The observation of trifles

The observation of trifles (2013-2016) is about how a foreigner finds his way in a new country and a new neighbourhood. I am the immigrant. Taking objects that I found on the streets and using them as a kind of visual archaeology, I discovered East London and its denizens.

I focus on the neighbourhoods of Tower Hamlets and Hackney. I live on the border in between both of them. The combination of objects with photographs helps me to introduce to the audience my work through a more physical way and with a mystery feeling. Thanks to these elements I am making an analytic and expressive world: urban furniture reproductions; landscapes of council houses created between the 50's and 70's for Londoners and immigrants with low rents; details of letters with notes, drawings... But the most important aspect of this work is the people who I met thanks to the signals and ways that I followed guided by the objects that I found on the street.

They are the key to open an unexplored world and new life stories. "The observation of trifles" is a work that is at the crossroads of the collection, history and architectural document, visual and social analysis. I have attempted to do not forget the photographic aesthetic and the photographic poetic value.

Carlos Alba is a Spanish visual artist working mainly with photography, video and installation. His work is focused on human and nonhuman relations in the modern world. He uses his art work as a therapy to understand his feelings, his past, his masculinity, and his fears. He is exploring issues from everyday life especially those which affect vulnerable living beings. His tools are objects and archives that help him to arrive at the art he makes. He recently launched his second monograph ‘The Taste Of The Wind’.

He is the director of the art project space, Bubbleclub. Bubbleclub exists as an experimental platform bridging the local and international art. Through curated exhibitions, events and residency exchanges with international artists and curators, we hope to inspire the art scene here with global trends and new ideas in contemporary photography and beyond.

Check out here for more information: Instagram: @CarlosAlbaPhoto

Websites: www.carlosalba.com & www.bubbleclub.es