Eye and Camera, Red, Blue and Yellow 1980

Curator: John Piper’s work, "Eye and Camera, Red, Blue and Yellow" at the Tate, immediately strikes me as unsettling. The colour palette alone evokes a sense of unease. Editor: And what of the materiality? Look at how Piper combines collage with what appears to be screen printing and other techniques. It's a real mixture of high art and commercial processes. Curator: The eye and camera, for me, represent two forms of seeing and recording. The eye, vulnerable and organic, juxtaposed with the mechanical, objective lens of the camera. Is it a power struggle? Editor: Perhaps, or consider it in terms of labor. The hand-made versus the machine-made, questioning value and skill in production. Curator: The superimposition of image fragments suggests a fragmentation of experience, a visual language speaking to memory. Editor: For me, the layering reveals the artist's hand, the physical act of creation. We see the decisions, the processes, the labor involved. Curator: Ultimately, this image is a powerful meditation on seeing, recording, and remembering, however distorted. Editor: Yes, a meditation indeed, but also a testament to the power of materials and processes in shaping meaning.