Patrick Pound
‘Water: A rising tide’
Patrick Pound’s work comprises hundreds of watery images: divers suspended in mid-air, swimmers floating in the ocean and crisp reflections on still water. This is only a small sample of Pound’s vast archive of photographs purchased over many years, and increasingly sourced online. Pound collects these images so we may see them anew. The majority are old family photos featuring suburban pools, beach holidays and sailing trips. Each image is a poignant link to earlier times. In our increasingly digital age, how will future generations look back on the oceans, lakes and swimming pools in the images we capture today?
For ‘Water’, Pound displays these collected photographs in long horizontal lines, like a timeline or tideline mapped on the gallery walls. Underneath the logic of each image ‘type’, Pound delights in the rhythm of small and unexpected details: the still splash of a passing moment, or the play between reality and reflection.
Patrick Pound / Aotearoa New Zealand/Australia b.1962 / On Reflection 2019 / Found photographs / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, and STATION, Melbourne
Patrick Pound / Aotearoa New Zealand/Australia b.1962 / Work by Patrick Pound installed at GOMA for 'Water', 2019 / Found photographs / Dimensions variable / © Patrick Pound / Photograph: QAGOMA