Rachel Wilberforce
RACHEL WILBERFORCE, From the Missing series, 2007
Courtesy of the artist
Rachel Wilberforce is an artist working with photography, video, installation and live art intervention. She was born in United Kingdom in 1975 and lives in London.
Through my practice, I am motivated by creating images that reflect current issues in society. My earlier photographic work focuses on constructed images of the interior in exploring issues of family, belief and representation and the direct impact and interactions of society and media on the individual, often with juxtaposing or contradictory themes. My recent work has moved to the exterior through non-constructed images and deals indirectly with the individual (and more direct with society) through engagement with real people and spaces in examining global concerns of politics, religion, race, gender, exile and enslavement.
Missing centres on anonymous places, buildings and objects that point or relate to the phenomenon of human trafficking in the UK: interiors and exteriors of working, derelict or re-purposed massage parlours and flats where people have been transported and held in slave-like conditions for sexual exploitation and forced labour. The images are devoid of people and respond to the psychological issues surrounding trafficking: loss of identity, sense of displacement and dislocation and violation of human rights as well as the proximity and clandestine nature of the crimes.
Wilberforce’s work has been shown nationally and internationally including: GARDEN, Medieval Castle Vault, Southampton, UK, 2004; HOPE & GLORY, Chaos Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia, 2005; CONSPIRACY, prog:ME, Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005, PARANOIA, Leeds City Art Gallery, Focal Point Gallery, Freud Museum London, UK, 2006/07; THIS DAY, Tate Modern, 2007; UNDO, Dazed Gallery, London, 2007; RECOGNISE, Contemporary Art Platform, London, UK, 2007; CRIMES & SPLENDORS, Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam, 2007; ZAPPING, Grafisch Atelier, The Netherlands, 2007, WAR TO END ALL WARS, The Dazed Gallery, 2007..