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First major survey of pioneering British artist Ingrid Pollard opens at MK gallery

Man standing behind a tree with orchid in the foreground
Ingrid Pollard, Self Evident (detail), 1992, 9 colour light boxes, each 50.8 x 50.8 cm and 8 silver gelatin prints, each 84.1 x 118.8 cm. © and courtesy of the artist

Curated by DACS Chief Executive Gilane Tawadros, in collaboration with the artist, Carbon Slowly Turning is the first exhibition to fully explore Pollard’s pioneering and experimental practice, from the 1980’s to the present day, and examine her substantial contribution to British art.

Pollard is renowned for using portrait and landscape photography to question our relationship with the natural world and to interrogate social constructs such as Britishness, race, sexuality and identity. Working across a variety of techniques from photography, printmaking, drawing and installation to artists’ books, video and audio, she combines meticulous research and experimental processes to make art that is at once deeply personal and socially resonant.

The exhibition includes delicately hand-tinted landscape photographs, a flotilla of small ceramic boats and a cast of protagonists that includes boxers, musicians, tango dancers and writers. The exhibition also includes two new works – a film that meditates on the human body as it moves through space and time, and a triptych of monumental, dynamic sculptures that reference our shared history of power relations and resurgence.

Pollard is renowned for using portrait and landscape photography to question our relationship with the natural world and to interrogate social constructs such as Britishness, race, sexuality and identity. Working across a variety of techniques from photography, printmaking, drawing and installation to artists’ books, video and audio, she combines meticulous research and experimental processes to make art that is at once deeply personal and socially resonant.

The exhibition includes delicately hand-tinted landscape photographs, a flotilla of small ceramic boats and a cast of protagonists that includes boxers, musicians, tango dancers and writers. The exhibition also includes two new works – a film that meditates on the human body as it moves through space and time, and a triptych of monumental, dynamic sculptures that reference our shared history of power relations and resurgence.

Ingrid Pollard’s practice has long been focused on the human body, astro-physics and geology, and in particular geology in the formation of the stars and planets. The title of the exhibition - Carbon Slowly Turning - invites us to reflect on geological time in relation to human time. On the one hand the millennia in which carbon, rock and other natural materials are made, and on the other the brevity of human existence by comparison and the affecting nature of geology on the human form. A number of Pollard’s works reflect on the cyclical nature of history and human experience, where everything is subject to change, sometimes over hundreds or thousands of years, at other times in the blink of an eye.

Gilane Tawadros
DACS Chief Executive

Exhibition details:

Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning

MK Gallery

12 March – 29 May 2022

Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm

Book now

The exhibition is organised by MK Gallery in partnership with Turner Contemporary and is supported by a Publications Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Association for Art History.

Ingrid Pollard's image are also available to view and licence through DACS Artimage

Exhibition details:

Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning

MK Gallery

12 March – 29 May 2022

Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm

Book now

The exhibition is organised by MK Gallery in partnership with Turner Contemporary and is supported by a Publications Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Association for Art History.

Ingrid Pollard's image are also available to view and licence through DACS Artimage

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