TJ Boulting is proud to present ‘Under The Influence’, the first solo show by visual artist Dominic Hawgood, winner of

the British Journal of Photography’s International series award.

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‘Under The Influence’ explores the blurring of boundaries between fact and fiction, the real and the fake, transforming

or subverting what we understand through images and iconography, questioning what we see at face value. In recent

years Hawgood has used the religious ritual as a starting point for his explorations, and this series encapsulates in

particular performative gestures and objects relating to exorcism ceremonies, held in predominantly African communities

in London’s evangelical churches. The work looks at the merchandising of modern belief systems, and is an

exploration into the theatrical practice of deliverance. The enigmatic experience of seeing exorcism first hand becomes

the inspiration for a series that engages with topics about authenticity, desire, and the real.

At first glance his images are hyper-stylised still life, almost sterile in their depiction of these objects and actions

and the peculiar use of advertising in one specific church. Anointing water in a spray bottle, a microphone held by a

preacher, ice cubes and a wrist support, are set against backdrops of saccharine colours of the ad-man’s world of consumer

culture, designed to lure us in on the sell. But what are we being sold? Advertising sells us the dream and lies to

us through a simulated reality, is it at all disturbing or surprising that religion should harness these tactics too?

Hawgood presents the images combined with light sources as 3D physical objects, like some alternative Apple advert

on a bus shelter. There is a sense of controlled precision, and the straight forward documentary image gives way to

something altogether more sophisticated and surreal. The work is carefully composed, with its design and bright lighting

referring to a constructed set where nothing has been left to chance, and feels far removed from an actual church

backdrop.

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His previous work from 2011 ‘The Conversation’ depicted intimate portraits of women in Texas who had responded to

an ad Hawgood had placed for people speaking in tongues. Again the highly staged environment questions whether it

is actually real people, which in this case it was. As Hawgood explains: “I used lighting to denote control and challenge

notions of truth by disrupting a more traditional documentary aesthetic. By conflating photographic genres (the documentary,

the portrait etc.) merging them, or perhaps upsetting the lines that separate them, ambiguity was created.

It makes it difficult to determine fact from fiction and what is real, whether there is integrity in what I depict, and the

degree to which content has been manipulated.” We are left questioning whether these exorcisms themselves are real

or fake, and what it is we are being questioned to believe?

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Conversely the black and white images presented on vinyls on the wall give a more filmic view of the protagonists

in this story, although just carefully composed. He is probing their inner personal reactions, while from the outside

looking in we interpret the workings of what we believe by questioning the authenticity of what we see. The slick and

sophisticated imagery somehow parallels the emotional intensity and religious fervor involved in the performances.

The hyper-stylized staged image saturated in technology is giving way to the hyperreal - an inability of consciousness

to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. It is this stasis of hyperreality which keeps us looking.

In his thesis he developed ideas relating to ‘ the Therapeutic Real’, a particular kind of realism invented by Hawgood,

which explores the emotional response to re-enacting situations as a way to understand realism, and the problematic

role of photography in helping us know what is real and what is not. In an age where the captivating hold religion can

have on society is being criticised as much as the stanglehold that advertising monopolises and brainwashes, the lines

are indeed blurred, between the real and the staged, what we see, and what we believe.

BIO

Dominic Hawgood completed his MA from the Royal College of Art in 2014. He studied for his BA at University of Wales, Newport

and got a First; his thesis for his MA was awarded a distinction. He has exhibited internationally including at the HyПres

festival of fashion and photograph, Belfast Photo Festival, the Sirius Arts Centre, Cork, Michael Hoppen Gallery, Cork Street

Gallery and Matt Roberts Project Space and has work in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. ‘Under the

Influence will also be shown at PhotoIreland this summer. He has just been selected for The European Photo Exhibition Award

and commissioned to produce a new body of work to be exhibited later in 2015. This exhibition of Under the Influence is a result of

winning the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award with the series. He was selected by Erik Kessels,

curator and founder of KesselsKramer creative agency; Brett Rogers, director of The Photographers’ Gallery; Emma Bowkett,

photography director of the FT Weekend Magazine; Bruno Ceschel, director of Self Publish, Be Happy and SPBH Editions; and

Hannah Watson, director of TJ Boulting gallery and Trolley Books.