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Sean Dower: Artworks and information
Bathrooms of the world:
'The first of these photographs was taken in Morocco, when I was staying there for a few months in 1985. Initially struck by an interaction of mirror, water and light, I have been exploring this moment of epiphany ever since. The majority of the images have been made in hotels, when I’ve been traveling internationally to make exhibitions or touring with bands. In trying to understand my obsession with these spaces, I arrive a little closer to understanding what might be interesting about them, but ultimately I don't completely understand my fascination (which is why I continue to take the photographs).
There is the isolation of travel, the fact that these spaces are anonymous, apart from what we bring to them. In culture, bathrooms represent one place where we really look at our selves and our bodies and in that sense they are intimate and personal. Travel often leads to self-reflection and a questioning of identity. Formally, the spaces in these photographs are like mini-installations and the similarity of their design with other sanitary spaces (e.g. hospitals and morgues) is perhaps a subconscious factor. When taking the pictures, I take some time to get know the space and then tend to work rather quickly, trying out different set-ups. I am looking for an essence to the situation and experiment with whatever is to hand, physically manipulating things until I get close to a final image. Sometimes I have inhabited a bathroom for a week and have felt unable to respond to it, there are also numerous photographs that haven't made it into the final collection. On a biographical level, these photographs have turned into a kind of index of my travels and have represented a constant, unifying thread to an otherwise migratory identity. For me, the images act as a kind of repository, with incidents and memories attached to them. Hopefully they take the viewer on their own journey'.
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