Touch-Line: A Photographic Record of Rugby World Cup 2015 in Exeter
Award-winning photographer Michelle Sank’s images of the preparation, delivery and enjoyment of Rugby World Cup 2015 games at Sandy Park stadium in Exeter will be exhibited at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) from 19 September to 4 November 2015.
Urban and rural landscapes complement portraiture to give a comprehensive visual record of the preparation for the World Cup in Exeter. The photographs of signage, organisers, players, spectators and fans reflect the diversity of interest and importance of Rugby in Exeter’s communities. Her photographs differ from the mass of imagery that circulates around Rugby World Cup 2015. She eschews the conventions of sports photography to present a surprising and touching perspective on a highly physical sport. There are images about people playing Rugby, yet the focus of the collection is on the culture, the group dynamics and the ritual that surrounds the sport.
Michelle Sank’s photographs have been exhibited and published nationally and internationally in major galleries and magazines. Winner of the National Portrait Gallery’s 2007 Photographic Portrait Prize, a Unicef award in 2012 and Gold in the 2013 San Francisco International Photographic Exhibition Awards, she has undertaken commissions for prominent organisations including The Photographers' Gallery, London, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland and Rakyo Photo Center, San Francisco. She has three published books to date and is a Senior Lecturer in Photographer at Falmouth University, Cornwall.
Touch-Line is supported by the National Lottery through Grants for the arts and Exeter City Council. Administered by Arts Council England, Grants for the arts support activities which engage people in arts activities and help artists and arts organisations carry out their work.
Also at RAMM during Rugby World Cup 2015
The Ways of the Ancestors: The Art of Tonga - 11 July 2015 to 28 February 2016
Celebrating the Tongan national team playing in Exeter, the World Cultures display case will feature Tongan barkcloth, clubs, tools and souvenirs made from the natural resources that were available to Pacific Islanders some two hundred years ago.
