Barbican, Geoffrey Farmer: The Surgeon and the Photographer

Named after an essay written Walter Benjamin (1936) Geoffrey Farmer's exhibition of 365 mixed media sculptures that critique the position of photography. Farmer's inspiration was taken from a variety of different essays from several authors. At first I was unsure whether I would like Farmer's work as sculpture is a form that I am ignorant to. Despite this I could not help but overwhelmed by the amount of meticulously crafted figures. What became interesting to me is that it felt that it was not just the figures themselves that were a display of Farmer's collage technique but the composition of the figures felt as though they also, were a part of a three dimensional collage piece. However I felt as soon as the figures were displayed separately, either singularly or in smaller groups they became problematic to me. I felt the pieces held much more strength and visual impact as a group. Although placing a few of the figures on plinths did allow the audience to view all 360 degrees of the piece which was difficult with the grouped figures. The exhibition made me contemplate including collage and mixed media in my work and it was intriguing to see small sculptures control such a huge exhibition space.