- Artist
- Stuart Brisley born 1933
- Medium
- 23 photographs, black and white, on paper on card
- Dimensions
- Image: 425 × 546 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1981
- Reference
- T03315
Catalogue entry
T03315 BENEATH DIGNITY, BREGENZ (1977) 1981
Not inscribed
23 photographs mounted on card, each 16 1/2 × 21 3/8 (42.4 × 54.6)
Photographer Janet Anderson
Purchased from the Institute of Contemporary Arts (Grant-in-Aid) 1981
Exh: Stuart Brisley, ICA, April–May 1981 (exhibits not numbered, no.86 in chronology; one photograph repr.)
'Beneath Dignity, Bregenz’ (1977) was performed in conjunction with an exhibition of British art in Austria (Englishe Kunst der Gegenwart in September 1971); Brisley was invited by Norbert Lynton to take part. Brisley had worked during this year on an Artist Placement Group project in Peterlee in a community of miners and the title is indicative of his sympathy with the miners, and the lowness (and implied loneliness) of their working conditions. The work that preceded it had a similar preoccupation with digging and working in appalling conditions.
In Bregenz he was presented with a strikingly different environment: a picturesque town by the side of a lake (Lake Constance) with a small mountain behind. This work is a response to this setting, the movement from mountain to flat ground and the lake (from the vertical to the horizontal). He chose to work on a quayside, using five roughly constructed frames which marked the limits of his physical reach. The materials which he employed were water, chalk, powder (flour) and paint (black and white). He made five separate statements using each of the materials, working in all for four days. In order to reduce the drama of the work (a character that Brisley abhors) the fifth frame was a mixture of black and white. On the last day the audience was large and Brisley avoided a climax to the work by jumping into the lake and swimming, replicating his drawing action in water, another medium. He describes his action here as similar to the other works in the Tate's collection, showing a preoccupation with formal, sculptural problems. It is possible however that Brisley may, in hindsight, be emphasising this aspect at the expense of his political concerns.
The photographer for this work was his friend Janet Anderson; he preferred her photographs to those of a trained photographer, who he felt would have a particular and exclusive aesthetic. The viewpoint for these photographs was fixed and decided upon by discussion between Brisley and the photographer.
Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984
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