How does someone concerned mainly with sculpture and drawing approach photography? Unlike both of those material disciplines, with their tactile and differentiated surfaces, made over time, within a space that is actual, we see the illusory space of the photograph (recorded in an instant) through the undifferentiated, cool surface sheen of the print.

For me, the impulse to make art usually translates into a sustained period of work and reflection on a particular three-dimensional object, or series of drawings that evolve over a period of time. Occasionally though, an idea may come into being more fleetingly, as when recognizing a potential slippage of meaning when passing through a familiar environment. Equally, a work might be suggested by a momentary impression of the uncanny, or the dubious authenticity of an object. At such times, I may decide that the idea, or impression, is better recorded, even re-created, photographically.

The work shown in this exhibition was set up and photographed in the large studio of John Crane, a professional product photographer, specializing in the modern ‘still life’ genre of the commercial pack shot.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual entities, incidents or the actions of persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

Nick Pearson was born in Leeds and studied at Jacob Kramer College of Art (now Leeds Arts University), Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now University of Wolverhampton) and Stourbridge College of Art. He currently lives and works in London as an artist and art lecturer at the London College of Contemporary Arts and at Richmond Art School, is a regular contributing lecturer to day schools at the University of Oxford and is a director of OPEN Ealing Arts Centre.

Recent group and solo exhibitions include: ‘Objection’ (with Madi Acharya-Baskerville, Hayley Harrison and Anne Parfitt), Angus-Hughes Gallery, London, and ‘Floor 2 – U-Think’, part of Hammersmith & Fulham Arts Fest, Riverside Building, London (2018); ‘I'm Not Being Funny But’, The Gallery, LCCA, London (2015); ‘I'm Not Being Funny But’, Leeds College of Art Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds (2014); ‘Material Matters: Martin Newth with Katie Cuddon, Matt Franks and Nick Pearson’, Gerald Moore Gallery, London (2013); ‘Shelf Life’, Shed Gallery, Ilkley (2013); ‘Visibly Evident’, conceived and curated by David Ross, Central Space Gallery, London (2010); ‘Visibly Evident’, Spinach, London (2011); ‘Visibly Evident’, OPEN Ealing Arts Centre, London (2011); ‘Neither Use nor Ornament’, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, West Yorkshire (2010).

Featured in STATEf22 magazine (London) issue 21, ‘Visible: Four Artists to Watch’, by Anna McNay, Spring 2016; The Blue Notebook (Centre for Fine Print Research, Bristol School of Art, Media & Design), ‘Featured artist's page’, volume 1, no. 2, April 2007; Zingmagazine (New York), Review of work in 2000 City Projects Exhibition in Antwerp, by Angus Ivy, issue 14, 2001.