Richard has photographed the Towner Art Centre for Rick Mather Architects....
[read more...]'Architecture of urban discord.' by Steve Bisson. Urbanuatica.
"Some time ago Richard Chivers positively surprised us with his photographic series Texture of Time. In this new work he consistently continues with his disenchanted research on urban issues that pertain to his country. His own words describe well the reasons and objectives of the project, which is part of a thematic survey developed by the group of photographers Human Endeavour.
Images that speak of loneliness, abandonment and failure. A failure that is not of the economy, it is ours. Chivers tell us of the collapsed dream of a community. A community dies when it has no longer a storyteller. In this sense Chivers continues to keep alive the memory of the community through his photography. Yet what he portrays is a story not at all pleasant. He does not feel alien to what happened; he is there to document, to witness and perhaps to find some answers, guided as much by his conscience as anything else. Whose fault is it when a place loses its dignity? Maybe this place has never had one. Places are never defined by their walls, pavement or even less by some stunted tree. Inhabitants build them.
Even now that they have been abandoned these sites seem to be identified more by the forgotten objects than by what remains of buildings. Again, we find traces of the crisis of modernity. An epoch certainly not kind but bulimic and also seemingly rational, as it was the construction machine that acted as loyal bishop. The humanity is gone however, and will not return except to leave again. Chivers, with this dramatic lyric, reminds us that the community should begin again to be the responsible creators of their own development, instead of being the unwitting victims of cyclical economic downturns."