Backwater (broken glass, cistern bloo, milk, sandwich bags, necklace, clingfilm, bedroom floor sweepings, hair gel, bingo chips, sellotape, noodles)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Ministry of Justice, 102 Petty France

This painterly photographic print is a landscape of debris suspended in a liquid mix of cistern bloo and milk. A necklace, bingo chips and broken glass amongst other detritus appear as frozen flotsam. As the title of the work, Backwater, suggests the image appears suspended in time and stagnant. The viewer is confronted with the material culture of everyday life which appears both inviting and grotesque. Although Samara Scott’s work is often associated with being a commentary on consumerism as she says it is not as simple as that, Scott goes on to explain further: 

Given the world we live in, I don’t think it’s possible to avoid addressing capitalism in some way, but it’s never something I want to confront head-on. For me it’s more interesting to make work from a position of immersion, of complicity in this system of exploitation and exchange—a system we know is not sustainable, is killing the planet, yet we continue. I am seduced by this world, engaged with it, all hooked up. I can critique it, but I can’t stop; I see clearly, but I can’t solve. I’m a cog, or perhaps a lubricant, or even a parasite. This confusion, frustration, paralysis is a kind of tide: a whirlpool of seduction and squeamishness, a churning; and I think this is where the work comes from—from this seasick point inside. 

Samara Scott lives and works in Dover. Recent solo exhibitions include The Doldrums, CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (2020); Belt and Road, Tramway, Glasgow (2018). Silks, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, (2015); Group exhibitions include Soft Water Hard Stone: 2021 Triennial, New Museum, New York (2021) Mixing it Up, The Hayward Gallery, 2021; The Happy Fact, curated by Tania Pardo, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, (2019); Day Tripper, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK (2019); Days are Dogs, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017).

Places

Subjects

necktie, Sellotape, domestic objects, kitchen objects, milk, consumerism, broken glass, sandwich bags, hair gel, bingo chips, noodles

Materials & Techniques

photographic print

Artist

Samara Scott (1985 - )

Title

Backwater (broken glass, cistern bloo, milk, sandwich bags, necklace, clingfilm, bedroom floor sweepings, hair gel, bingo chips, sellotape, noodles)

Edition

One of an edition of 40 (number unknown)

Date

2017

Medium

photographic print on paper

Dimensions

height: 40.0 cm; width: 29.0 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from House of Voltaire, January 2020

Inscription

verso: inscribed by the artist, bottom left

Provenance

House of Voltaire, London UK; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 8 January 2020

GAC number

18853