Found Not Taken

About The Exhibition

Found Not Taken is an ongoing series of photographs of objects found on the streets of Luanda, Angola, Newport, Wales and London, UK; cities where the artist has lived and worked. The project stems from Chagas' interest in cities and what they tell us about contemporary consumer habits. The artist is particularly concerned about increased patterns of consumerism in his hometown. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Angola’s economy has become the fastest growing in Africa and the sudden influx of wealth is rapidly transforming its capital, Luanda.

Found Not Taken is a catalogue of unwanted, abandoned things, which highlights the excess of a growing consumer culture, but it is not purely a documentary project. Sometimes the artist repositions objects to produce new compositional arrangements. These found objects are recycled into a new relationship with their environment and into the realm of discourse and ideas. Chagas’ work is a subtle, often playful intervention. The aesthetic is minimal, almost abstract – with simple forms and the surface texture of the city rendered in great detail. At the same time, the relationship between object and context is central to the meaning of the work, and the new compositions that he creates – both in the actual city and in the form of an image – suggest other possible narratives and different ways of reading and experiencing the city.