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Roman Road is pleased to present OSC – Osaka Station City, a solo exhibition by Antony Cairns. Comprising a collection of photographic assemblages printed on vintage punch cards, the show features images from Cairns’ latest series and explores his new experiments with alternative printing methods.
During his recent residency at the Benrido Collotype Atelier in Japan, Cairns visited the large port city of Osaka adding to his continued interest and documentation of metropolises at night. Captivated by the maze-like site that his train pulled into, his OSC – Osaka Station City (2016) series is a collection of twenty-five photographs captured at the newly renovated station and its surrounding environment. Devoid of colour and abounding abstract renderings, his nocturnal photographs develop a different view of the city: an urban landscape in constant transformation.
Continuing his idea of creating artworks using recycled materials from the early digital age, Cairns began reproducing his images on redundant computer punch cards for his new handmade book OSC [Osaka Station City] (self-published, 2016). For Cairns, these cards mirror his imagery of the city; each has a repetitive sequence of numbers on one side while his photographs often focus on the patterns and continual progression found in metropolitan areas. Ensuing from the results of this publication, Cairns envisioned a way of producing his OSC – Osaka Station City series on a larger scale, creating unique photographic montages on tinted 7⅜ by 3¼-inch cards.
Comprised of either twenty-four or forty-eight parts, each section of the chosen image is Inkjet printed onto the individual cards, which are then positioned together and affixed upon grey boards using archival glue. OSC – Osaka Station City is the first of the artist’s series to present his imagery upon coloured paper, progressing a novel experience of his growing archive.
Antony Cairns (b.1980) is a British photographer living and working in London, England. He studied Photography at the London College of Printing, graduating in 2002 with first class honours. He has a profound interest in the history of photography and alternative printing methods and his practice is rooted in chemical-based techniques; originating as black and white negatives on film, his abstract photographs of cities at night have been employed to create captivating aluminium and paper prints and more recently his E.I. Totem (2015) – a series that presents his images petrified in e-ink screens. Since 2003 his work has been exhibited in leading art galleries and art fairs internationally including the Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam; Photobastei in Zurich; Paris Photo in Paris; and the ICP Triennial in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include E.I. / Transition at Roman Road, London and LDN at the Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France.
Roman Road