‘Over the Hill’ at Create Gallery
New England House New England Street, Brighton, BN1 4GH
until 17 October
Tim Andrews was working as a solicitor when he was diagnosed in 2006 with Parkinson’s Disease and was obliged to retire. The following year he responded to an ad in Time Out for ‘real-life’ nude models – as opposed to professionals – and enjoyed the experience so much that he carried on responding to similar ads. Volunteering to be photographed soon developed into a project in which Tim became the active subject in charge of a (still expanding) portfolio of work by more than 300 photographers. Photographs and films by nearly sixty of these artists are currently on show at Create Gallery in Brighton.
This project is extraordinary for several reasons but most importantly because the quality and range of work is outstanding. It would be unfair to mention a selection of names or personal favourites, so do look at Tim’s blog for more information http://timandrewsoverthehill.blogspot.co.uk
The fact that all these lenses have been pointed at a single human subject transforms the collection of art works into one giant multi-faceted portrait not only of a man, but of everyman. Tim is Tim in all the shots, he says, adding that he has not had to act a part for any of them. Instead he feels that every photograph shows a different side of him. It is this quality of confrontation with each camera, open collaboration with each photographer (eloquently described by Tim in his narrative captions accompanying the photographs), which brings integrity to the collection. In a way that is both more natural and more deliberate than with most portraiture, Tim is not so much the subject as the co-maker of each photograph.
He is clear that although he set out to be ‘photographed by different people during the course of my illness’ he now feels that ‘it has not been my intention to document my illness but rather to document myself at a time when I happen to be ill’. I think both intentions are palpable in the wholehearted way that Tim has made his life into an art project. There is memorializing and there is documentary inherent in the business of recording our bodies with cameras. There is also, in Tim’s case, intense playfulness and a rare ability to reimagine, and have reimagined for him, a body – a self – that is simultaneously seriously unwell and vibrantly alive.
In his speech at the opening of the exhibition, Tim thanked those who had taken the photographs, those who had helped him put on the show, those who have treated and continue to treat his illness. He also said thank you to Parkinson’s Disease, because as he put it ‘without it, none of us would be here this evening’.
In a society which insists most of the time on presenting our relationship with incurable illness as a battleground where campaigns are lost or won, this ability to own and even to embrace what happens in the diseased body is remarkable. Tim’s way of seeking wholeness through creation and re-creation is an inspiring example of living well with disease. The exhibition itself is a stunning showcase of photographic talent.
Clare Best
Writer in Residence, University of Brighton, 2014-15
http://selfportraitwithoutbreasts.wordpress.com