The Shop
17-31 October 2014
The Shop
A collaborative project between Tim Connell & OanaDamir
“The Shop” as Sabre Sales of Castle Road inSouthsea was affectionately and familiarly known to its employees and legion ofdwellers and military aficionados, and was by no means an ordinary establishment.Not ordinary by todays standards at least.
In a time where high streets are dominatedby the same old signs and purpose fitted “clone stores” catered to the buyinghabbit’s of mass consumer culture. A time when Christmas shopping is a fewclicks on your laptop while sat on the sofa, a gift could in all likelihoodarrive in digital format.
In this time, Sabre Sales was an oddity, a den of clutter accompanied by an oddly satisfying odour of surplusand awash with characters young and old.
“TheShop” is a story full of characters with the most surprising of mainprotagonists, The Shop itself.
“The Shop” was a two-year journey to document SabreSales in Castle Road Southsea. Born out of one man’s experiences and memoriesof growing up visiting “The Shop” as a boy and his father’s subsequent bondwith the location and those who so ardently frequented it over the years.
A collaboration between Timothy Connell and Oana Damir, with help from Russell Squires, “TheShop” was self-published as a newsprint.
With Sabre Sales now all but shut in it’s original and muchloved form, a showcase of the documentation was curated as a street long exhibitionalong Castle Road.
The vendors along Castle Road were invited to join in one last salute to a truly unique and much cherished fixture of Southsea forthe best part of 30 years by exhibiting a selection of photographic works intheir windows and shops for a two week long exhibition.
