Justin Dingwall : Albus

Barnard Gallery present Justin Dingwall’s solo exhibition Albus in association with Lizamore & Associates.

With an arresting vulnerability and striking intimacy, the photographs in Justin Dingwall’s ongoing body of work Albus constitute an extended meditation on the nature of beauty and perception. Aiming both to raise awareness about Albinism and to challenge the taboo that exists around it, the series interrogates and offers an alternative to traditional notions of beauty. Recurring motifs of butterflies, snakes and water suggest notions of rebirth, metamorphosis, fluidity and flux; reflecting Dingwall’s desire to inspire a change in perception and indicate that beauty is not a fixed ideal but rather one that is ever shifting and changeable. The conception of beauty as it exists in Albus is one that is inherently ambiguous, subjective and diverse.

Entangled in this consideration of beauty is an emphasis on the gaze, the act of looking, of perceiving and making judgements. It asks us to consider what ideals are encoded into that gaze, and how that gaze can be both destructive and empowering. Contrasting a strong emphasis on the body with a repeated evocation of religious imagery, Dingwall has succeeded in creating a series that is simultaneously evocative and spiritual.

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