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The Dark Highway Paul Wenham-Clarke Curated by Aaron Schuman Supporting essay by Paul Allen THE ARTIST'S SPACE “I started out as a commercial photographer working for corporate clients such as British Telecom, Hitachi and Hoover, and was one of the first practitioners to embrace the opportunities and potential of digital technologies. This activity generally involved me in being creative in response to the demands of others and producing short-lived outcomes with no social impact beyond generating sales. Throughout this time I was shooting small personal projects about other people’s lives, from documenting the last employees in a bus station before it was knocked down to make way for a shopping mall, to recording the fading charm of Weymouth’s seafront. The shift was realising that I wanted to undertake a more substantial piece of work about a subject of social importance; the result was When Lives Collide. Subsequent projects continued to explore ideas about the road that ultimately led to an aspect of it that was concerned with how I felt about the subject matter rather than it being documentary research. Sacrifice the Birdsong came from a compulsion to explore a lifelong interest in wildlife and mourn its loss on our roads through images that engage the public rather than the art community alone. The Dark Highway is a summary of these works and a record of my changing working processes.” Paul Wenham-Clarke, 2014 Megan on a cold minus 5 degree morning, from The Westway 3 STYLES, STRATEGIES AND SUBJECTS CURATOR'S VIEWPOINT n one sense, The Dark Highway is a somewhat misleading title, in that it implies that the photographic works included in this exhibition are situated in the middle Iof a road, albeit an ominous and metaphoric one. But it is in the darkness and the edges of the road where these images find their true collective concern; in the unseen underpasses that go unnoticed, and in the unlit verges that fall outside the glow of the streetlamps and headlights of our attention as we rush past them, at full speed, towards seemingly more pressing and more prosperous opportunities ahead. For the last decade, the photographer Paul Wenham-Clarke’s steady eye – whilst concentrating on the commercial road that he himself has also pursued – has often been caught by its periphery. His attention has momentarily strayed, and been drawn towards the lives lived beneath the ever-encroaching highways and byways of twenty-first century commerce, as well as towards those that have been devastated, lost and sacrificed to its unyieldingly persistent and increasingly voracious pace. 5 Owl Wing, from Sacrifice the Birdsong Quite literally, it was during his own hurried commutes to and from his central traumas, tribulations and tragedies so often experienced, but so rarely London studio that Wenham-Clarke first became curious about the various acknowledged, on society’s rapid and rampant road to prosperity. Hard Times brings neighbourhoods and communities that he occasionally caught glimpses of beneath us face to face with, and into the ‘homes’ of, a number of individuals who sell The the Westway – a sweeping three-and-a-half mile long flyover that, paradoxically, Big Issue; people who, for whatever reason, have been sidelined or have somehow was built in the late 1960s to allow people just like him to bypass them without a ‘missed their ride’, so to speak, on this particular highway. Similarly, When Lives Collide second glance. Eventually, instead of carrying on with his normal route (and routine), confronts us of the ruthless human toll such a road demands, and reminds us of the Wenham-Clarke veered off the Westway and went down below, spending several visceral brutality that it inflicts upon the victims of its all too frequent ‘accidents’, as years delving into the various lives and experiences of those who reside beneath the well as the emotional carnage that it wreaks upon their loved ones. Here, through domineering convenience, and in ignorance, of the road above. The result is two heightened saturations, contrasts and expressions, Wenham-Clarke borrows the accomplished bodies of photography that are ‘documentary’ in both style and visual language of commercial culture itself in order to reveal its underbelly, and spirit – The Westway (2013) and The Urban Gypsies (2013). brings an alarming immediacy to two of its ugliest consequences – poverty and death – which otherwise, when encountered on the roadside or otherwise, often The first generally examines the relationship cause us to avert our eyes. between the elevated dual-carriageway and the complex, multicultural world that Finally, in his most recent body of work, Sacrifice the thrives underneath it; the second extensively Birdsong (2013), Wenham-Clarke infuses his explores a traditionally transient Irish photographs with the painterly traditions of still life, Traveller community that, ironically, has built vanitas and memento mori, and draws attention to the a permanent home for itself directly beneath additional sacrifices made in the