This exhibition, a series of visual haiku from Robin Gillanders, is presented in partnership with Fife Contemporary
“Photography is a kind of primitive theatre, a kind of Tableau Vivant…” Roland Barthes
The French philosopher and writer Roland Barthes (1915-1980) published A Lover’s Discourse in 1977. It consists of eighty ‘fragments’, or short chapters, and is a personal and philosophical exploration of the anatomy of desire and love. The writer and musician Henry Gough-Cooper took these fragments and distilled each one into a haiku. As a response to these, the Scottish photographic artist Robin Gillanders then made a series of still life photographs (which may themselves be termed ‘visual haiku’) as a further representation of Barthes’ text via Gough-Cooper’s verse. We are delighted to be able to feature a selection of these in this exhibition for StAnza 2017.
Barthes is of particular importance to photographic artists, having written at length about the medium and about how the photograph transparently records what’s present, while symbolising something intangible and unphotographable, which in turn requires our own personal interpretation.
A Lover’s Complaint is published as an artist’s book in a numbered limited edition of 300. (80 pages, published by Dingle Press.) It can be purchase during StAnza 2017 at J&G Innes, South Street, St Andrews.
EVENT – Meet the Artist
Meet Robin Gillanders and Henry Gough-Cooper, the artist and poet behind A Lover’s Complaint
Fri 3 March | 12:30 – 13:00 | FREE | Fife Contemporary, Town Hall foyer, Queen’s Gardens, St Andrews
