POLLARD, Ingrid
Ingrid Pollard
Celebrating Ingrid Pollard this catalogue features groundbreaking works from four decades of her artistic practice.
This catalog starts with extract from the installation Demo Frieze / No Cover Up (2019), which sets the tone for Pollard’s work and demonstrates her strong commitment to people, history, and political activism. The installation presents archival images from demonstrations in London during the 1980s and 90s against racism, police brutality, and in support of human rights, LGBTQ+ issues, and feminism. The series Contenders (1995) focuses on the boxing world, where Pollard explores gender identity, masculinity, and violence. Similar themes are also explored in the series The Boys of Tulse Hill School from 1990, featuring tender portraits of teenage boys taken in the socioeconomically challenged area of Brixton, South London.
Pollard’s interest in landscape is evident in many of her works, particularly her classic series Pastoral Interlude from 1987. This series revolves around the concept of "Englishness" in relation to Black individuals portrayed in the English countryside. Pollard’s exploration of photography’s complex role within a colonial context is highlighted in works such as The Valentine Days (1891/2017) and Emancipation Day Celebration (1891/2018). These consist of archival images from the Caribbean Photo Archive, which Pollard has edited to bring forward and give agency to the Black people depicted in the photographs. In Flotilla of Fragility (2008), Pollard addresses the theme of migration, reflecting on the fragility of life and the vulnerability of those fleeing across seas under dangerous conditions. In the series Seventeen of Sixty-Eight from 2019, Pollard photographed pubs and street signs in both rural and urban areas across Britain over a 25-year period. The project documents contemporary remnants of how Black people have been represented in public spaces and how these depictions now serve as reminders of their histories and historical injustices.
This catalog also includes early photographs from the 1980s, when Pollard often photographed prominent international cultural figures, dancers, and actors in queer and Black theatre groups. This interest in portraiture within the performing arts remains an important aspect of her work.
Pollard's engagement with landscape and geology takes on an even more prominent form in the series Landscape Trauma (2001). It consists of images with organic geological forms, reminiscent of map-like depictions of mountain ranges or other planets. Pollard has described these works as reflections on the fundamental violent processes that have occurred within the earth over millions of years. They highlight the brevity of human existence on earth and serve as a reminder of our fleeting presence in relation to the dizzying depths of geological time.
Ingrid Pollard was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1953, and grew up in London. She currently lives and works in Northumberland, northeastern England.
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2024
Photography / Exhibition Catalogues
