Sara Allen takes a look at the work of a ‘real photographer’ at the Photographers' Gallery.
The first survey of artist and photographer Keith Arnatt can be seen until September 2 2007 at the Photographers’ Gallery in London.
Entitled I’m a Real Photographer, the exhibition examines the place of Arnatt in the history of British photography and takes up the artist’s ongoing preoccupation with the position of photography within the art world.
Unlike other conceptual artists, Arnatt turned his back on using photography to capture ephemeral and transient performance and sculptural works. After creating Trouser-Word Piece, in which Arnatt is pictured wearing a placard declaring ‘I’m a Real Artist’, he changed his focus to pure photographic practice.
Since then, he has worked in series, using the groups of photos to explore ideas of identity, biography and location.
The use of series – of exploring a single subject or place or moment within a group of images – directs the viewer to the minutiae, to the small variables within. Arnatt appropriates the technique to reveal and consider the beautiful and miraculous within the initially mundane.
Although one might ponder mans’ impact of the environment (Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, 1988-89) or community and modernity (The Visitors, 1974-76), Arnatt also imbues his work with an edgy humour. Even the more depressing conclusions one might draw (man unthinkingly ruins natural spaces with litter and so on) are drawn with a wry smile and raised eyebrow.
Most touching is Notes from Jo (1990-4) in which Arnatt blew-up photographs of the reminders and notes left around the house by his wife. Their poignant transformation from scribbled private communiqués to public art work is underpinned by the audience’s knowledge that Arnatt’s wife died shortly after the notes were written.
The work connects the artist’s biography with his work, and also continues Arnatt’s practice of dislocating an object from its context making it both surreal and poignant.
Arnatt’s work is at once charming and touching and funny. Most interestingly, his practice is best since stepping away from conceptual preoccupations and embracing pure photography. Prefacing the exhibition with ‘I am a Real Artist’ is absolutely right, because it is most true of the wonderful series exhibited here.
