Stills from 'Current History', 2004-
Coinciding with a major show of Spain- and London-based artist Hannah Collins' photographic and film work, debuting at the Fundacion La Caixa in Madrid and Barcelona before touring Europe, 'Finding, Transmitting, Receiving' presents photographs, found family portraits and childhood drawings by Collins from the last 15 years, together with complete transcriptions of the artist's film scripts. Throughout her diverse body of work, Collins has returned again and again to themes of homelessness, migration and other effects of globalization on the lives of individuals.
Stills from 'Every Other Day', 2000-
For instance, the multi-screen film 'Every Other Day' (2000-) is, in Collins' words, 'a dramatic study of where we stand in relation to one another, how we are familiar and unfamiliar, how distanced from our origins and sources'. For this work, the artist embarked on a prolonged engagement with three different communities - Somalians in Rome, Vietnamese in London and Columbians in Barcelona - each of which was initially formed through the common experience of migration to a major urban centre. The script, reproduced in the book along with those of Collins' other films (such as 'La Mina' and 'La Cantante'), centres on three protagonists whose dialogue is partly derived from Collins' conversations with other members of the communities.
Elsewhere, the ongoing photographic series 'Medir la Verdad' (2001-) deals with the plight of gypsies living on the literal and metaphorical fringes of Spanish urban society, while 'True Stories' (1998-2004) is a series of photographs taken from city rooftops, each image filtered through a different translucent tone. The artist imagined each photograph from the series as the opening crane shot of a film set in the given locale, and there is indeed a continual give-and-take or correspondence between the two working methods, moving and static, in Collins' work.
Collins is represented in major collections all over the world, including - in the UK - the Tate, the Arts Council of Great Britain, and the V&A, and so, by gathering the artist's varied output together in one place for the first time, this new release from Black Dog publishing will surely be the perfect opportunity to acquaint yourself with the complex and engaging works of this artist.
Bill Roberts
Hannah Collins: Finding, Transmitting, Receiving
Published in June 2007
Hardback, £29.95
306 pages
124 b/w and colour illustrations
ISBN10: 1 904772 79 x
ISBN13: 978 1 904772 79 8
www.blackdogonline.com
Bill Roberts is a writer based in London, and a PhD candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
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