27/02/2016
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Janet Mendelsohn
Varna Road
Ikon, Second Floor Galleries.
Mendelsohn takes you on a journey through three spaces within the Ikon using photography. The images were taken during 1967-69 whilst Mendelsohn was a student at the University of Birmingham. The photographs depict everyday life in the inner-city district of Balsall Heath, Mendelsohn focuses mainly on a sex worker, referred to as Kathleen.
Each photograph is displayed at an average eye height level, landscape, equal spacing between them and all the same size. Also, the images share a relationship by them all being black and white. It was all very regimented in its structural display, which after a one room became repetitive and I began to lose interest in the images.
A few of the images we really strong, they stood out against the rest. Which made me question why the artist hadn’t just selected her strongest images to display. But I guess the images stood out stronger next to an image that wasn’t as strong.
I felt as though Mendelsohn or the curator could of selected her strongest images from the collection and displayed those within the gallery space.
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Janet Mendelsohn
Varna Road
Ikon, Second Floor Galleries.
Mendelsohn takes you on a journey through three spaces within the Ikon using photography. The images were taken during 1967-69 whilst Mendelsohn was a student at the University of Birmingham. The photographs depict everyday life in the inner-city district of Balsall Heath, Mendelsohn focuses mainly on a sex worker, referred to as Kathleen.
Each photograph is displayed at an average eye height level, landscape, equal spacing between them and all the same size. Also, the images share a relationship by them all being black and white. It was all very regimented in its structural display, which after a one room became repetitive and I began to lose interest in the images.
A few of the images we really strong, they stood out against the rest. Which made me question why the artist hadn’t just selected her strongest images to display. But I guess the images stood out stronger next to an image that wasn’t as strong.
I felt as though Mendelsohn or the curator could of selected her strongest images from the collection and displayed those within the gallery space.