Dimensions: support: 404 x 304 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Keith Arnatt | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Keith Arnatt's "Gardeners," a black and white photograph from the Tate collection. The man's pose is so deliberate, almost confrontational. How should we interpret that? Curator: Consider how Arnatt, as both artist and subject, is positioning himself within a visual dialogue about labour and land ownership. The mushrooms, arranged almost as specimens, suggest a controlled, cultivated environment, which hints at the politics of land use in Britain. Editor: So, it's less about gardening and more about...power? Curator: Precisely. The photograph also challenges the traditional romanticized image of rural life, critiquing the social hierarchies inherent in it. The gardener becomes less a caretaker and more a figure of authority. What does the scale suggest to you? Editor: The image's square format and the gardener's central placement create a sense of formality, almost like a parody of a traditional portrait, emphasizing the social constructs. I see it now. Curator: Exactly! And thinking about the context of its creation, this work really reflects a shift in how artists were engaging with everyday life and social structures.
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Gardeners 1978–9 is a large series of black and white photographs that depicts individuals standing outdoors in the gardens they tend, which vary in character from sprawling fields in the countryside to small urban front gardens. Although the gardeners’ poses, expressions and clothing differ, they are all shown full-length standing in the mid-ground of the scene and looking towards the camera. The selection of forty prints from this series in the Tate collection (Tate T13087–T13126) was made and exhibited in 1979 for Keith Arnatt’s solo exhibition at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London. A different selection of prints was exhibited in his 1989 touring solo exhibition Rubbish and Recollections (Cambridge Darkroom; Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Ffotogallery, Cardiff). Arnatt took the photographs that make up this series during 1978 and 1979. To do so, he visited the sitters at their homes, photographing them in their own gardens. The series title, Gardeners, focuses the viewer’s attention on the gardeners rather than the gardens themselves, although the way in which Arnatt presents the individuals surrounded by the grass, foliage and sometimes concrete of their settings, with little else in view, suggests the intimate connection between the gardeners and their land. The repetitive nature of the composition and poses across each of the forty photographs also has the effect of drawing together a diverse group of people who have been photographed as a result of a shared hobby.
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