BIO
Statement
My work focuses on a number of inter-related themes:
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Barriers – that people surround themselves with, and that surround people
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Connections – amongst worlds, and amongst people
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Spaces – used by people, and created by people
Related to these themes, the collaboration between Marcela Valania and me takes inspiration from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities;* it focuses on the inferno and space in the inferno, freedom from constraints, and freedom to do.
I am especially interested in images that see through complexity, include echoes of people, and comprise segments that invite engagement in their own right. I use minimal editing that aims to be authentic to the original subject, and that appreciates black, white and greys, as well as bursts of non-saturated colour. My images aim to be deliberate in their reflection of sensibility and reason. That emphasis is rooted in my work as an academic researching socio-economic development (at the University of Birmingham, England; University of Stirling, Scotland; and currently at the University of British Columbia, Canada).
Exhibitions
My images have been included in the following exhibitions:
Hotel Huacalera
Ruta 9, Km 1790,
Pueblo de Huacalera,
Jujuy, Argentina
2019
Exploring the Identity of the British Columbia Wine Territory
Faculty of Management homecoming exhibition, University of British Columbia
2018
(Organized as part of my role at the University of British Columbia.)
Sign of the Times: The Art of Protest
Lake Country Art Gallery Members' Exhibition
Juried 2018
Refractions: Appreciating the British Columbia Wine Territory
University of British Columbia Wine Leaders Forum, and Penticton Public Library
2017
(Organized as part of my role at the University of British Columbia.)
Refractions: Seeing Pathways in a New Light
University of British Columbia Wine Leaders Forum
2016
(Organized as part of my role at the University of British Columbia.)
Publications
My images have been included as part of the following publications:
Jacques Olivier Pesme, Roger Sugden, Malida Mooken, Marcela Valania and Kim Buschert (2018) BC Wine Territory Identity, Regional Socio-Economic Development Institute of Canada, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Malida Mooken, Roger Sugden and Marcela Valania (2018) “University Impact on the Development of Industries in Peripheral Regions: Knowledge Organization and the British Columbia Wine Industry” BC Studies, 198 (Summer), 125-152
Curating
I have contributed to curating as part of my work as an academic:
Art exhibition as part of the Mar del Plata Festival on Creativity and Economic Development, Centro Cultural Victoria Ocampo (Villa Victoria), Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2019.
2019
Art exhibition as part of the Mar del Plata Festival on Creativity and Economic Development: Opportunities and Choices, Centro Cultural Victoria Ocampo (Villa Victoria), Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2008.
2008
Art exhibition, Birmingham Creativity Forum - A City-University Forum on Creativity, Innovation and Culture in the Development of Economies, University of Birmingham, 2008.
2008
Art exhibition as part of the International Festival on Creativity and Economic Development, Gambettola, Italy, 2007.
2007
An exhibition of photographs by Maria Luisa Riva, From Economic Disaster to Economic Progress?, University of Birmingham, 2007.
2007
*Italo Calvino (1997) Invisible Cities, Vintage: London.
Training
Beginners’ Darkroom Photography, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, 2011.
2011