At first sight the inconsequential acts of staging and orchestration, which characterise this work appear barely worthy of the viewer’s attention, yet the resulting images are both playful and forlorn; intimate and oddly epic. The ominous depths and seemingly boundless vistas suggested by these scenes: the presence of small figures isolated in apparently vast spaces, speak to our notions of the sublime, however, although the images allude to dramas more profound than their subjects might immediately suggest, the presence of such absurd protagonists as those depicted here, means that our reading of the images oscillates quite literally between the sublime and the ridiculous.

‘The photographs puncture the reverie of the spaces they depict, with the presence of a small detail, consciously placed... The figures that occupy these marginal spaces seem to say “what now, where now?”, and we can’t answer because we don’t know... In Lock’s images, any hope of elucidation or clarity is frustrated by obscure backgrounds and voids, which recede obliquely beyond the frame... nothing with any substance of certainty is revealed.’ (Stewart Collinson).

Lost Horizons, began life during an artist’s residency at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, in autumn 2006. The project was supported by Arts Council England.

The photographs present the viewer with a series of scenes, reminiscent of childhood myth-making and play. The images depict the unregarded corners of workrooms and empty houses, wherein the worn edge of a table becomes a horizon line and a painted wall stands-in for a turbulent sky. The images are populated by crudely made figures, collected from garage sales and flea-markets. These figures possess an uncertain status: simultaneously suggesting sentinel-like totems, discarded toys and dramatis personae.