Carlos Anguera Jover
Winner
The Alice Duncan Prize, Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries: Selected Artist
Carlos Anguera Jover (b. 1995) explores through photography the power mechanisms of picture-making. His works make use of deconstruction and reconstruction of media, technological sophistication and underlying notions driving western culture. Anguera also emphasises the formal attributes of his photographs, challenging the limitations of film-based cameras and the optical apparatuses from lenses.
The physicality presented in the work is driven by the intuitive use of mixed media, combining photography with sculptural works, sound and moving image. Gathering objects from mundane domestic environments, Anguera is interested in the symbolic motifs and tension created when dichotomies are placed within the same picture.
- Blue Head (Self-Portrait), 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (76 × 60 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- Audio Technica, 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (139.9 × 110.2 cm) Edition of 2 with 1 AP
- Sobrasada Bounce, 2020. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (60 × 76.2 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- iPhone Aux on Lychees, 2020. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (60 × 76.2 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- The Waiting Game, 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (140 × 109.2 cm) Edition of 2 with 1 AP
- Rotary Heads, 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (139.9 × 110.2 cm) Edition of 2 with 1 AP
- Pine Cone Antenna, 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (57.2 x 47 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- Omega 3 Trine, 2020. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (57.2 × 47 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- GPUs, 2020. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (60 × 76 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
- You & Me (Self-Portrait), 2021. Archival Inkjet print, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl 320 gr. (76 × 60 cm) Edition of 3 with 1 AP
*All works are available for sale, price on request
One Less in the Middle Row
Anguera decodes and questions the power dynamics established by modern technology. Focusing on the functionality of devices, he formulates questions such as: Are the devices implemented in our day to day life a step forward in humanity? His search breaks down the symbolic impracticalities of technology and its impact on oneself. Embracing the domestic environment as a political space, Anguera explores notions of corporate presence, connectivity and self-esteem through still lifes, improvised sculptures and self-portraiture. One Less in the Middle Row aims to develop the ambivalent relationship between ethics and innovation with a touch of humour.
ABABCB
2021
12 minutes, 30 seconds, Colour, Stereo, 16:9
Original format: HD Digital File
ABABCB is the standard musical form structure for Pop songs. Anguera plays with the historical parallels of formula efficiency since the 60s occurring in the Pop Music Industry as in Silicon Valley tech-corporations. The video visually intertwines re-recorded archival footage from marketing ads of early computer technology superimposed with a contemplative day in the life of an aspiring pop artist. Anguera constructs an abstract documentary guided
through an internal monologue by the young artist surrounding themes such as the past and present use of LSD and the desires amplified by the media to pursue a global presence or fame. ABABCD uses symbolic examples in respective fields to articulate the similarities in approach by culture and capitalism. Examples such as the pop hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) by the Swedish band ABBA (1979), then sampled by Madonna – Hung Up or the last issue by the American counterculture magazine The Whole Earth Catalogue now used to inspire Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.