Edmund Clark: The Realities of State Power in Conflict and Control Spaces
27 March 2024
“Terror, disruptions of liberty, incarceration, and War echo throughout the work of British artist Edmund Clark, a powerful practice, potent in its approach yet aesthetically gripping. Clark delves into the complex interplay of state power, personal experiences, and the mechanics of control in times of conflict, effectively linking history, politics, and representation.”
Acquisitions of the Month: February 2024
9 March 2024
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Two works by Edmund Clark
The V&A has acquired two photographic works by the artist Edmund Clark (b. 1963), whose work primarily concerns the perniciousness of state control and repression. Control Order House (2012), the result of Clark gaining access to the house of an anonymous prisoner being kept under house arrest in the UK, will go on display in the V&A’s photography centre in June. Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition is a collection of photographs, taken by Clark in collaboration with the investigative journalist Crofton Black, which document secret detention sites for suspected terrorists in the United States. Both installations are accompanied by rigorous text-based research undertaken by Clark. Much like the work of groups such as Forensic Architecture, Clark’s output straddles the line between art and investigative journalism.
Edmund Clark’s groundbreaking works acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum
28 February 2024
Flowers Gallery has announced the Victoria & Albert Museum acquisition of works from two of Edmund Clark‘s groundbreaking projects. “Control Order House” is a critical exploration of the experiences of individuals placed under control orders, a measure implemented by the U.K. government in its counter-terrorism efforts. In “Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition,” created alongside investigator Crofton Black, Clark delves into the hidden aspects of governmental control.
February 2024
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, has acquired works from Edmund Clark’s series ‘Control Order House’ and ‘Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition’ for their permanent collection.
Flowers Gallery is delighted to announce the V&A’s acquisition of works from two of Edmund Clark’s groundbreaking projects. Control Order House examines the lives of individuals subjected to control orders as part of the UK government’s response to terrorism. This work delves into the impact of security measures, introduced under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, including the power to relocate ‘controlled persons’ to a house anywhere in the country, to impose a curfew, and to restrict communication electronically and in person. ‘Controlled persons’ were not prosecuted for terrorist-related activity, and the evidence against them remained secret. Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition, created in collaboration with investigator Crofton Black, confronts the nature of invisible mechanisms of state control. From George W. Bush’s 2001 declaration of the ‘war on terror,’ until 2008, an unknown number of people disappeared into a network of secret prisons organised by the US Central Intelligence Agency – transfers without legal process, otherwise known as extraordinary rendition.