The Inversion Project

27 January - 12 February 1999

The Inversion project was the starting point for a long-term collaborative project that photographic artist Tim Collier and painter Terry Duffy continue to engage with.


Their concept was grounded in inverting the photographic image in order to render the subject objectified or depersonalized. The artists contest that the ‘right way up’ is established only by gravity and is a convention unquestioned by art, which simply accepts the right way up as the norm. In questioning this notion Collier and Duffy seek to also question the very framework on which art hangs. Any image is odd when it is turned upside down but this project looks further. These images have inherent power and potentially challenge our perceptions of the world around us. Being 'upside down' is a notion established by the laws of gravity, not art. If it is right 'upside down', then it is the right way up.

Terry Duffy and Tim Collier, both highly respected artists, have been working on inversion for some years and this exhibition shows the first fruits of their creative research.

Programme