POKIT x Tomas Poblete installation artwork for Dover Arts Festival

 

NO FORWARDING ADDRESS. A series of photographs by POKIT and Tomas Poblete from their residency with Dover Arts Development's 'You can reach the world from Dover 2023' festival.

Presented as a large scale installation on the exterior of the POKIT studio space this series of direct yet sensitive portraits of locals from Castle Street in Dover explores the potential of community where there is a blank canvas.

Thank you to our neighbours, Dover Arts Development and sponsors of the arts in Dover for making this collaboration with Tomas Poblete possible.

Mario

 

Charles

 

Mercedes

 

Suzie

 

Anaclato

 

Fin

 

Septimus

No forwarding address

Set out in 1834 as a direct route for the military to ferry supplies and troops to the castle, Castle Street soon evolved into an elegant 19th century street with a mixture of high-class shops, services and fine houses. Today, it is arguably one of the most architecturally significant streets in Dover’s old town.

This project and residency is based on observing the daily comings and goings on the street since February 2022  POKIT (Bayode Oduwole & Claire Pringle) and fellow resident artist Tomas Poblete have collaborated to bring a different perspective to the street. Together, they depict a cross-section of its ‘core’ and long-term population; those who live and those who make their livelihoods here. This series of direct yet sensitive portraits reveal a genuine community.

You are asked by the artists to look at the sitters, observe and reflect on them and on yourself, to look through the prism of history up to the current day. These faces are different and, perhaps, similar to those of the past connecting the thread of place and home between the past and present. Each sitter is deliberately placed in a white canvas suit, a blank canvas offering a uniformity that only serves to intensify the point.