Page 86 - Studio International - July August 1975

Across the Park, 1982 rather than purely camera-imposed directional emphases, in that the
Coll: Tate Gallery laws. In Cause of Death ? for example, upwards, downwards and sideways
refrained from exhibiting because of the use of a corpse covered by a sheet axes are anchored to an even more
their frankly contrived content. The continues the dramatic subject-matter `elemental' regard for earth, fire, air
advantages of using a more open of earlier 'editing' works. And yet here it and water, each of which could have
context than the earlier, more enclosed is presented as an accepted pictorial fact been the agent of the body's death. In
camera series deployed had to be which demands post-mortem analysis order to reinforce this tightly organized
weighed against the dangers of over- rather than any more sensational union of meaning and structure,
exclamatory humour or violence. reactions. The analysis is carried out this moreover, an interdependent
Hilliard is at his best when time through a combination of both correspondence between the 'solid'
compressing both imagery and editing and captioning, joining together cross formed by the photographs and the
presentational formats into the tightest two modes previously treated on their `empty' one traced by the space left
and most concise summary possible, so own in the same way that the third, and within the four frames is established as
that the expositive side of his temperament most satisfying, version of Ten Runs well.
does not become too apparent. had amalgamated a pair of separate But more important still is the
Largeness of scale can lead to approaches three years earlier. The inescapable connection between the
laborious results if it is not fully repeated link image used in Across the joint cropping 'captioning mode used in
justified by the ideas it contains, and Park is dispensed with, too: its Cause of Death ? and what Stuart Hall
Hilliard has sometimes been guilty of incorporation in the four alternative has called 'The Determinations of
elaborating a device beyond the limits photographs guarantees that no Newsphotographs'." Not only is the
of its effectiveness. His caption pieces in `sculptural' excess mars the dead body motif the kind of raw image
particular, which either juxtaposed organization of the work, leaving it free that makes up the staple diet of news
identical photographs with different to concentrate attention on the full reportage. The manipulation to which
captions or vice versa, often did not meaning of Hilliard's variables. They this image is subjected can be directly
justify the large number of are more thoroughly allied to their compared with the editorializing every
permutations he put them through.
Prolonged seriality can become
oppressive without a taut rationale to
back it up.
In the camera-controlled works this
tautness was regulated by the
instrument's own set of given
capabilities, so that there was rarely any
sense of superfluity or arbitrary
expansion. And Across the Park
successfully overcomes that risk as well,
restricting itself to a cruciform
elaboration of its key image towards
south, east, north and west. That is
all — the pattern of manipulation has
been completed in accordance with
the four main points of the compass,
just as the head in Thirty-Six Views
was run through an entire 36o degree
span.
IX. The vital difference between these
two works is, however, that the
controlling reference is no longer
internally directed at the mechanics of
photography but externally orientated
towards wider and more universal
considerations. A book reproducing
three of Hilliard's 1974 works is entitled
Elemental Conditioning16, two words
which accurately reflect his increasing
desire for an art governed by natural

Cause of Death ? (3), 1984
Coll: Angelo Baldassare, Bari
66