Alex Currie
Infrastructure of Artifice
The images from the series “Infrastructure of Artifice” were shot on location in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2007, using a large format view camera. Being the largest port in Europe, (second only to Shanghai globally) the Port of Rotterdam is a construct of enormous proportions that necessitates the globalized economy in which we all reside. In an increasingly globalized world, society becomes ever more homogenized creating a level of disassociation and isolation within the human psyche. The photographic gaze is drawn to the literal infrastructure of the port, at the same time highlighting the artificial construct of a landscape entirely reclaimed from the sea. This extreme example of how humankind affects the ‘natural’ landscape acts as a metaphor for the implications of artifice within the modern world. The images herein, seek to meditate upon the Port of Rotterdam as a simulacrum of modern day society and how this reflects upon the human condition.
Infrastructure of Artifice
The images from the series “Infrastructure of Artifice” were shot on location in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2007, using a large format view camera. Being the largest port in Europe, (second only to Shanghai globally) the Port of Rotterdam is a construct of enormous proportions that necessitates the globalized economy in which we all reside. In an increasingly globalized world, society becomes ever more homogenized creating a level of disassociation and isolation within the human psyche. The photographic gaze is drawn to the literal infrastructure of the port, at the same time highlighting the artificial construct of a landscape entirely reclaimed from the sea. This extreme example of how humankind affects the ‘natural’ landscape acts as a metaphor for the implications of artifice within the modern world. The images herein, seek to meditate upon the Port of Rotterdam as a simulacrum of modern day society and how this reflects upon the human condition.