Geoffrey Farmer
dal 24/3/2013 al 27/7/2013
Segnalato da
24/3/2013
Geoffrey Farmer
Barbican Centre, London
The Surgeon and the Photographer. Hundreds of puppet-like figures
Developed over a three-year period, Geoffrey Farmer's The Surgeon and the Photographer is shown for the first time in its completed form for its UK premiere. The work consists of hundreds of puppet-like figures, composed of images cut from old books and magazines mounted onto fabric forms, and is accompanied by a new film commission. His work blends the collage and assemblage traditions of Hannah Hoch and Robert Rauschenberg, the element of chance employed by John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and an animist perspective from Pacific Northwest Coast cultures. Inspired by the important yet unfinished project Memory Atlas by cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg, the project is part of a trilogy of works, the title of the work refers to a part of Walter Benjamin's seminal essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' in which the magician is compared to the painter and the surgeon is compared to the cameraman. This exhibition is part of the Barbican's season Dancing around Duchamp. Media view, Monday 25 March, 10am - 1pm.