Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s investigations into the history of photography have led them into a war zone and the psychic realm. Northern Ireland provides the current point of departure for their ongoing, carefully conducted research into the construction, appropriation and interpretation of photographic images. The British duo’s handling of archival footage of Belfast is no less sensitive and specific: reproduced and re-framed here to alert one to the everyday humanity within and shifting evidential validity of contested images.
The tax-disc sized apertures of a 30-strong, untitled yet perfunctorily subtitled series of heavily mounted images reveals much about the influence of presentation on content. While ‘Untitled (Trees)’ appears to be a partial image of just such, others convey more or less than a caption ever could. ‘Untitled (Boy with Sign)’, is actually a surreal Gillian Wearing-type social portrait, whereas ‘Untitled (Cracked Glass)’ might be evidence of an unremarkable accident but one immediately thinks crime scene.
Three large C-prints – headshots and a photojournalistic crowd scene obscured by red dots and anonymised by marker pen lines and scribbles – may recall the compostional strategies of John Baldessari and Jenny Holzer but in fact point to earlier editing processes in the public life of these images.
This super-spare installation certainly suits the showroom dynamic of Paradise Row’s new West End space, but is entirely appropropriate given the artists’ particular purpose. It’s Broomberg and Chanarin’s clean cutting and re-presentation of these photographs out of context that facilitates engagement with the complexities of reading images while swimming in the post-postmodern pool.