Reconfiguring the figure in contemporary art
Reconfiguring the figure in contemporary art
At Timothy Taylor, New York, a new exhibition, ‘Reconfigured’ – featuring work by Polly Brown – invites us to re-examine the body as a subject
Polly Brown,
Photography: Theo Christelis. Courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor, London / New York
In ‘Reconfigured’, curated by Rose Easton, the work of ten UK-based artists spanning painting, sculpture, photography, print, film, and animation, challenges our preconceptions of how the body can be depicted in contemporary art.
Photographer Polly Brown’s work often reveals elements of a body – frequently her own – in conceptual, often humorous compositions. As she explains further, ‘the use of the figure in my pictures has mainly been one of functionality. A hand or foot is there to activate the scene; a flailing limb purposefully left in the shot points towards the kinetic. The body is often simply another prop, a tool t