[no title] 1983

Curator: Here we have an untitled image by Ian Breakwell. Editor: It’s quite striking! Very graphic, like a ransom note made of memories… or maybe anxieties. Curator: Breakwell was born in 1943 and died in 2005. This piece, held in the Tate collections, utilizes collage with text and stark monochrome imagery. Editor: The phrase "Hands up any woman who..." dominates the top, coupled with the year "1969". It feels like a challenge, or a fragment of a thought, interrupted and reassembled. Curator: His work often explored social commentary and the intersection of the personal and the political through photography, text, and performance. Editor: There’s something unsettling about the disembodied hands and figures. The snippets of text add to the feeling of fragmented narrative, as if we're eavesdropping on a private moment. It makes you wonder "hands up any woman who" what exactly? Curator: Exactly. Breakwell challenges viewers to question the narratives we construct and consume, and his images often leave us with more questions than answers. Editor: It certainly does that! I keep coming back to that incomplete sentence, it lingers long after you've looked away.