E: gallery@velorose.com
Liam Leslie: Roger, Flat A27 (Photography)
1 - 30 June 2021 (LFA 2021)


'The residues of previous residents clung to the interiors’
Douglas Stuart, 'Shuggie Bain’

These images capture the traces of life that are so often left behind when a place that has been inhabited is vacated. The photographs allude to one person and a life lived quite alone in a one-bedroom flat, yet they touch upon the lives of all individuals; they say as much about the artist, and the viewer, as they do about the person who had lived for decades in these spaces

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, travel was suspended, and plans were put on hold; Leslie - like so many others - shifted his gaze from the global to the local. A year on, with the London Festival of Architecture announcing ‘Care’ as its 2021 theme, Leslie identified this series of melancholy photographs as befitting to such a way of looking at our built environment. As he put it at the time:

'When I bought my flat at the end of 2019, I walked around and photographed all the traces of the former occupant, Roger, that were left behind. The idea of ‘Care’ strikes me as being highly relevant here; specifically the lack of it, which had clearly affected Roger in his final days. It was clear when I purchased the flat that his family had not cared much. Indeed, for months I was still receiving letters from his friends, who were unaware of his death until I telephoned them with the sad news ... I never knew Roger, yet somehow we both live in Flat A27'

In these photographs, one chances upon a wall of art, the only discernible image being afterimages of framed artworks, and the means by which they were hung. One is introduced to a person at rest - once temporarily, now permanently, and his sole companion, a strong belief - in the form of marks left in the carpet. Likewise, to a figure in motion - heading to and fro about his routine. Life in motion and stasis, and death as the absence of life

No longer alive, Roger remains the central figure in these photographs, living on here in the traces of his daily life. But within these images one also sees the artist, together with each and every one of us

'And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time'
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 'A Psalm of Life'




Liam Leslie, 'Ghost Frames' (2019), C-Type Print, 30in x 38in (762mm x 965mm)




Liam Leslie, 'Bedroom Shroud' (2019), C-Type Print, 48in x 60in (1219mm x 1524mm)




Liam Leslie, 'Mary’s Plinth' (2019), C-Type Print, 30in x 38in (762mm x 965mm)




Liam Leslie, ‘Room' (2019), C-Type Print, 10in x 12in (254mm x 305mm)




Liam Leslie, ‘Path' (2019), C-Type Print, 10in x 12in (254mm x 305mm)


Liam Leslie is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, having studied Fashion History and Theory (BA), and Fashion Communication (MA). His work is informed by this dual academic background, combining theory, practice, still and moving image. Leslie has exhibited his work across the UK, and undertakes commissions for prominent fashion brands and cultural institutions

While Leslie’s work originated in the fashion industry, his first solo exhibition, ‘A Ribbon in Space', was Velorose’s inaugural exhibition in April / May 2017. His photography explores architecture and examines the idea of place in the context of the global city