name of contemporary this structure of, and monument to, culture and its car-dependent lifestyle; namely that of Figure 1 perpetual movement. wildlife. A keen amateur ornithologist and birdwatcher himself, Wenham-Clarke gathered the In Hard Times (2011) and When Lives Collide (2006), Wenham-Clarke adopts a carcasses of birds (as well as other ‘road kill’) that slightly different photographic style and approach – one that borrows from he spotted at the edges of the highway over several mainstream cinema, celebrity portraiture and advertising, more than journalism or months, and subsequently arranged them into a series reportage – in order to both dramatize and emphasize the intensity of various of seemingly luxurious yet lifeless roadside tableaux. Figure 2 6 7 The contrast created – between the decadent, tapestry-like feathers, the sculptural, ivory-like bones and the glistening, jewel-like crowns of the birds, and the harsh, dark asphalt upon which they have been placed – serves as a stark reminder of the beauty, richness, rarity and diversity of the natural world, and of its fragility in the face of the our ever-encroaching modernity. By incorporating such a wide and yet surprisingly consistent array of styles, strategies and subjects into his work – and doing so with a determined sense of commitment and consideration – Wenham-Clarke offers us a powerful, and at times, unsettling insight into that which lies at the edges of both our daily journeys and general experience. Ultimately, The Dark Highway represents one man’s discovery of how that which we so often ignore – the edges, the verges, and the means by which we exist and commute – can be transformed into an opportunity to both question how we live, and perhaps more importantly, to commune with the world at large. Aaron Schuman, 2014 Styles, Strategies and Subjects: Curator’s Viewpoint Image credits Figure 1: Page 6: The Urban Gypsies-The boys First Communion Day, from The Westway Figure 2: Page 7: From Sacrifice the Birdsong The Westway Stables under The Westway A40 London, from The Westway 8 Shirley Caswell, from When Lives Collide NAVIGATING THE DARK HIGHWAY eaturing excerpts from four photographic projects, The Dark Highway is the Fculmination of ten years work during which Paul Wenham-Clarke has investigated social issues about which he feels strongly. Informed by his work as an advertising photographer, When Lives Collide (2006) features tableaux and portraits, and exhibits the hallmarks of a professional in charge of his medium: excellent technique and a fl uent narrative. More traditional in their documentary approach are the Hard Times (2011) and The Westway (2013) projects in which Paul observes those carving out a life for themselves in response to social and urban change. Seen here are portraits of Big Issue sellers in sheltered accommodation and squats, sleeping rough on the streets, and living in cars, and of Urban Gypsies living in the shadow of a Central The bride prepares to leave for church, from The Westway London fl yover. 13 Sacrifice the Birdsong (2013) is a significant change in tone and marks a break in Paul’s an audience’s belief in the rigour of the research process that established the facts. own journey as a photographer. Gone are the set pieces, the observations, and the As such, Paul is present as a director/producer of events rather than central to them. explicit links to reality, and in their place are small visual poems expertly constructed in-camera or at the computer. These images, with their references to historical The portraits in When Lives Collide offer us another model of documentary practice traditions of still life painting, eloquently explore the loss of wildlife caused by the car and situate the photographer explicitly within the process and, to some degree, the and afford us the opportunity to see rare, well-camouflaged species in a new light. outcome. The individuals and couples are seen against backgrounds of minimal decoration so that we, having scoured the image for clues as to the lives of those When Lives Collide makes for intentional and unintentional challenging viewing. The featured, are forced to look into their eyes. They hold our gaze and return it, unable large scale reconstructions of road traffic incidents (not accidents, note, that would to tell their stories of bereavement or injury through the stillness of the frame but imply no root cause) result from interviews conducted with members of the capable of conveying in their expressions the pain they feel. emergency services. We are presented with a series depicting scenes from real events, made in the tradition of advertising; make-up artists, actors, lighting, and a tight Made as the subjects recounted their tales, these images reveal the surface of schedule. While we know that all involved were unharmed, although one fears for the suffering and disbelief through watery eyes, vacant expressions and the tenderness health of one poor actor who appears dressed in little more than a t-shirt and jeans in of touch.

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