Dimensions: unconfirmed: 216 x 276 mm
Copyright: © DACS, 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: E.L.T. Mesens’s collage, “The Staff,” created around 1968, presents a grid of portraits, each with their eyes obscured. It's intriguing, isn't it? Editor: Absolutely. The rigid composition against the soft portraiture creates a fascinating tension; it feels like a critique of... something. Curator: I see it as a commentary on institutional power. The obscured eyes suggest a loss of individuality, perhaps representing the anonymity within a collective. The faces are familiar. Editor: The collage's materiality adds to that reading. The use of found images speaks to a mass-produced, easily consumed culture, reflecting the commodification of identity. Curator: Precisely, the grid and the obscured eyes are also recurring formal devices in Mesens's work, reflecting the Surrealist interest in the subconscious and the hidden. Editor: A compelling blend of formal technique and material commentary. It really makes you think about how we construct and perceive power. Curator: I agree. Mesens provides us with a way to question authority through an artful act of defacement.
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tate about 1 month ago
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A composer, poet, writer and generator of Surrealist activity in Belgium, ELT Mesens first arrived in London in 1936 when he helped to install the International Surrealist Exhibition. He stayed to run the London Gallery and produce the ‘London Bulletin’ as well as manifestos that defined British Surrealist activity. It was not until the 1960s that he returned to an early enthusiasm for producing collages. The Staff uses cigarette cards of English footballers, though their celebrity is undercut by the blanking-out of their eyes. The title has military connotations (as in the ‘general staff’). Gallery label, July 2011
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