Chromatic Terrains - an analog photography exhibition.

Artist: ARLAU

Curator: Darya Kalembet

Private View: 4th June, 6pm - 8pm

Viewing Dates: Thursday 4th June - Tuesday 9th June 2026

Opening Hours: 11am - 6pm

‘Chromatic Terrains’ exhibition unfolds as a tribute to nostalgia, which could be understood not as a purely sentimental feeling, but rather as an atmospheric condition—one that no longer exists within the linear perception of time and space. Instead, it lingers within everyday fragments: the feeling of sunshine on your face, motes of dust in the sunset, warm ocean air, worn clothes, and old photographs—laid abandoned in your cupboard, yet capable of evoking warmth once rediscovered. It explores nostalgia as an ephemeral condition, where vivid patterns of time, memory, space, and location intersect.

The exhibition showcases analog photography by London-based analogue photographer Arlau, whose practice is rooted in travel and the exploration of place. The works capture various locations across Central Asia:Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as Georgia - regions from which the artist draws deep visual and emotional inspiration.These places evoke a sense of nostalgia and a particular feeling of fulfilment through their landscapes and vibrant colour palettes, generating an immediate sense of joy. Yet once departed, they leave behind a distinct trace of melancholy that intensifies over time, treating memory and myth not as subjects to illustrate, but as conditions of image-making.

The exhibition layout operates as a metaphor for memory as it recedes over time, divided into three categories: colour, black and white, and risograph printing. The latter, a stencil-based process originally designed for inexpensive mass reproduction, resists precision: colours remain flat, layers slip out of register, and ink rests on the surface of the paper rather than sinking into it. The image is no longer simply seen but felt—something closer to the way a place is recalled after time has passed, as terrain becomes tactile and approximate, held in the hands rather than the eyes. The exhibition closes with analogue black-and-white photography, returning to the same landscapes captured on the same journeys. Through this gesture, the photographer extends their practice beyond documentation into material experimentation, where image and print become inseparable.

In addition, the texture and intensity of the landscapes in Chromatic Terrains culminate in a direct dialogue with the riso technique. Alongside textiles and ceramics from Bukhara, Uzbekistan, risograph printing enters into a metaphorical conversation with traditional Central Asian craftsmanship. This intersection foregrounds a renewed sense of experimentation, where historical techniques and contemporary practices converge, recontextualising cultural memory within present realities.