This exhibition is split into three sections, The Dark Room, Close-ups and Family Portraits.
Dark Room comprises two subjects, cat scans of the body and x-rays of everyday objects. The cat scans are mostly of head shots and what can be seen of two different bodies in sitting and standing positions. These images are meant to constitute the beauty of the human body as a form that has been explored in art since art's invention. The images of the human body on one level could have been larger in order to create a greater impact, but they did intimate the personal nature of the human body in its purest form. The x-rays of the everyday objects are excellent in their execution and startling. The handbag, lamp and tea set are highlights. The translucence of these forms only add to their emotional attachment, especially the teddy bear.
Close-ups include four huge 'C type' photographs grouped together facing each other in two separate sections of the gallery. Scratched floors, decrepit furniture and worn matting face old scars, varicose veins and liver spots in what makes up an interesting and powerful comparison of the ageing body and all the things that surround it. The body is seen in its pure physicality, nothing spiritual comes from the eyes. It is worn out and used, like the floor, mat and sofa, ripe for throwing away.
Family Portraits makes up the majority of the exhibition and is by far the most impressive aspect. It is a body of photographic work done over a period of ten years. The images deal with old age and all the problems associated with it in a witty, moral and compassionate way. It includes religion 'Borne Again', beauty 'Looking Glass', morality 'Tears for a Stranger', work, 'Washeraway Woman', and surviving on a pension 'The Price is Right'. These are very much a homage to the artist's mother who figures in the majority of the portraits, perhaps to show the importance of older women and what they have to go through rather than men who are valued higher in that ageing population. These are impressive photographs but they too lack any kind of emotion, which considering the parent/son relationship, is strangely absent.
All the same, it is a thought provoking and disquieting look into the world of old age and two people bound, waiting for death to take them. See this exhibitions, it is well worth it.