‘Monuments’ at City Racing Gallery, 1991
PRESS RELEASE | John Roper presents four “Neck Tie” paintings. These recent works are derived from newspaper photographs of western leaders at international conferences. All visible reference to context has been removed, leaving enlarged images of the ties on a plain ground. Relocated within the gallery space they become monuments to paternal authority. Finally, the works are titled with the name of the individual to whom they belong. Naming the works has the effect of reloading the images with specific cultural and national reference.
‘Lost Property’ at Riverside Studios, 1990
PRESS RELEASE | In the Foyer John Roper presents a series of enlarged versions of property taken from estate agent advertisements. These are painted onto domestic floor tiles and attached directly to the wall. The optical effect of the mass of marks making up the image changes with the viewer’s movement; the original image becomes illegible at close proximity to the picture surface. The painted surface oscillates between abstraction and a simulation of the photomechanical reproduction of the original newspaper image.
Both the image and the way it has been treated forces the viewer to reconcile a contradiction between the image of “home” with its connotations of individuality, security and nurture, and the image of a faceless, vacant property.
‘Pick of the MA shows’ The Mall Galleries, 1989
A series of works created from Estate Agent images as source materials. Selected at The Mall Galleries for the ‘Pick of the MA shows’, a showcase of work from the capital’s MA fine arts contingent in 1989.
Property, Oil on canvas (1989)
Final year show at Goldsmiths College, 1988
A series of images of property for sale painted on canvas.
Bungalow, Oil on canvas (1988)
Series, Oil on canvas (1989)