Jo Spence
Photo therapy: Shame Work (Their Scientific Research. His Desire), 1984
Vintage C-type prints, mounted together by Spence.
15 x 20.3 cms
5 14/16 x 7 15/16 ins
12356
Provenance
The Jo Spence Memorial ArchiveRichard Saltoun Gallery, London
Exhibitions
Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead: Techniques of Becoming at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 16 October 2021 - 2 January 2022Jo Spence : from Fairy Tales to Phototherapy. Photographs from the Hyman Collection, Arnolfini Bristol, (18th May 2020 - 20th June 2021) (this print)
Jo Spence in collaboration with Rosy Martin Two photographs mounted together by the artist on graph paper. Three photographs from this series were included as part of a major article...
Jo Spence in collaboration with Rosy Martin
Two photographs mounted together by the artist on graph paper.
Three photographs from this series were included as part of a major article by Rosy Martin and Jo Spence in the radical photography magazine Ten.8. Entitled "Photo-Therapy. Psychic realism as a healing art?", this substantial essay detailed the aims, methods and outcomes of their photo-therapy.
Three works from this series are presented in Ten.8 with individual captions that suggests the ways in which similiar image can embody different meanings. The head and torso view is captioned "His Desire", a view of a cleavage and biopsy scar is labelled "Her Trauma" and the third close-up image of the scar has the text "Their Scientific Research". Above them is the extended caption: "Shame work - in coming to terms with unnecessary mutilation through surgery and my fear of no longer being 'lovable', I map out the three discourses within which I perceive myself to be positioned". Rosy Martin and Jo Spence, "Photo-Therapy. Psychic realism as a healing art?" in Ten.8, no.30, p.3.
Martin recalls that Spence referred to this portrait as her dreaming of being a "Hollywood Virgin Bride".
We are grateful to Rosy Martin for her asistance in cataloguing this work.
c. 1984
Two photographs mounted together by the artist on graph paper.
Three photographs from this series were included as part of a major article by Rosy Martin and Jo Spence in the radical photography magazine Ten.8. Entitled "Photo-Therapy. Psychic realism as a healing art?", this substantial essay detailed the aims, methods and outcomes of their photo-therapy.
Three works from this series are presented in Ten.8 with individual captions that suggests the ways in which similiar image can embody different meanings. The head and torso view is captioned "His Desire", a view of a cleavage and biopsy scar is labelled "Her Trauma" and the third close-up image of the scar has the text "Their Scientific Research". Above them is the extended caption: "Shame work - in coming to terms with unnecessary mutilation through surgery and my fear of no longer being 'lovable', I map out the three discourses within which I perceive myself to be positioned". Rosy Martin and Jo Spence, "Photo-Therapy. Psychic realism as a healing art?" in Ten.8, no.30, p.3.
Martin recalls that Spence referred to this portrait as her dreaming of being a "Hollywood Virgin Bride".
We are grateful to Rosy Martin for her asistance in cataloguing this work.
c. 1984