Ideas Over Form

15 February – 23 March 2018

Currently on view are works incorporating photography by Howard Selina, Michael Druks, Judy Clark, John Aldus. These artists use photography primarily as a vehicle for ideas.

The photographic works of Michael Druks, Howard Selina and John Aldus are in the mode of ‘performance for the camera’ pioneered in the era when these works were produced in the 1970s.

Michael Druks might maintain that he has a certain disregard for the deliberate aesthetics of photography, but his images are far more than just ‘documentation’ of immaterial performative ‘works’ – his inherent formal aesthetic qualities enter the equation, even if only inadvertently as he uses photography to frame and transmit his ideas.

Howard Selina used photography in the 1970s primarily for documentation of his performative and Land-Art practices, and presented the results in a formally organized and systematic manner. John Aldus ’s images are often more elusive and poetic in nature, although again presented in an organized way, and the viewer is aware that these are records of ephemeral instants that will disappear.

Judy Clark used photography combined with bodily detritus to explore ideas “about identity, pollution and taboo”. Her Issues exhibition in 1974 received great attention, with works purchased by Tate and the Arts Council, and her work appeared in Art as a Thought Process at the Serpentine Gallery in 1974.

Shown here: HOWARD SELINA’s ‘Coastal Events’ (detail from installation), 1974. Vintage silver bromide photographic prints, each 3 x 4.75 ins.