STUDIO OF LIGHT
BILL JACKSON PHOTOGRAPHER
IMAGINARY PEOPLE X11
My friend, the author Taylor Holden wrote a book entitled "A Sense Of Paper'.
It is a novel of Obsession. An exploration of the role of paper in art and an ensuing thriller of obsession, passion and murder. Her description of the objectness of paper encaptures what I also feel and she ddescribes it better than I could.
'Think for a moment what paper means to people. How ubiquitous it is in everyday life.....A material of paradoxes, it can be used and abused in a thousand ways and still be the same under its skin. It is the embodiment of
man's achievement , yet it is as transient and as flimsy tissue....In its strengths and weaknesses, faults and flaws, it is intensely human....'
Taylor Holden 2006
A series of six 'Paperworks', seemingly made from collected notes and crumpled tissue linked by means of strings and clasps, appear as solid forms evolved over time and constructed in light. You have to read the notes, you have to. And as you read, the generally domestic nature of the words trickle into your mind suggesting scenes which were initially absent. We become intrigued, as the artist was intrigued, by the random compositions which evoke complex narratives, whilst being delivered by the simplest of means. Portrait's of people who are not present may initially seem strange but the series entitled 'Imaginary people' finds this initial incongruity to be unfounded. Paper dress patterns, used in tailoring, have been pinned together and hauled into position by hooks, threads and pulleys to become the perfect model. Compliant to any length of exposure and never doubting the artist's intentions these imaginary people hold our gaze with the intensity and presence of a samurai warrior.
Simon Head