Sara Jane Boyers & Martin Cox (USA)

WEST COAST/WEST COAST

Sara Jane Boyers is a fine art exhibiting photographer, an almost native Californian who grew up by the Southern California beach.  She is also an award-winning author/editor of books for youth on topics ranging from contemporary art and poetry to civic and political activism. Boyers' photographs are characterized by a personal and intense focus on the detail of the everyday, documenting the overlooked beauty of the seemingly mundane. Through poetic abstraction, she tells a story that leaves a memory unanswered with intent to re-explore, that inspires a curiosity of the next.  Her work is fuelled by her fine art background and a continuing interest in society's structure.

Martin Cox is a UK-born photographer whose work has been exhibited in galleries in the US and UK.  He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Martin’s projects often incorporate time scales and the presence of history, while also evoking issues of land use. His work speaks of the end of various eras, be they economic, technological or historical. A recurring theme in his photographic work is the visual evidence of communities in transition and the impact registered by them upon the landscape. His work is inspired by the places where the environment and culture rub against one another.

For WEST COAST/WEST COAST Boyers and Cox were inspired by the similarity to Los Angeles of Fremantle's geographic relationship to its own: West facing north/south coast line, a port area and older city inland.  From that aesthetic starting point and using their American West Coast perspective, they created separate but complementary projects. Martin Cox's fascination with maritime history, ships and the sea itself has led him to create photography for this exhibition that involves Fremantle’s historic first known ship visits from Europeans.  He combined webcam imagery from the present-day port, along with the names of the first eleven ships to visit Fremantle, superimposed over images from the wake of a vessel in Los Angeles waters. Sara Jane Boyers turns to an aspect of all ports - repair - photographed at the bustling Los Angeles Harbor and using her signature quest for beauty and detail to represent the lives and activity within a space, in this case a dry dock facility seemingly vacant but awaiting the next ship.

Top image © Sara Jane Boyers.

Bottom image © Martin Cox.