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| Ra di Martino No more Stars ( Star Wars ) 2010 33deg 50'N 7deg46'E Chot El-Gharsa, Tunisia copyright courtesy of the artist and Monitor, Rome (Cover to exhibition notes) |
In going to view this exhibition at Tate Modern, I wanted to see the photographic work of Ra di Martino specifically. The exhibition brought together six artists to consider the divide between historical monuments and disregarded urban ruins. The remains of the Star Wars sets in the North African desert were the focus of Di Martino's series of photographs 'No More Stars ( Star Wars ) and so, fitted well with the exhibition's theme. What we see in the images are the detritus of the film industry left behind - structural monuments left behind and consequently expressing archaeological evidence of the industry's activity.
Over a period of time the structures have in a sense gone back to the desert in that they blend into the landscape much as ancient Roman/ Greek ruins can do. I felt that some images worked better than others in this respect and this left me looking at the series from two angles; one the technical composition viewpoint and secondly the creative / interpretative aspect. One image still stands out which I cannot reference here visually but it showed a particular structural arrangement with the imprint of some disturbed footprints leading up to the crest of the structure. This to my mind conveyed more an impression of abandonment and in a contrary fashion the feeling of visit to an archaeological site than many of the other photographs.
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