Double Take looks at how appropriation has been explored by different generations of artists using photography, from the 1960s to the present day. With the democratisation of the image through social media and the internet in today’s digital age, the exhibition is the first to present a dialogue between key figures of the ‘Pictures Generation’ and a younger generation of artists, highlighting the continued power of pictures in shaping ideas of identity, gender, race, desire and sexuality.
Double Take takes as its starting point Robert Heinecken’s seminal series of photograms Are You Rea, 1964 – 68, as well as works by ‘Pictures Generation’ artists Richard Prince, Barbara Kruger and Louise Lawler, who came of age during the media-driven consumer culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Alongside these artists, the exhibition showcases works by a younger generation – Anne Collier, Roe Ethridge, Collier Schorr, Hank Willis Thomas and Steven Shearer, whose interests reflect those of their predecessors, whilst also presenting their own unique take on appropriation.
Taking images of existing artworks in the case of Louise Lawler, or challenging the verisimilar qualities of images propagated in the mass media in Richard Prince’s case, each of the artists featured in Double Take use photography as a tool to re-frame and re-contextualise. Through each of the artists’ engagement with the formal and conceptual properties of the medium, they challenge the notion that photography presents a faithful representation of reality and incite us to look more closely at how images are manipulated, styled and filtered to create fictions and stereotypes that we, the public are too-often ready to accept.
The exhibition has been extended until 27 May 2017.
| Duration | 07 March 2017 - 27 May 2017 |
| Times | Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 6 pm Saturday 10 am - 5 pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Skarstedt Gallery |
| Address | 8 Bennet Street, London, SW1A 1RP |
| Contact | 442074995200 / london@skarstedt.com / www.skarstedt.com |