Of Human Scale, John McPherson
‘Of Human Scale’ was the first solo exhibition of artist and photographer John McPherson, consisting of multiple works made from the period of 1986 – 1990. At the centerpiece of the exhibition was a realistic and life-size replica of a piano, made from cardboard packing crates and part of a real piano McPherson salvaged from a skip in Campbell road; a part of Five Finger Exercise – A performance for the Camera, 1988-89, showing the destruction of the piano and its music.
“The piano as a metaphor, standing as a visual correlative for the structure and harmony of society through an interrelationship with fundamental natural laws: of black and white, of sound to colour, of order to chaos, of freedom to restraint”
- Exhibition Catalogue, ‘Of Human Scale’, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
Five Finger Exercise. Part I – a portrait of the photographer as Jazz Piano Player, two candles lit at each end of the piano, casting a soft shadowed silhouette of the piano and its player, whom is wearing a bowler hat and waistcoat over a relaxed shirt, the side of his face just visible as he is looking to his left, the smoke of his cigar glowing ghostly behind.
Five Finger Exercise. Part II – the spirit of the piano, the music we do not hear. A series of three black and white prints, shaped.
Five Finger Exercise. Part III – ten black and white prints, a documentation of the piano being deconstructed, presented within oversized piano keys as the semitone notes and mounted on the gallery wall. Documentary photographs recording the making of Five Finger Exercise.
Of Human Scale, 1990 – black and white self-portrait taken within a reflection in a large window, framed.
Death of the Classical Notion, 1987 – square print mounted in an oval frame which was used within the photograph to frame the body of a naked man kneeling face down to the ground and holding himself, with still-life objects used within the photograph including scissors, binoculars, miniature crocodile, mounted on a shelf in front of the frame.
Prisoner of Conscience, 1989 – diptych of 2 hand treated prints, (1) a figure in a welding suit, gloves and mask, standing behind a cage and holding onto the bars, with tubes in the foreground in front of the cage, (2) a naked man, standing behind a cage and holding onto the bars, his mouth is open as if screaming in terror. Both prints mounted on the cage panels used within the photographs.
Sink or Swim, 1989 – solarised combination print, consisting of a silhouetted body laid on its side, and below various objects and candlelight set against a wall.
There’s a New Deal on the Table, 1989 – black and white framed photographic self-portrait, naked, laid on his side across the dining table with a trumpet resting on the table positioned between his elbow and thighs. Print situated alongside installation of a dining table, chair at each end with one placed on a square of sand, the table dressed with a white tablecloth with black-and-white print at the head, and red colouring and various silver objects placed in front of the chair in the sand at the foot of the table.
The Emperor’s New Clothes, 1990 – photographic emulsion of self-portrait printed on dress shirt, hand tinted.
Among McPherson’s acknowledgements within the exhibition catalogue are references of visual inspiration: Composition – Evocation of Lenin, Salvador Dali, 1931, Jazz Record Covers, Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Edith Sitwell posing as if in her bier, Joseph Beuys, photo of Piano from the installation PLIGHT at Anthony d’Offay Gallery.
John McPherson (Born 1944)
As freelance photographer, McPherson worked mainly in black and white photography, using self-portraiture, still life, and surreal imagery to explore darker elements of life. He studied photography at Guildford School of Art (1963 – 67) and was a long term technical assistant to Aspex Gallery. Awarded with Southern Arts Association financial assistance in 1989 by Southern Arts Visual Arts panel, this enabled McPherson to work towards his first one-person show ‘Of Human Scale’ which was exhibited at Aspex Gallery in Brougham Road, 1990.