Image/Text
Artist
Ian Wallace
(Canadian, born 1943)
Date1979/2008
Mediuminkjet print
Dimensions91.3 × 182 cm
Credit LineCollection of Remai Modern. Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Grants program 2016.
Object number2016.3
Classificationsphotograph
On View
Not on viewA montage of 12 panels, the concept for this work was to construct a structural relation between photographs of Ian Wallace’s studio and a textual reflection. A self-referential work, it includes nine photographs of the artist’s studio, thus showing the process of its making. The title of the work, Image/Text, points to the influence French literary theorist, Roland Barthes, who examined how both texts and images are codified and interpreted.
Starting in the 1970s, Wallace produced a number of large-scale photographic installations that drew from his interest in semiotics, late conceptual art and avant-garde literature. Wallace, working alongside other members of the emerging Vancouver School of conceptual photography, set precedent by blowing up photographs to scales typically associated with historical painting, as well as by combining photographs with painting and text in order to create poetic explorations of structure. Based in Vancouver, Wallace’s role as an artist, teacher, writer and art historian has had a profound impact on several generations of artists and curators.
Starting in the 1970s, Wallace produced a number of large-scale photographic installations that drew from his interest in semiotics, late conceptual art and avant-garde literature. Wallace, working alongside other members of the emerging Vancouver School of conceptual photography, set precedent by blowing up photographs to scales typically associated with historical painting, as well as by combining photographs with painting and text in order to create poetic explorations of structure. Based in Vancouver, Wallace’s role as an artist, teacher, writer and art historian has had a profound impact on several generations of artists and curators.
