, working on photographic projects in his spare time. Having previously exhibited in South Wales and Cheltenham’s Gardens Gallery this is Cunliffe’s third exhibition of his photographic art. After working for a Californian surf magazine for a month he produced a project documenting the modern vistas of the America west, juxtaposing the natural with the man-made, a theme common in his work.

www.mikecunliffe.com|

Ed Howe

Howe’s artwork uses the surrealist technique of decalcomania combined with a loose illustrative style. The work signifies man’s abilities to adapt to different environments, surviving in the face of adversity. It deals with the darker side of mankind and his surroundings and how changes in the environment change culture. Howe’s work follows a loose narrative based in a world in ruin. The images hold a certain ambiguity as to how the environment came to this state, either through natural disaster or man’s actions, and question how society would get to this stage and how it would survive in strained situations. The dystopian imagery puts perspective on our own society by relating to our existing culture. It’s a reminder that nature holds power over us and our fragile existence.

‘I created the work in order to help us think about the effects our actions have on our environments and how we would survive in an alien landscape’. – Edward Howe

Howe is a practising artist living and working in the Bristol region. Trained in Fine Art at the University of Plymouth and proceeding to gain a MA in Visual Communication from the University of Gloucestershire last year. His work is a natural progression from projects formulated in his studies. This is his first exhibition since receiving his MA certificate and Howe intends for his work to evolve naturally through the exhibiting experience and sharing ideas with like minded people.

Saturday 3rd - Friday 30th March
The Gallery at Gloucester Guildhall
Admission free