Collaboration with Rosy Martin. Four colour photographs mounted by the artist onto black cardboard. Each photograph: 18.1 x 12.6 cms. Total dimensions: 40 x 30 cms A closely related set...
Four colour photographs mounted by the artist onto black cardboard.
Each photograph: 18.1 x 12.6 cms. Total dimensions: 40 x 30 cms
A closely related set of four works is included in Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986, p.181. The accompanying text is as follows:
"As a child I did everything possible, not to be like my mother. Family Romance? Cinderella, Ugly Sister, Fairy - I tried them all. On the other hand (now using my brains) I still try and please surrogate daddies. Again, I fail.
Ageing, angry, alone, ill, I regard the constellation of imaginary selves. Finally, with joy, I picture my dead parents. In memory I can be them, Moving beyond the past I become
My own parent."
Works from this series are also reproduced on the cover of Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986.
Jo Spence Memorial Archive Richard Saltoun Gallery, London
Exhibitions
Jo Spence: Work (Part 2) Studio Voltaire. London, 12 June - 11 August 2012. Jo Spence : from Fairy Tales to Phototherapy. Photographs from the Hyman Collection, Arnolfini Bristol, (18th May 2020 - 20th June 2021) (this print)
Literature
Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986, p.181 and front cover. Jo Spence: Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity, Antagonism (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2005) illus. p272, p274 and p32