Kim Pool
As a society, we are obsessed with the lives of celebrities: stars are hounded by the paparazzi and the tabloids follow their every step. The once private sphere has become a public spectacle; the lives of others are packaged as a consumable product. We ask ourselves: What is real and what is staged? And is this distinction even still relevant? In 2020, British photographer Alison Jackson gave her drastic view: “The truth is dead. Nothing we are shown can be trusted, everything can be faked and nothing is authentic. What does this knowledge do to us?”
Alison Jackson, Camilla Crown, ©Alison Jackson
Jackson’s images are acts of deception, imitation, provocation, proving that we cannot trust our own eyes when it comes to photography.
But perhaps her fabrications also represent a deeper, even more radical truth: as they grapple with the fraught relationship between the private and the public, they invariably reflect the longings and illusions of their audience.
Sometimes hyperreal, obscene, or titillating, these photographic parodies are always entertaining and humorous.
Alison Jackson was born in Southsea, England in 1960 and studied sculpture and photography at the Royal College of Art and Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.
She won a BAFTA (British Academy Film Award) for her series Double Take (2001–2003); other accolades include receiving the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award in 2004.
Her portraits, sculptures, films and videos have been exhibited worldwide, including at the Tate Modern in London (2010), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011), and the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2014).
Alison Jackson, Marilyn Back, ©Alison Jackson
The exhibition is curated by Anke Degenhard, who previously realised the exhibition Martin Schoeller at the NRW-Forum in 2020.
Please note: The content of this exhibition may be disturbing.
We recommend the show to visitors aged 16 and older.
Partners
