In 2012 I began to document fly posting in Tashkent and how these sites of communication existed on the edges of acceptability. Tolerated as a way to give people a means to exist economically i.e. to advertise a business; messy and unkempt, not the sort of thing for a tightly managed urban center. An aesthetically seductive link to assemblage and the making, unmaking, remaking practice of artists. The entropy of a paper collage without defined boundaries, that could creep up or down, sideways and in an around the non-spaces of social housing. These fragments of flyposting and their material ecology represented to me not just a historical link and formal connection to art making but also a kind of emotional connection of an internal dialogue.
Fragile shapes hanging semi fixed waiting for opportunity and connection, somehow mapping / reflecting personal feelings about being in a country as a temporary resident and the impermanent patterns of life.
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Richard Reynolds was born in Shropshire in the UK and studied at the University of Northumbria and the Slade School of Art. After graduating Richard lived and worked as an artist / teacher in London from 1992 until 2009 when he began working in international education; first in Berlin and then Tashkent, Uzbekistan where he continues to develop work in response to this locality.
Richard was recently invited to participate in Glint Project’s Instagram take over for the month of August 2020 and is currently participating in a Residency by Correspondence through (Arts) Territory Exchange with the artist Tony Humbleyard. Richard can be found on Instagram @_richardreynolds_
All rights to the images and text belong to the artist.
