Untitled 1973

Curator: Welcome. Here at the Tate Modern, we are standing before Derek Boshier's "Untitled" piece, a mixed-media collage dating from 1973. Notice how it combines drawing, ink, and photographic elements to create a visually complex field. Editor: My first impression? It feels like flipping through someone's old scrapbook, a bit chaotic, yet with an undeniable curiosity peeking through the layers. I like it. Curator: Boshier often incorporates elements of pop art into his figuration work, reflecting on mass media and consumer culture. Here, the contrast between the hand-drawn elements and the photographic images speaks volumes. Think about the materials; it prompts a conversation about the intersection of personal memory and larger societal trends. Editor: Exactly! The jagged black lines that weave across the white feel almost like a frantic energy trying to contain those little windows into someone's life. What's especially intriguing is how he subverts traditional portraiture with a more fragmented and almost disposable aesthetic. The photos are almost casual in a way—family snaps against what feels like urban graffiti. Curator: Yes, it avoids a conventional presentation. I see the choice of mixed media as crucial. Ink drawing has its tradition but here, its mass-produced nature mirrors the ease with which photographs could be taken and disseminated. What's remarkable is that despite that mass production aspect, each individual picture is clearly distinct with particular sentimental qualities for a particular person, making this piece quite unique. Editor: Right, the artist is almost curating a ready-made archive that really echoes the feeling of ephemera. There's a story—or multiple stories—here, whispered across time through those images, making the act of collage itself a form of archiving memories and meanings. Curator: Boshier invites us to question not just the content of images, but their place within broader systems of production and meaning-making. How we create these fragments and put them together—this piece offers compelling visual evidence of the social value in collage. Editor: Looking at it all together now, this isn’t just a scrapbook page, it’s like a beautifully strange, somewhat sad and wonderfully evocative map of memory, loss, and rediscovery. Curator: A pertinent reading indeed, something for everyone to contemplate in relation to themselves as we reflect on memory. Thank you for joining us.