This solo show at Tashkeel features Mark Pilkington's latest photographic series from the Mediterranean island of Gozo, near Malta. Pilkington uses himself in the photographs, interacting and responding to the environment, inviting us to reflect on man’s relationship with his immediate surroundings.
Pilkington says
‘I consider this new work to be about a form of personal confrontation, of sounding out what is there, there is something romantic about the encounter . . . The landscapes I use are grand places, quarries or where land meets sea, or amongst desolate wind sculpted cliffs.’

Madeleine Yale, in the Soundings exhibition catalogue, writes
‘ . . . his photographic constructions are surprisingly loud in their silence. We begin to hear the waves, the crunch of earth beneath the performer’s feet, and the echo of a solitary voice against rock. Here he is ‘sending out a signal and waiting for a response’ measuring the process of engagement and inviting viewers to do the same by employing our own cinematic imaginations. . . . It is sounding out the idea that familiar is anything but the familiar.’
Madeline Yale is a writer, curator and photography critic based in London and Dubai

Lateefa bint Maktoum, Tashkeel Director says:
“Tashkeel is pleased to host the exhibition Soundings. This second solo show by Mark Pilkington at Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba, shows his ritualistic process when making photographs. Like a film director would, he chooses the location and positions his camera on set. Dressed in his whites that he describes as his uniform, he becomes the actor stepping into the scene with a confident stance, which in the grandeur of his chosen location makes him appear vulnerable. He pauses to absorb his stage - no other actor present - it’s just him and the island . . . ”