_2014.jpg) |
Ensemble diptych (part 1), pencil on paper. Courtesy Jerwood
Drawing Prize and the artist. Photography Benjamin Cosmo Westoby
|
What is
it with group photographs? Why do we choose them? I have an image of my mother
standing with doleful eyes among a row of pupils at a village school in
Bedfordshire. It's the only picture I have of her as a child. Twenty years ago,
when trippers landed at the Greek island of Symi, they were happily coralled
into groups by the local photographer. The prints were hung on a line to dry,
ready to buy before the return journey.
The dellightful and intriguing image
above is Part One of a diptych of group formations of costumed figures
assembled and ordered by the conventions of the school portrait. It’s familiar –
yet refreshingly new. Susannah Douglas works mainly with drawing and site- specific collage.
And she is doing so at a time when the utilitarian, mechanised and throwaway
nature of photocopies contrasts with the legacy of the portrait and portraiture.
Historically the latter have stood for wealth, durability and the unique. But what
happens to consistency in a culture of easy reproduction when to cut, paste and
copy is only two clicks away?
The
artist has written eloquently about her working methods in the Jerwood Drawing
Prize catalogue referenced below
 |
| 60 Minutes' Silence by Gillian Wearing |
I’m reminded that nearly 20 years ago another
artist took a fresh look at group photographs. Gillian Wearing won the Turner
Prize in 1997 with 60 minutes' silence,
which looks like a photograph but is in fact a video of 26 police officers who agreed
to stand absolutely still for an hour The Daily Telegraph's art critic Richard
Dorment described ' how one officer succeeded in remaining near-motionless the
whole time until told that time was up. He then "lets out a yelp of relief
that you can hear all over the gallery. The moment is like a dam bursting. His
final, cathartic, joyful cry is one of the great moments in the history of
recent British art’.
You can download the catalogue here:
jerwoodvisualarts.org/jerwood-drawing-prize-2014
More about Gillian Wearing's work in 1997 here:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/turner_prize/36273.stm
More about Gillian Wearing's work in 1997 here:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/turner_prize/36273.stm
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