In Search of Norm Parker (and Subsequently the Orang Mawas)
Collection:UAL Art Collection
Date: 2024
Artist: Jack Sproston (British)
Dimensions:
21 x 27cm
Medium: Photobook, 140 pages.
Hardback swiss bound (embossed), with coptic stitch. Xerography print on 150gsm (white) and 100gsm (off-white) paper.
Object number: UAC 1126
DescriptionJack studied BA (Hons) Photography at London College of Communication. He says:
'In Search of Norm Parker (and subsequently the Orang Mawas) is an extensive body of work, incorporating photography, film, AI, text and performance. It tests the notions of empiricism, evidence and discovery, structured around a story that began in 1973 when the zoologist, Norm Parker, vanished whilst hunting for a cryptid great ape known as the Orang Mawas on the Malay Peninsula. In January 2023, I acquired, by way of online auction, a large selection of Parker’s work, filed haphazardly within a leather box. The collection contains letters, essays, photographs, books, and painstaking research compiled over a 4-year period prior to his disappearance. The following summer I set out to retrace Parker’s steps across the Malay Peninsula in an attempt to uncover what became of him.'
'In Search of Norm Parker (and subsequently the Orang Mawas) is an extensive body of work, incorporating photography, film, AI, text and performance. It tests the notions of empiricism, evidence and discovery, structured around a story that began in 1973 when the zoologist, Norm Parker, vanished whilst hunting for a cryptid great ape known as the Orang Mawas on the Malay Peninsula. In January 2023, I acquired, by way of online auction, a large selection of Parker’s work, filed haphazardly within a leather box. The collection contains letters, essays, photographs, books, and painstaking research compiled over a 4-year period prior to his disappearance. The following summer I set out to retrace Parker’s steps across the Malay Peninsula in an attempt to uncover what became of him.'