Gema’s review

The signs of a struggle exhibition, so titled by Clare Strands work that was on display at the back of the gallery hall, was a supplement branching from the actual Postmodernism exhibition going on next door. This exhibition is dedicated to Photography in the wake of post modernism, playing host to a number of influential and well-known photographers such as Cindy Sherman and Sian Bonnel. These photographs, spanning the mid-1970’s to the present day are often meant to be enigmatic and are supposed to provoke open-ended interpretations of what they are about.

My favourite work on display was that of Clare Strand, ‘Signs of a struggle’. The photos were deeply interesting and encouraged questions about what the images are representing. Little crosses, numbers and letters can be seen on the images, indicating a crime scene, though you can particularly tell if these are archival shots or were created for the exact purpose of creating that illusion.

Another photographer I did enjoy the work of, is Lorna Simpson. I like how the same photo is repeated twice, just flipped to be put side by side. It’s unusual and not the ‘standard’ way of taking pictures of people. Also, Sian Bonnel’s ‘putting hills in Holland’ was as always, an interesting piece of work, using jelly to create an unusual looking landscape.

Some photographs on display, i did not agree with in the slightest, most particularly the photo titled ‘Ermanno Scervino’ by Jonathon Lewis. Though explained to be taking an already beautiful designer shop window, and creating a new beautiful adjustment of that, I found it to be similar to that of a badly printed photo – regardless that this was the intention, the pixilation is not what I find interesting as art.

Generally, I wasn’t all that fond of the exhibition, the standard gallery presentation of the images didn’t do them all that good justice, compared to the quirky set up of the Post Modernism exhibition. Also, very few photographers works stood out to me as interesting and worth a look.