Marwan Bassiouni’s ongoing series of photographs “New British Views” (all performs 2022) offers landscapes of a switching terrain marked not only by the continuing fallout from Brexit but also by the stagnant social procedures of a nation that has nevertheless to thoroughly reckon with its evolving demographics or the lasting legacies of its eclipsed empire. Printed at a close to existence-dimensions scale, the photographs have an astonishing clarity about them the window-framed vistas of city Lidls, old English churches, row houses, and suburban streets studded with minivans and practical sedans come to feel, at occasions, just about three-dimensional, even though devoid of the particular glasses or overt gimmicks of trick pictures. The interiors are clipped and crisp, usually in contrast to the more ramshackle exteriors. For occasion, in New British Views #6, an ornamental mural traces teal and ultramarine up and around an arched casement. Tucked underneath the sill, the wood lattice of an air vent echoes the Escheresque assemblage of solid-iron fireplace escapes, corrugated metal lose roofs, and mismatched bricks girding the courtyards outdoors. New British Sights #17 capabilities a dim room with large gridded windows that stand enjoy above an empty intersection. Inside of, the elaborately patterned carpet echoes the gilded bindings of the textbooks lining a reduced shelf. Only upon nearer inspection does one recognize these are prayer publications. Although they study a nation in flux, Bassiouni’s photographs are united by a person frequent: They are all shot from within mosques or prayer rooms.
The images’ immersive character derives from a marriage of scale and the seamless stitching of composite photos so that every ingredient and each surface area is uniformly lit. In this sense, Bassiouni is using the digital camera to handle and correct its very own limits. The resulting hyperclarity can be confusing for eyes accustomed to becoming guided by focal details. Rather than just pantomiming the politics about demographic shifts, the artist insists that viewers actively see what is currently there.
— Kate Sutton