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Artworks
Jo Spence
Photo therapy: Double Shift / Double Crossed / Double Bind, 1984Four colour photographs mounted by the artist onto black cardboard.40 x 30 cms 15 11/16 x 11 12/16 insSeries: 5. Photo Therapy Collaborations (1984-90)12106Provenance
Jo Spence Memorial Archive
Richard Saltoun Gallery, LondonExhibitions
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)
'Jo Spence. Fairytales and Photography' at the Centre for British Photography (26 January - 28 May 2023)
Jo Spence: A Woman’s Place? at Belfast Exposed in Collaboration with the Centre for British Photography. 7th October 2024 – 21st December 2024
Lives Less Ordinary. Working-Class Britain Re-seen, Two Temple Place (25th January 2025 – 20th April 2025)
Literature
Ribalta, George and Terry Dennett. Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity, Antagonism.
Exhibition catalogue. Barcelona: MACBA, 2005, lower left image illus. p.351
Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986, p.149 (lower left image).
1984 or 1985 Collaboration with Rosy Martin. Four colour photographs mounted by the artist on cardboard. Each photograph: 18.1 x 12.6 cms Total dimensions: 40 x 30 cms Rosy Martin...1984 or 1985
Collaboration with Rosy Martin.
Four colour photographs mounted by the artist on cardboard.
Each photograph: 18.1 x 12.6 cms
Total dimensions: 40 x 30 cms
Rosy Martin recalls that "Double Shift / Double Crossed / Double Bind is the preferred title for the whole phototherapy series which traced Jo's mother's life as a factory worker - then removing the evidence of her work (with swarfegan) - then being the mother who feeds her family (wearing an apron, cutting a loaf). See the Arena programme - we re-staged this for TV."
Writing on this photo therapy session Spence has explained: "In a photo therapy session with Rosy, I go back to a period in family history where I felt I had been abandoned. I try to imagine my mother, in playful mood, as a war-worker. What came to mind in the session is that at work she could enjoy the forbidden fag (my father banned her from smoking). I am surprised by the knowledge generated by this session, especially in relation to family health." (Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986, p.149)
We are grateful to Rosy Martin for her assistance in cataloguing this work.
