Public images to go on display in Dundee

Photo opportunity: 6-8pm on Friday, February 5th at Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.

Family photographs, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and suicide spots from across Scotland feature in a new international exhibition exploring our relationship with images being held at Duncan of Jordantone College of Art and Design.

A preview evening will be held at the College's Cooper Gallery on Friday ahead of the opening of 'Public Image' the following day. The latest exhibition to take place at DJCAD, part of the University of Dundee, brings together a selection of meaningful works which expose our relationships with images.

In total, the work of eight artists - Philip Braham, Eric Baudelaire, Patricia Esquivias, John Isaacs, Wes Lang, Richard T Walker, Liu Wei, and Matthew Wilkins - appear in the exhibition.

Curator Laura Simpson described how varied the exhibits were, and how the photographic image appears in several of the works, taking slightly different forms in each. While Liu Wei uses a familiar and shocking image from the Tiananmen Squareuprising, Matthew Wilkins draws on a sweep of family photographs and the lifeline embodied in them.

'The exhibition looks at what images mean to us personally and within society,' said Laura. 'How they reflect the past, present and future to us and their ability to comfort, inform and disturb us.'

Philip Braham's work considers nature and our relationship with it. Braham's photographs are part of a series, 'Suicide Notes', in which he has noted the newspaper coverage of suicides within the landscape of Scotland and visited the sites to record a photograph of that place. The resulting scenes show a quietly energetic nature which is at once calming and foreboding. The artist is a lecturer and researcher at DJCAD.

Patricia Esquivias' practice shows a dedication to, and perhaps an obsession with, the image. The video 'Folklore II' is an illustrated lecture to camera concentrating on the coincidences and connections that bind the crooner Julio Iglesiasand King Phillip II of Spain (1527-1598) by mixing historical fact with tabloid gossip. The artist also takes the viewer on an educational journey from the dark isolated Spain of Franco's reign to the sun-drenched Spain of present day mass tourism.

A preview of 'Public Image' takes place at the Cooper Gallery from 6-8pm on Friday, February 5th. The exhibition is open between 9.30am-5pm (Monday to Friday) and 10.30am-4.30pm (Saturdays) from February 8th until March 6th.

www.dundee.ac.uk

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