Manga Dreams - Anderson and Low.

I have just got back from visiting the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Manga Dreams features highlights of a recent Anderson and Low project which were featured in the 2011 Venice Biennale. This series combines photography and digital techniques of subjects that have been hand picked by the artists over many years.

Photographers Jonathon Anderson and Edwin Low have worked together since 1990 and have achieved critical acclaim. Manga Dreams is the first museum exhibition of this work in the U.K and the first of a series of similar exhibitions worldwide. Accompanying the series is a book of the same name.

This series of extraordinary work "blurs the distinction between photography and other forms of visual art, using old and new technologies to explore concepts of identity".

Anderson and Low’s clever, energetic artwork and Manga characters fuse the cartoon world with reality. Walking around the gallery viewing these photographs you get a real sense of energy radiating from them.

Alan with Gun.

I have to say when I read the title to this image it did make me laugh out loud. For a start the name does not suit the person pictured but it is also very literally. No beating around the bush with fancy titles. I really like the quality the digital painting brings to the pictures. All of the images are pigment prints on loan from Hamiltons Gallery, London.

Untitled (Aqua Boy).

Straight away I felt that this image has an airbrushed quality to it. I find the way  that the boy stares into the camera quite unnerving, as if he is watching you where ever you go. His right hand is gripping the boomarang rather tightly while his left hand is clenched in a fist which also adds to the feeling I got.

Untitled (Ming with Sword)

Again the girl is staring straight at the camera. A common theme within the pictures is that the majority of them have the subject clutching some kind of weapon creating a striking image.

Untitled (Kit the Swordsman)

Out of all of the images this one for me has the most movement within it, particularly with the flames to the bottom left of the frame. This is also the image that most merges reality and fantasy more so than any of the others. While some of the images have quite a cartoon feel about them with the clear outlines, colours and spiky styled hair; Kit the Swordsman literally has the cartoon background and flames around him.

Untitled (Eyes)

I have saved my favourite image until last. To be honest I am unsure as to why this is my favourite. I think that it might have something to do with being immediately drawn to the eyes staring out at you. The deep blue contrasts so well with the hair and skin tone. I almost get a feeling of sadness from this image, as though it is looking into your soul.

I have to say I have never seen anything like this exhibition before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fact that it is so different really encourages the viewer to think and analyse what they are seeing. I love the quality of all the prints and the feeling of texture you get from them rather than a flat glossy image.

The SCVA also currently has another exhibition on at the moment - There is here, photographs by Avi Gupta. I must make sure that I go back to visit it.

Information from www.scva.org.uk